Ride by Ride...

Now that I’ve introduced my new shareboard Tin Tin (aka Tin, Tinny, The Great Dane, ect., haha!) today marks my first lesson with him as my official shareboard. This lesson was somewhat basic, more for me to start to re-acquaint myself with him and how he moves and reacts, and to make a little progress with our work over fences, but it was absolutely a lesson that gave me a massive morale boost and had me smiling from ear to ear.

To begin, my trainer had me spend a lap in two point before sending me off in a rising trot. I spent a few laps getting used to the difference in Tin’s trot before beginning to put him into figure eights for a little bit. Like i remembered, his trot has quite a bit more suspension to it than Diesel, and while my leg was a bit floppier than it should have been, I wasn’t getting launched nearly as much as I was back in April, and he wasn’t proving as difficult to keep moving as he had then either. He’s a bit different to steer compared to Diesel though, which I suspect will take a bit more getting used to than getting him forward or controlling my post. I think I’m a bit more reliant on using my inside rein to turn than my outside leg, which probably would have resulted in a better departure from the wall. It was soooo tempting trying to steer him to get back into the riding school habit of opening my inside rein to suggest the turn, and once or twice I was very bad and took the bait, but I had to remind myself that it would do absolutely no good. The few times I took the bait it did not make my figure eight similar to the track i had taken previously, and I was quite positive Tin really didn’t know what I was asking him to do; I could almost see the thought bubble saying, “What???” appear between his ears. if anything it would result in his neck overflexing to the inside and having a really gross bulge in the rest of his body to the outside when he finally did decide I wanted him to turn. We didn’t really focus on putting him into a frame today, it just wasn’t a priority for the day, although I know for a fact that he can do it beautifully with no issue and i will be working on it in the future.

After the trot and a little bit of a walk break, my trainer told me to trot Tin over a small cavaletti jump set on the quarter line of the arena, canter away, and then halt before the wall. I found myself getting tentatively excited as I put Tin back into a strong trot in preparation for the jump. I remembered what he was like to jump when I lessoned on him back in April, and in short, he was amazing. Lots of power, very smooth, and jumped in a really nice shape. That being said, my body didn’t entirely remember what my mind did. My hip angle was a bit too open on the approach, and I think Tinny got a bit excited about that little cavaletti, because I felt him take a huge canter stride the last stride out, was promptly surprised by just how much power he had in his jump, and got popped out of the tack. Oops! My trainer and I took about two seconds to agree on my mistake, Tinny got an apology hug and pat, I put my whip away (definitely didn’t need it after he attacked that tiny little jump, haha!) and we went to try again. It took a couple more approaches for my body to really get with what my mind what I was wanting it to do, but finally, it all fell into place. Tin had settled into a slightly less aggressive (while still happy and ready to jump) pace, and I closed my hip angle just enough that when I grabbed mane at takeoff, it carried straight into a lovely little pop over the cavaletti, and a smooth halt after the fence. Ahhh. Just as dreamy as I remembered. We did it a few more times, my timing continuing to get better and more accurate, and the quality of the jump kept getting better, before we finally got an approach, jump, and transition down good enough to end the lesson on, and finished by taking Tinny for a well deserved cool down on the pathway to the paddocks.

Like I said, this lesson was a bit more on the basic side considering the work i’ve been doing these past few months, but it nevertheless gave me such a wonderful feeling. It shows that, while there are still certainly things that i need to get used to or work on from here, my work with Diesel on getting stronger since my discussion with my trainer is definitely paying off, and that as far as jumping goes, it’s just a matter of getting my body to cooperate and go with what my mind is telling it to do. I’m so thrilled with Tinny and how he happily booped along and took care of me while i figured myself out. Thank goodness i nabbed another kind soul, and I’m more excited than ever for my future with him! Until next time, safe riding!

So, I think it goes without saying that I haven’t really posted during the month of July. I’ve debated back and forth on whether I wanted to post the last few lessons I had on Diesel, as I do want to be honest with my challenges, but I think to post all of them would not come off the way I intend it to, so I’m going to use this post to summarize them, as well as the things that are changing in August. In short, I’ve really been struggling with staying with Diesel’s downward transitions, more specifically his transition down from the canter and landing from a jump. His downward transitions and jump landings have really always been something that I needed to be mindful of, and I’ve chosen to keep a lot of the mini challenges i’ve been having pretty low-key in my previous blogs, but through the month of July, when my trainer and I really started to focus on it, it truly became a struggle. It didn’t matter which way I was tracking, no matter how hard I worked my butt (and core and legs and arms) off to try and stay with the motion and not get yanked onto his neck, and believe me, I tried my butt off, but it was very much hit and miss every lesson. I feel like I have to disclaim, because I don’t want it to seem like I’m dissing the Diesel bean. I do NOT hate this horse, and I absolutely do NOT put any blame on him for my inability to stay with him. Some of it does still come from a lack of strength, but a lot of it comes from the way my body is proportioned. For a rider, I’ve been gifted with stub legs, for lack of a better term, which makes it really hard for me to brace myself and stay with his motion. The problem is me, not him. I absolutely adore Diesel, he has given me so much and taught me so much since May, and all of that absolutely trumps my shortcomings in this area of my riding. That being said, my trainer and I had a very long discussion and in depth discussion about it after one of my lessons, and we both decided that while I should absolutely continue to ride Diesel and continue to work on getting stronger and staying with him, in order for me to keep moving forward and progressing with my riding, I should try shareboarding another horse in addition to Diesel, so that I can lesson on the other horse, but still continue to practice with Diesel during hacks. So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce my new shareboard, a chestnut Dutch Warmblood gelding named Tin Tin! He’s actually a horse that I’ve seen forever ago; he was in a Frank Madden clinic and I oggled at him hardcore, and took a lesson on him back in April (peep my avatar, haha!) and was absolutely smitten, so my trainer knew that adding him to what I’m beginning to call my Ginger Harem, would take literally no persuasion. Really, the fact that this is happening at all is absolutely ridiculous to me. I’m by no means oblivious to the fact that up until moving to my current barn, being able to ride just one horse that’s of the quality of Diesel or Tin Tin would be just about impossible, and to be able to have not just one, but two, to learn and grow from and fawn over like the horse crazy girl trapped in an adult’s body that I am is just surreal. I’m so humbled and grateful to Diesel and Tin Tin’s owners, and my trainer for making this possible, and I’m beyond excited moving forward with these two wonderful horses. Until next time, safe riding!

Alrighty, this lesson is going to go a little bit more towards your typical lesson...kinda. Haha, in all honesty all of the kooky things my trainer has been having me do lately is starting to become normal, and I’m really liking it! Odd as it feels, it’s definitely making a difference in my riding, and the majority of this lesson is no exception. While it’s not quite as extreme as my experience in basic vaulting land, today’s exercises were great tools to improve my overall balance and weaker side.

To begin, I started Diesel off in my normal warmup, lots of trot circles, changes of directions, and in general emphasis on forward. This was made a little bit easier today in particular as I began with my stirrups dropped down a hole longer than usual; my trainer and I have been gradually dropping them down more and more to help my irritatingly stubby legs get used to having a more elongated position where I can really wrap my legs around his side, whereas before my legs were more scrunched up and I really didn’t utilize them properly. After a couple of laps my trainer called me in to the center of the arena to have a quick chat about my position. She asked me to move my position into what I believed was correct, and then had me hold that position to take a picture on her phone. After a second of diddling around on her phone, she showed me the picture she had taken, plus a line added in. The line was meant to represent the desired alignment of a riders ear, to shoulder, to hip, to heel. My upper body lined up decently well. My heel, however, was shifted a good ways ahead of the line, which almost puts me into a bit of a chair position (I say almost because when my body isn’t knocked off balance in some way I typically do an ok job of keeping my upper body at the correct angle.) So, with that in mind, and having been quickly briefed of the importance of having my body at the correct alignment and how that helps strengthen my position, I was sent off again at a rising trot, trying to keep in mind to slide my leg back behind where it’s naturally wanting to go at the moment. My left leg was able to slide into the correct position without much struggle. My right leg, however, proved to be very uncooperative. It’s become the more difficult for me to keep in place out of the two these past few years, some days it’s fine and it sticks in the proper place fine, but the rest of the time the darn thing just wants to kick so far ahead of the girth it’s obscene. The cure for this is decently simple, outside of focusing on it to no end when I ride, when I do workouts i just focus a little bit more on that leg and do more reps or add more resistance of some sort on that side.

After a little bit more of circling and changing direction my trainer called for me to drop my right stirrup, and continue on at the rising trot. Having experienced this exercise before and remembering my tendencies to lean into the leg with the stirrup, I tried to make mental check ins every so often that my body was not leaning, and almost think about putting a little too much weight into my right side, so that in reality I would actually have my weight evenly distributed. While I had this idea right, I think I was going wrong with elongating my leg down too much. This was pulling my center of gravity too far to the right, and made posting more difficult tracking left than it should be. This idea was pretty much confirmed when I reversed to track right and swapped which leg was without the stirrup. While my left leg just naturally holds its position a little bit better as a generality, I could absolutely feel the difference (and how much easier it was) to post when my leg was in a position similar to that of the other. I’m not quite sure why it clicked in my head to hold my leg in it’s normal position, or why it didn’t click in my head prior, but it’s definitely something i’ll remember for next time my trainer has me work in that exercise.

From there, my trainer had me pick up the stirrup in my free leg, and pick up the canter in a half seat. And here re-arose the issue with my heels. My right heel, oddly enough, sunk down fine, but my left heel, especially when tracking left, was proving to be a royal pain in the butt. I think it just naturally has less stretch in it than my right heel, which adds to the unevenness in my body. It’s definitely annoying to feel, and oh can I feel it! It’s like my ankle just gets locked into a position where it isn’t properly absorbing the canter motion. But, like everything else, this can be fixed! I definitely need to continue on with my heel stretches, but up them to twice a way, and with a bit more emphasis on my left heel. And lastly, i really have to remember to not be afraid of using a whip to further emphasize forward impulsion. I think it’s been so long since I’ve been allowed to use a whip on a horse, mostly because the Eq Nazi really did not like using them on any horse, that I’ve sort of lost the connection in my head, at least on a consistent basis, that I have an adequate education on how and when to use a stick, and that, yes, i can and should in certain situations. Some horses just need you to carry a whip and they’ll go along more forward than if you didn’t have one, and I’ve found that for me Diesel is like that to an extent, but there comes certain times during my ride where i would certainly benefit from a tap on his behind, but i instead, partially out of habit and I think also out of remembering horses that really sass off when I stick them, opt for a cluck (or several clucks) instead. Now, a cluck can be a useful aid, but like any other aid, it must be used appropriately, and in many instances when I use a cluck it’s quite inefficient, and pace-wise I would do much better with a quick touch with a stick to back up what my leg is asking.

This lesson was definitely a bit more back to riding bootcamp, with a bit of a non-conventional twist! I think it just goes to show how much the work you do out of the saddle can really impact the exercises you do in the saddle. My stamina has definitely improved since my trainer and I had our discussion, but it doesn’t mean that my work ends there. I still have to work on the more specific points of my body, so that my position is more correct overall and that I even out my body as much as possible. It goes without saying i’m making it more of a priority in my workouts! Until next time, safe riding!

From popping over jumps, we now go to the complete opposite side of the lessoning spectrum. This lesson had to have been, hands down, the goofiest and out of left field lessons I’ve had in all my years of riding, but also another absolutely wonderful barometer of where my physical, and flexibility limitations are, and some more exercises to improve on it all.

After taking a couple of walk laps around the arena, my trainer calls me in for a chat. Because this day happened to be obscenely hot and muggy even in the late afternoon/early evening hours, as well as his owner lessoning on him after me, she didn’t want Diesel to be worked too hard. However, she one hundred percent wanted to work my butt off, haha! Now, since we have begun to work on my overall body stiffness, I have begun to limber up a little bit, but there’s still quite a long way to go before I’m totally loose and relaxed. She warned me that what I was going to do this lesson was going to force me to get even looser in my body than before, will feel absolutely bizarre to do, I will probably not want to do it, and it might take me till the end of my lesson to truly want to do it. My brain instantly went, Oh god what the heck is she gonna have me do? Have no fear, I was about to find out! My trainer backtracked a tiny bit, she was looking on YouTube for a live-stream to put on the TV in our lounge/indoor viewing area, and happened upon, amidst all the shows at Spruce Meadows, WEG, Kentucky Horse Park, etc., a live-stream of a vaulting competition. And so the idea for my lesson came to fruition. I was going to spend my entire lesson doing my trainer’s version of super basic vaulting. I didn’t know whether to be intensely worried for my life, or to bust out laughing, but, I was game to try whatever she wanted me to do.

To begin, my trainer had me walk Diesel around the arena without my irons. I was then, while still walking, to slide my leg over like I was going to dismount, but hold the position “as limp as a drunkard,” or something like that, and then swing my leg back over and sit normally in the saddle again. This, surprisingly, didn’t really worry me as much as I thought it might have, but I knew, like my trainer had said, it was likely going to feel absolutely bizarre to execute. So, I set Diesel off tracking left, and after swinging my legs around a couple of times to try and limber them up, began to swing my leg over. And bless his heart, Diesel must’ve thought I was about to fall off at the walk, and stopped dead. So there I am, hanging over his left side, struggling to figure out how to get him moving again (my trainer wanted me to do it at the walk after all) and he just would not move. I clucked to him, tapped my legs against his left side, tapped one hand tapping his right side while tapping with my legs on the left at the same time, struggle laughing right along with Diesel’s owner and the other girls that were hanging out in the viewing part of the arena, and Diesel just wouldn’t go. Finally, I admitted defeat to getting him going again, and did my best to execute the remounting portion of the exercise. It took a little bit, and poor Diesel definitely had my right leg touch his bum when it shouldn’t have, but after some wiggling myself into a better position, I pulled myself back into the saddle to my trainer cheekily telling me that I had earned an “Incomplete” for not doing it at the walk, and told me to do it again. And so began several attempts of trying to execute the exercise, and having to bail out because sweet Diesel kept stopping to make sure I didn’t come off. It was adorable and absolutely hilarious, but I finally had to admit that he wasn’t going to keep walking without added persuasion, and headed back to the viewing area to grab a crop off the wall. This, thankfully after one or two taps on his shoulder, solved the problem of Diesel stopping when I tried to swing my leg over (although I’m sure he was thinking something along the lines of, “Well if you want to fall off now go right ahead, but don’t say I didn’t try and help you!” Haha!) And, after a little bit more struggling effort than before, I was finally able to execute the half dismount, then remount exercise a couple more times.

From here, came the really really hard part. My trainer then asked me to do the same exercise, but to the right side of the horse, rather than the correct, left side. Now, if you’ve never done anything in the realm of getting off or on to the horse’s right side, I cannot express enough just how WRONG it feels to even try. It’s not so much that I wouldn’t physically be able to pull it off, although like with the left side it would probably take some struggling effort. It was now a matter of getting over my brain screaming at me that this was something that was an abomination from the earth and can’t even begin to be attempted. I tried to swing my legs over quite a number of times, baling out with an audible, “Eugh!” each time. Finally, I pushed through the mental screaming and swung my leg over. I hung over Diesel’s right side for a couple seconds, tried to wiggle myself into a position where I could swing my left leg over again, and then immediately felt like my balance was gone and slid off, landing on my feet with resounding “boos” from the peanut gallery, as well as myself, haha! At my trainer’s instruction I lined Diesel up the incorrect way with the mounting block, and hopped on from the right side. Which, might I add, feels equally wrong to the core, took way longer to get on than it should, and I felt like I was going to fall off swinging my leg over. Look out HITS Balmoral, I’m clearly the next big thing, haha! But I digress. After remounting, and laughing at myself some more, I sent Diesel off and tried to perform the exercise, this time in its entirety! The nice thing was, now I had an idea of how it actually felt. The bad thing was, I absolutely hated how it felt! It took me a couple more minutes of going to swing my leg over (and immediately feeling gross about it) I finally was able to get ahold of myself and fully swung my leg over and, after dangling off Diesel’s right side feeling like I had committed a cardinal sin and was going to the equestrian version of Hell, was able to hook my left leg over the saddle again and shove myself into the saddle again. Win there, I conquered the side of all the wrong feelings, haha!  From there, my final exercise was to do the same half dismount, then remount to the left side, this time with my eyes closed. This, thankfully was tons easier to do as I was quite a bit more comfortable to the left, although I will admit while leaning over Diesel’s side I definitely peeped my eyes open for a split second. Oops! But still, it was good enough for my trainer to end my lesson on.

So, I think it goes without saying that this was the goofiest lesson I’ve probably ever had. But, laughs aside, it shows that I still have quite a ways to go in terms of my flexibility and fitness. Overall my fitness is definitely improved, but I was still wiggling around and struggling to get back on more than I should have, and my legs DEFINITELY don’t have the range of motion that they used to! And by used to, I mean a long long time ago... like when I was ten years old and still taking dance lessons on the alongside riding. Pretty sobering to think about, hah! So, this means I need to be working in more stretches and more yoga poses into my workouts to my regular workouts, and that this is something I can, and most likely will, incorporate ALL of these exercises into future hacks! Here’s to embracing possibly getting goofy looks while I’m casually hanging off Diesel’s side, haha! And as much as I absolutely felt my gut knotting itself during some points of the exercise, I highly suggest that anyone that has a horse that won’t care to have you dangling off its side to give it a try! Looking back its overall a ton of fun, and really really good to test where your flexibility and fitness is or isn’t lacking. Until next time, safe riding! 

Time to switch things up with this lesson! It’s no secret that I’ve been more or less in riding bootcamp the last... month? Several months? It’s been a while, haha! And while I embrace the grind and am finding joy in gradually chipping away at my habits and quirks, my trainer decided to give me a break and have a little fun this lesson with... drumroll please... some jumping! Woop woop! And of course, while this lesson wasn’t without it’s little challenges (forever and always, haha!) it was an awesome time getting a change of pace and putting myself over some jumps.

So, I started my lesson out with a quick warm up while my trainer set up my jump exercise, a one stride in and out. I put my biggest focus on Diesel moving forward and having an active pace at walk, trot, and canter. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, because Diesel is a Quarter Horse and is built a bit more on the downhill side of the spectrum, its important that he’d moving up to the bit and has a lot of impulsion in whatever gait he’s in. It might feel a bit fast, but it equals out to a better jump with a smoother bascule, or arc of his body as he goes over a fence. Not doing this can, and often will, result in a bascule that feels a bit more like a triangle shape than an actual arc, and that is definitely not easy to stay with! After putting in strong gaits in both directions with lots of circles and direction changes, my trainer asked me to trot into the in and out.

I sent Diesel what I thought was a decently strong trot, thinking forward and bright and snappy. We locked onto the jump, a few strides out I grabbed mane, went into my two point, and.... hah. Turns out, what I thought was an acceptably strong trot, needed to be even stronger. Diesel went through the in and out like a champ, bless his heart, but the feeling of him coming down on landing at the first jump, in a more triangular bascule instead of an arc, definitely had me behind the motion, and the second fence... definitely didn’t almost send me over his shoulder, haha! As I pushed myself back into the saddle and gave Diesel a huge apology hug and pat, I heard my trainer say, with some humor in her voice, “So what happened there?” God I love that woman. So, after having a mini chat, and agreeing that I need more pace going into the fence, I set off to redeem myself. This time, the words stuck on repeat in my head to get him forward were, “Make him almost canter.” It was the best way for me to think of how to almost overpower his trot, and it worked. The second time through, Diesel took the in and out with a much stronger pace, and popped over the jumps with a much softer and more proper bascule, and, best of all, I didn’t almost eat sand. Victory!  Side note, shout out to Diesel’s owner for making jumping him look like the easiest thing in the world no matter what pace he’s at or distance he takes, much respect, haha!

From here I trotted the in and out a couple more times, keeping the idea of overpowering his trot in my mind. They all went decently well, there were still moments where his jump still felt a teeny bit rough on landing but still nowhere near as rough as our first approach. The overpowered trot was also definitely revving Diesel up after we had gone through the combination about two or three times. Not that he would ever do anything bad, he’s just too perfect for that silliness, but once it clicked in his brain, “oh, we’re jumping this and she wants me to GO!” he started to take the strong trot as a cue to sneak into the canter for a stride or two. After a couple of approaches of him sneaking the canter in, my trainer piped up with, “Why don’t you canter him through it this time?” I hope she didn’t see me take momentary pause, but my brain instantly went “Say what now?” Now, up until this lesson, the last time I had a purposeful, successful canter approach to a line, or really any jump, was almost a whopping four years ago on my old horse, Luke. For the sake of not having to describe how that went, here’s the video:

I love how you can hear the stress intensifying in my voice as I’m counting out my strides, “One, two, THREE!” My goodness, haha! But I digress. So, after my trainer told me to canter the in and out, my brain instantly tried to go to all of the things that I could mess up. I don’t know if I can see a stride anymore, I don’t have enough impulsion in the canter, the list goes on and on. But, thank god, I am not the girl in the video from September 2015, I have put in far too much work since I’ve been at my new barn to even think about hitting brakes now, and I trust that my trainer wouldn’t ask me to do something that I wasn’t capable of doing. So, I inwardly tell myself, “Okie doke, let’s do this,” take a deep breath, continue to ride the canter Diesel had sneaked into with impulsion, and a couple strides out put myself into my two point and trust that Diesel will get us to the other side. And, wouldn’t you know it, we do! I’m sure that my position through the in and out leaves quite a bit to be desired, but the fact that I had indeed given myself and Diesel a good approach, I ended up not missing my distance despite not really being able to see it (time to start doing some canter pole exercises whenever I have the time to hack him to start remedying that!) and that he is more than kind and game enough to take the reins (no pun intended) and take care of me through the in and out, and while I did get pulled down a tiny bit over the last fence I didn’t let it unseat me too terribly, is more than enough victory for my trainer and I to end my lesson on.

I think it goes to say that this lesson was a wonderful switch from my normal lesson! I know I definitely have more to work on over fences, but considering I’ve really only jumped a handful of times since coming to my current barn, and that before coming here the idea of jumping just one fence, let alone two, essentially turned me into a deer in headlights, this really shows that things are still getting better, and things are getting more and more fun the more I improve. Until next time, safe riding!

After a major “Come to Jesus” moment last lesson, we’re back and ready to rock and roll! Just a quick pre-ride update, the day of my discussion with my trainer about my diet and eating habits, I pretty much dove straight into changing things up. I’ve started working out six days a week (shout out to my mom’s Jillian Michaels 90 Day workout DVDs) and have swapped out my unhealthy eating choices for much healthier options. Strawberries and watermelon are starting to become candy to me. While I have only seen some small changes in my general appearance from ramping things up a notch, the difference in stamina compared to my last lesson proved to be massive. And it’s a good thing too, because this lesson was essentially boot camp for all the issues I’m working on getting rid of.

I started my lesson off immediately in a sit trot without irons. It was both anticipating that my trainer was going to ask me to do so, which she would have, and so I could continue to solidify the muscles that I use for it. Which, come to realize, is a good thing, because I’m still trying to figure a true and correct sit trot out. I was starting to feel like I was gripping with my thighs a bit more than I should, which was inhibiting my ability to absorb Diesel’s trot. My thoughts proved to be true when my trainer had me halt in front of her for a chat. Where I felt like I was gripping too much, I looked equally stiff. On top of that, my shoulders were hunkering up to my ears, again. It got so bad after I was sent out to try and improve on my sit trot my trainer got onto the mounting block with me standing next to her and tried to physically push my shoulders down. The darn things were a raging menace! It’s always a mental game for me to stay focused on keeping them down, and then from there trying to figure out if they can go even lower from where they are. There were certainly moments where they got better, but it goes without saying I have a long way to go before they will stay relaxed and down.

After a few laps of no stirrup trotting, both sitting and posting, my trainer had me pick up my stirrups, put the reins into my right hand, and continue to do a large circle at the front half of the arena at a rising trot. This was a bit challenging for me, as it became obvious pretty quickly that I’m more reliant on my rein aids than I would’ve liked to think. There were a few times that my outside leg was too weak and Diesel would casually drift and expand the circle... occasionally making it a reverse on the diagonal on accident, haha! However, that being said I was able to improve from there, and was able to get a few good circles where my outside leg stayed strong to keep Diesel from drifting, while my inside leg suggested the bend in his body. Hopefully from here my working out will continue to improve my leg strength, and I will remain mindful of how much I’m using my rein aids. From here though, things got... interesting, haha! On a pass by my trainer, she asked me to drop the stirrup that was on the opposite side of the hand that was holding the reins, and continue to work the circle at a rising trot. And this is where things got really loopy, and I started to feel really really weak, haha! I can safely say I’ve not ridden with just one stirrup for an extended period of time, to say nothing of having the reins in one hand on top of that, and that clearly showed. The leg not in the stirrup was dead set on stretching out like I was riding without both stirrups, my body wanted to instinctively lean into the leg that had the stirrup, which then made my leg strength even more wonkier than before, which made it infinitely harder to keep the correct circle. I had to work my butt off to make the circles even close to decent, complete with weird faces and some grunts in hopes that they would aid my wonked out body. It was a difficult five or so minutes (which certainly felt longer than that span of time, haha!) but after a final chat with my trainer, all the the weirdness made complete sense. The purpose of the exercise was to get a barometer for my center of gravity. Now, in a perfect world where we as riders have a perfect center of gravity, we could have anything happen to our equipment or ourselves (reins in one hand, stirrup breaks off, etc.) and we wouldn’t be affected by it and continue on as normal. Of course, we riders do not live in a perfect world. Each person has their own different base level of centered-ness (if that’s even a word, haha!) on the horse, and as a general rule we must work to get ourselves to the point that we are strong enough that something could happen to ourselves or our equipment and we could just continue on as normal. My trainer used Richard Spooner at Spruce Meadows in the 2002 ATCO Power Queen Elizabeth II Cup as a fabulous example. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, I will link a clip of it below:

Pretty amazing right? Well, his ability to be able to drop the reins and ride through the triple without a crash landing comes largely from a (clearly) superior center of gravity. Now, I don’t know if I will ever get my center of gravity to where I could get out of that exact situation. I might not be able to jump higher than 2′6″ for all I know. But, that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t aspire for the center of gravity that Richard has, or work my butt off to get to whatever my center of gravity can get to. And, in addition to the workouts I’m doing now, I have those exercises in my toolbox for when I’m warming up for a lesson or doing a hack to continue to test myself and continue to try and improve.

I think it’s lessons like this one that shows you how much more a trainer does for you than just teaching you how to ride. Whether it’s intentional or not, I feel very strongly that trainers end up shaping you as a person. Your character, your grit and gusto, the whole nine yards. This lesson, while giving me new things to work on and further emphasizing the tools that I’ve been given in the previous lesson, really kicked a lifestyle change into gear, that I’m hoping sticks and ultimately makes a huge difference in my health and riding career.

To start my lesson, after hopping on and walking Diesel a couple of laps to stretch his legs, my trainer had me drop my stirrups and start off in a sitting trot. With a deep breath, and a mental run through of the list of things we had changed the previous week, off I went. The first thing I noticed was that I was actually doing it without totally bouncing around like I have on Diesel previously. Bless the riding gods that be, I can now at least sit a somewhat bouncy horse without irons. However, I think coupled in with a HUGE thing that I will get to later on, I was gripping with my thighs too much, because after a couple of minutes by they were BURNING!! Like, making gross faces and tiny noises of pain burning. I definitely didn’t get a, “Why are you suffering?” comment as I was passing by my trainer, haha! In addition to the sit trot, I began working more on keeping my toes parallel with Diesel’s body. As I had mentioned in my last post, I have a tendency to poke them too far out to the side, which in turn makes me grip with my calf and destabilizes my overall leg position. While sometimes my tendency while turning my toe in was to point them down, I honestly think/hope that this will be easier to fix than the ever present tension in my body. Watch me eat my words by next month, haha!

From there my trainer had me take my irons back, and started with a two point for a good few laps. And this is where the big issue of the lesson started to come through. A this point, I was absolutely huffing and puffing trying to keep Diesel going around the ring. I managed only a few laps before I had to admit defeat and walk for a lap to catch my breath. While at this point I was aware that I was still getting over a pretty nasty cold which had rendered my nose useless for breathing earlier in the week, I was wondering if the amount that I was huffing and puffing was a bit excessive. But, I more or less chalked it up to getting over being sick at that point, and at my trainer’s asking cued Diesel for the canter. 

At the moment my trainer is preferring that I stay in a half seat for the canter, as my seated canter needs a little bit of developing and it’s a little bit easier for Diesel to carry my weight at the present moment. While I was only able to maintain the canter for a couple of laps without, again, becoming a floppy, huffing mess, there were a couple of things I was able to work on and need to remember for the future. Firstly, corners, corners, CORNERS!!! I need to remember to ride into the corners. There’s really no excuse about it, I cannot be sloppily cutting off a chunk of the ring for no reason, regardless of whether I’m flatting or jumping. Secondly, I need to be making sure I’m not leaning too far back when I’m asking for the canter, and that once I feel that first canter stride I’m getting off Diesel’s back. I’m sort of lumping these two together because they both have to do with an improved canter departure. Sitting too far back at the canter is something I think I’ve developed because I feel like I sometimes throw my upper body too far forward, but this creates the problem that in the departure Diesel will have to compensate for where my seat is, and will struggle to get a correct departure. I need to remember that it’s ok to have a little bit of a closed hip angle when asking for the canter, obviously not so much that I’m throwing my upper body into the canter, but not so upright that I get a scrambled transition up. And then, once I’m in the canter, I need to remember to immediately get into my half seat. The reason for this is pretty simple; I won’t be getting into the habit of sitting heavy on his back when I move into the canter, and so I don’t scoot him forward with my hips. Granted, Diesel isn’t the type to do any crazy shooting forward if I sit wrong (bless his heart of gold for that) but if in the future I ever began riding a horse that was ultra reactive to a seat change like that, I would be in for a world of misery trying to correct it. The last thing to remember is to have my reins shorter and closer to the martingale strap on Diesel’s neck. I tend to have my reins a little too long and loopy with my hands more or less in my crotch, so obviously having them shorter and forward is really the only way I can fix it. Plus it helps me relax my arms and move with his canter a little bit better.

Now, like I had mentioned before, after going a couple laps at canter both ways, I had once again been reduced to a breathless potato. My trainer had me walk a lap to catch my breath, and then had me come over to where she was sitting to talk. From there, we had a very long talk about my stamina, or lack thereof, and things I needed to change in order to change what was going on today. The short of it, which I have no problem admitting to, is that I’m super super out of shape, and if I don’t make some lifestyle changes it’s going to be very difficult for me to progress further in my riding. Now, I’m going to lay out pretty much everything I’m doing wrong in regards to my eating habits and what I do for exercise. It might be a bit too much information for some people, but I think it’s important for me to have it out in the open so I don’t have any excuses changing things going forward. First off, my eating habits. I am absolutely garbage at having a good breakfast for myself (more often than not I don’t eat one at all,) I don’t meal plan for when I’m at work, and the food I eat on the regular is... well... I think you get the picture. My workout regime is more or less the same. While I work at a retail store full time and am walking around a lot, it can’t really equate to a rigorous cardio exercise. That’s not to say I’ve never worked out before or had decent eating habits, last year I crunched down on what I was eating and ramped up my workouts, and ultimately lost close to thirty pounds. However, since then I’ve obviously let things slide, and roughly half of that weight has come back. It was not a conversation I was expecting to have with my trainer, but it really pushed the issue in front of my face and made me face the reality of what I needed to be doing.

After our conversation, my trainer had me end my lesson by trotting over a cavaletti jump a handful of times. Having our discussion still fresh in my mind, I was determined to end my ride on a better note than I had been on. Now, while an energetic trot is needed as a generality going into a jump, with Diesel I tend to think about almost overdoing his trot so I know he’s not dropping behind my leg. Because he is a Quarter Horse and he’s built a bit more downhill than your average jumper, if he isn’t marching along with enough impulsion that hes working through his back, his jump is difficult for me to stay with on landing. So, I go into a trot and march him down to the line, all the while fixating that my whole body was telling Diesel to move forward, a couple strides away from the fence grabbed some mane and popped myself into my two point, and let Diesel do the rest. Granted, he probably didn’t do a true jump over any of the approaches that we did, and I got a bit floppy after we had landed, but I was going forward enough that I wasn’t left behind at any of the jumps, so I chalked that up as a mini win to end my lesson.

So, I think it goes without saying that this was one of the toughest lessons for me to stomach since moving to this barn, but in one of the best ways possible. It made me own up to a lot of things I had let slide, but it also, if you’ll pardon the swear, lit a fire under my ass. I left the barn determined to make the changes to my health and dieting to ramp up my stamina and ensure that my fitness will not be one of the things holding me down. Back to ensuring I have some sort of breakfast, planning meals for days that I would be at work, making healthier eating choices overall, and working out six days a week. My inner fat kid is protesting the incoming lack of Five Guys burgers and Extra Hot Cheetos, but darn it if the outcome of dedicating myself to the change won’t be worth it. Until next time, safe riding!

Two posts in, still haven’t completely fallen off the bandwagon yet! This lesson was funnily enough a lot more difficult in a lot of ways than last week, and definitely a lot more hands on and specific, whereas my previous lesson was a lot more open ended and more along the lines of finding out what worked for me personally. I was pushed and asked for a much higher standard in riding than what I’ve been used to for a long time, but it led to a huge, HUGE, light bulb moment in my lesson that I think it going to further kick-start my progression in my riding.

After I had warmed Diesel up and my trainer arrived, I was sent off in a rising trot. As per usual I started up working in circles, figure eights and changes of direction, while trying to still work on getting moments of the relaxation I had gotten a feel for the previous week. That being said, there were still a few things that were more sloppy than they needed to be, the biggest being whichever leg was to the outside. I can’t say it really surprises me that my outside cues are weak, thinking back I really haven’t used my outside cues (for steering at least) in pretty much any riding school I’ve been in before, let alone to the extent that I now need to use them. However, now that I know that it’s something I need to work on, I need to make sure that, on top of everything else I’m either learning or trying to relearn, that I’m making a conscious effort to remember that I do have to use my outside leg now, and to not be tempted to let my outside aids go to the wayside. I definitely cracked my knee against the wall (and maybe my trainer’s helmet... maybe...) one too many times. After those mildly embarrassing incidents my trainer had me halt in front of her and she came over to adjust my arms and hands. My hands are normally carried with the palms of my hands facing down and my thumbs towards each other, and were adjusted so that my thumbs were facing up and my arm carried more of a bend to them. She then had me walk two laps in two point to get my heel down, since they were way too level to be either proper or safe. I mentioned to her that I am breaking in new tall boots, which might explain if they were normally lower than they were this ride, was met by a resounding, “don’t care, drop them lower.”

So, with that I proceeded to (somewhat painfully) oblige, and the result was immediate once my trainer sent me back off into a posting trot. My leg. while I could definitely feel the stretch from my heel, felt much more effective than how I’ve been using it in the past, my toes could be turned in more but that’s just one other thing of many I’m itching to make second nature. And then my trainer asked for a sit trot. Now, I’ve mentioned previously that this was one area that I struggled quite a bit in, but after this sit trot I think I’ve finally found the position and feel that I was searching for to achieve this sit trot. I could still feel the suspension from Diesel’s trot, don’t get me wrong, but, again, the new depth in my heel coupled in with the adjustment of my arms and hands, which in turn put my upper body into a much more solid position, made Diesel’s trot a MILLION times more sit-able. And, as further proof that my position was correct, Diesel dropped into a frame without me even intentionally asking for it. What a light bulb moment to finish up my lesson!

Alright, lets get into this lesson! Just as a foreword and a little bit of a gushing moment, this is my second ever ride on Diesel, and although I got a taste of how much of a steady eddie he was last week, this lesson truly solidified it. The previous evening we had had a pretty serious thunderstorm, followed by huge gusts of wind going pretty much all day. In pretty much any barn I’ve been at previously, I would be dealing with a feisty and fresh horse, and would spend a good chunk of the lesson getting their brains focused on the ride at hand. Guess who broke that trend in every sense of the word? My perfect little ginger nut! Diesel could literally care less; he was around flags billowing every which way, canopies flapping uncontrollably, and mini gust dusts coming up under his belly, and didn’t even bat an eye. Tickle me pink and declare me smitten, just another of many reasons why I’m in LOVE with this horse!

So to begin, after I had free walked Diesel for a little bit my trainer started me off in a two point for a lap or two so I could stretch down into my leg and heel before sending me off into a rising trot. I kept my focus mainly on keeping him moving forward and in front of my leg, ready to gently remind him with a tap behind my leg with a dressage whip if I didn’t feel him respond and move forward as he should (not an often occurrence, just every so often I’ll feel him getting laggy off my leg,) and started off putting him through a few circles and changes of direction so we could both warm up each way. I did this for a couple of minutes before my trainer called me over to her observation deck. From there we talked about what she was seeing going on in my body that we needed to work on. The main challenge that I’m having at the moment is that I’m very stiff with my body, which overall hinders my ability to progress with my riding, and prevents me from moving with Diesel in a way that is both appealing to look at (I more look like I’m riding on top of the motion, rather than with it.) In order to really kick my stiffness to the curb, I’m going to have to learn to departmentalize my body and figure out how to soften each individual part of my body. My trainer was very frank with me that it is extremely difficult to get rid of my stiffness totally, nearly impossible in fact, but not totally impossible! Which of course kicked my determination into high gear. So, she sent me out again for the next five minutes with instructions to get a feel for what works to get different parts of my body to loosen up. I started in walk and trot, and experimented with pretty much everything under the sun. If I felt stiff in my shoulders, I would roll them around or do a quick shimmy. If my lower back felt stiff (which I think is a big area where it does, I would walk until I could feel my back rock with the motion of Diesel’s walk. If my arms felt stiff I would try and make my elbows bend with my post (open elbows when rising, close elbows when sitting.) If I could feel my legs getting locked up I would take my feet out of the irons and wiggle my ankles, kick my legs back and forth. If I tried to sit trot and felt more like I was bouncing everywhere - which I am, because Diesel somehow has one of the hardest trots to sit- I tried everything at once. Basically, if there’s a weird move you can make with a body part, there’s a good chance I tried it. It felt just as silly as it looked, if not more so, but when I went back to my trainer for a quick chat, she said (thankfully) that she could notice a difference in my body from my hokey “dance moves.” It’s still a very, very, very conscious act, and the sitting trot in particular needs a LOT of work, and it will probably be that way for a good while, but it’s a good start to know that everything I tried made some sort of difference. With that, she sent me out again to try the canter.

Now the canter, despite feeling a bit harder for me to best feel the moments of relaxation, actually looked a lot better than the trot. My main points of focus were around my shoulders, hips, and arms. For my hips at the seated canter, I tried to find the feeling that they had unlocked, for lack of a better term, and were not stuck to just one part of the saddle. Shoulders and arms definitely came easier since I’ve always felt like they need to move more so than in the trot (at least up until starting riding with my current trainer,) so it mostly came up to a shoulder shimmy or making sure I could feel my arms opening and closing with the motion of Diesel’s canter. The half seat was a little bit of confusion for me. I figured that you’re really not supposed to have your hips unlocked the way they are at seated canter, so I worried a bit less on that, but kept focusing on my shoulders and arms, as well as feeling that my legs and heels really felt like they were absorbing the shock from the rest of my body in addition to the feel of the canter, rather than just feeling like they needed to look a certain way and that they had to be like that. Like I mentioned, it felt more difficult for me, but my trainer definitely liked that it looked like it was easier, or at least that I found the right “tricks” for me quicker. A bit later on with my playing around though, Diesel’s downward transitions began to cause me some problems. As he is a Quarter Horse, he’s built a bit downhill so if he’s not supported what he goes from canter to walk it sometimes feels a bit more like I’m getting pulled down onto his neck... and sometimes I was, not gonna lie haha! But this is definitely something I can work on quite a lot, which is what I spent the end of my lesson doing. The biggest things I need to remember (in addition to all the relaxation tricks I have already mentioned) is that I *need* to make sure I’m settling all my weight in my heels and that my upper body is prepared to be strong if I need to hold him off his forehand. It was a bit of a mish mosh of executing it pretty darn well, and getting surprised by the transition down and not helping him at all. But, the most important thing was that I was learning how to best deal with it, and my last downward transition was the best out of all the previous attempts.

So, all in all, this was a huge lesson for me to keep in mind going forward. Learning how to departmentalize my body and learn how to be able to relax my individual body parts is definitely going to be an ongoing challenge, and I know there are going to be ups and downs along the way. That being said, I’m determined to defy the “nearly impossible” connotation, and work my butt off in every single ride I have to get to that point. It goes without saying that it definitely helps that I have the horse that I do to work on the early stages of this journey. I don’t know if any of the horses I’ve ridden before would allow me to work on myself to the intensity that I was during this lesson, and just happily boop along for the ride and not take advantage of me, let alone on a blustery day like that. Diesel is genuinely such a blessing for my riding, and I’m so thankful that I will have him to help me grow for however long I will be his part mom. And also aside from the riding, he’s just such a joy to be around! Like I had said, this was only my second time really even spending time with him, and he’s already reaching for cuddles and NICKERING at me when I walk past him! No treats needed, no bribing for love, he just wants love and wants to be your friend! I could cry (and almost did after he nickered at me for the first time.) I am just so excited for my journey with this sweetheart of a horse, excited for my next ride on him, and excited for the day where I can look back and see how everything I’ve learned in this lesson has come together. Until next time, safe riding!

Well well well... have I let this blog collect a heck of a lot of dust or have I let this blog collect a heck of a lot of dust! The last three years have been pretty tumultuous for my riding, so aside from on my private social media I’ve really let posting about my riding fall to the wayside. Without going into too much detail, in March of this year I made the decision to leave my trainer the Eq Nazi and take a stab at riding with a different trainer. This was not a decision I took lightly or enjoyed making, I adore the Eq Nazi with all my heart and will always wish nothing but the best for her, but I felt that at the end of the day it was the right call for me and my riding career. As of writing this post I’ve been with my new trainer for a little under two months, and while I still have a long way to go, I feel that I’ve already made some progress, and that I’m where I need to be in terms of getting my riding to where I want it to be. I’ve just begun shareboarding one of the boarder horses in her program as well, a lovely chestnut Quarter Horse named Diesel, and he is an absolute sweetheart and I have no doubt I will learn and grow so much from him during our time together. At the moment all the goals I have are centered around becoming a more confident rider, and becoming more solid in my seat, position and effectiveness in my riding. Long term I think doing clinics and getting back into the show ring is something I would like to do, but it’s more important that I have the proper foundation laid down first, so there likely won’t be any show or clinic prep posts for quite a while. That being said this blog is also something I would like to give a shot, so I will be trying to post whenever I have a lesson, eventually hacks, and whatever comes next for the next chapter of my riding! Here’s to the future, and until next time, safe riding!

Man am I glad this is the ride I return to blogging on! To backpedal a little bit, my old main squeeze, Luke, was diagnosed with arthritis after being inconsistently sound for a good portion of last year and early this year. To put it nicely, him and winter/cold weather in general, do not agree. At all. I didn’t have the heart to ride him while he was so obviously not himself, but once all the hullabaloo from the show died down, I had more time to spend with him on the ground (grooming, hand walking, playtime in turnout,) and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and me and the perpetually aloof/spooky Luke bonded and began to strengthen our trust in each other. Come spring and warmer weather, he began to feel more like himself and, finally, was consistently sound. Once I got the go ahead from my trainer, we started working together under saddle again. While I’m incredibly optimistic about what we can do in the future, at the moment we’re just working on his general fitness, which is what this blog goes into.

To start our hack, I let Luke have a good 5-10 minutes at walk to help him stretch his muscles and topline out. Since building up his topline is the big focus, I make sure to try having him coming from behind and swinging through his back as much as his fitness will allow, as well as trying to get him to lower his head and seek contact with the bit without curling behind the vertical. To keep him marching along and encourage him to swing his back, I alternate which leg I press depending on which was I feel his body swing naturally (so when I feel him start to swing right, I press with my left leg, and when he swings left I press with my right leg,) and to encourage him to stretch into the contact, I let a little slack in the reins widen my hands and squeeze my ring fingers to encourage him to lower his head, and once he does I’ll praise him with my voice and release the pressure from my hands; I’ll bring my hands more together and either give him more rein if he seeks the bit or literally send my hands forward with his head if I have no more rein to give. If he brings his head back up I’ll take back some rein, widen my hands and repeat the process. While these 5-10 minutes aren’t perfect- there are of course times he brings his head up or is a little harder to get swinging for whatever reason- I feel like he is responding wonderfully to the time I give him to loosen up; this ride in particular he was unbelievably relaxed and on a few occasions put his nose to the sand, something he had never done before for me. 

Our trotwork is a little bit more difficult when it comes to Luke stretching and swinging through his back. Because he lacks a proper topline he often goes into giraffe mode when we transition from walk to trot, and he tends to curl behind when I ask him to stretch his neck. Because of this, I kept our trot pretty simple today, but not wanting to crank up on his face and being so insanely giddy over how relaxed and quiet he was, I kept a generous amount of slack in the reins for him. I still asked him to stretch down, but was very careful to keep pushing him forward so that even though he would carry his head and neck higher than at our walk, he wasn’t curling behind and still swinging in the back to some degree. My process was a little repetitive, ask for a trot while trying to keep Luke from going into complete giraffe mode, ask him to stretch, have him mantain it for a little longer each time, then transition down, praise and reestablish a stretch at walk before doing the whole thing again, but Luke gradually understood what I was asking him and improved little by little each time, and that’s something to be insanely proud of.

For our canter I decided it wouldn’t be fair to ask Luke to stretch, (probably not going to ask him until we’re proficient at trot) but continued to keep him on a loose rein. And here is where I made another breakthrough, but instead of it being with Luke, it had to do with me and me seat! Because Luke has a notoriously difficult canter to sit well, I normally stick to riding in a half seat so I don’t accidentally put ore pressure on him than I should. This time, however, a thought popped into my head that maybe a looser rein will force me to work out my seated canter. If I was correct I would have something to work on, and if I wasn’t I’d just go back to half seating until I had time to bounce ideas back and forth with the Eq Nazi. So, I ask for the canter, and almost instantly my butt rolls underneath me and my hips start moving with the motion of Luke’s canter. No bouncing, no overcompensating with my upper body, just a perfect seated canter. Had my back not decided to be rude and start hurting on my transition down to love on Luke, I would’ve done it more, but if I had to choose a note to end our hack on, it definitely would be this one!

While I unfortunately had to end things a little abruptly, I am so thrilled with how wonderful Luke was for our hack. Not only had he improved his stretching at the walk by leaps and bounds, we were able to continue our entire ride almost on the buckle, something that, because of his occasional spooky tendencies, we have never done before. And the entire time Luke was content as could be. No looking for things to be scared of, no spooking, just relaxation and focus on what I was asking of him. This gives me a lot of hope for us this summer. Because of how hellish the winter had been on him I was just hoping he would come sound for light riding at the very least, but now that Luke has gone above and beyond everyone’s expectations, I’m starting to tentatively look at the potential of doing a show or two with him before the weather gets cold again. After everything that’s happened the past year, how amazing would that be! Until next time, safe riding!

Long (and grossly overdue) post and terrible quality video ahead!! You’ve been warned!!

Show day began at 4 am with a long drive to the grounds. Up until the schooling arena closed, the morning was filled with feeding, touch up grooming, braiding, and for the first three girls showing, riding. Thankfully, the busy morning curbed my nerves… for a bit. But the more girls finished their classes, and finally when the other girl showing on Ping began her classes, it all started flooding back. There was no reason behind it, Ping was cool as a cucumber and wasn’t putting a foot out of place, but I could feel myself hitting panic mode before the afternoon even began. Zero exaggeration. Paralyzing, hand shaking, borderline tears panic mode. A full five hours before I was even getting on to warm up. And the closer I got to needing to start warming up, the more I was convinced that I was going to go into the show arena and make a complete idiot of myself, and I actually started to consider scratching from the show altogether. But after a lengthy conversation with the Eq Nazi and Ping’s owner, and some tough love from both parties, I ultimately decided to put on my “big girl pants” and go for it, win or lose.

After spending a good five minutes of my warm up just walking around, I started putting Ping to work. Tracking left, although we didn’t spend a whole lot of time in that direction, we worked on transitions and regulating our speed within whichever gait, and tracking right we drilled our canter lead to no tomorrow, and, shockingly, Ping was picking it up every time I asked. I could still feel that my eq wasn’t perfect, but Ping was being his normal happy-go-lucky self, and better still, I could feel myself starting to relax, something the Eq Nazi must have noticed, because she kept remarking how glad she was I was going through with it. After maybe twenty minutes of warming up, we walked to the other side of the barn to wait on deck for my first class, Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle. Once they called and Ping and I walked into the ring, one of the last things I heard was the Eq Nazi commenting to Ping’s owner, “We don’t have to worry anymore, she’s dialed in.”

Right off the bat I circled around until I found us a good pocket along the rail tracking left. Because the class was so big, twenty riders in all, I wanted to set a good impression before we were officially judged and make sure that Ping and I would get noticed more easily. Once the announcer told us we were being judged at the walk I put a little more emphasis on making Ping’s walk forward and strong (left leg when his body swung right, right leg when he swung left) and using as much of the ring as I could. When we were called to trot Ping transitioned flawlessly, and was bending and working the arena in his pocket better than I could have asked him to. Better still, I could feel my body reflecting how easy Ping was to work, all my weight was dropping down into my heels and my knees weren’t pinching, at all. Our first lap at trot went without a hitch, but entering our second lap I could see a couple of horses coming up on our inside. I was fully anticipating us to be called to walk any moment, and I wanted the judge to see the lead departure we were guaranteed to get. Without making it too obvious I began looking around the arena for any pockets we could slip into. Nothing. The announcer called for us to walk. Still looking, still nothing. Right as we got called to canter I saw a pocket open up. I would have to circle around a jump to get to it, but Ping is super athletic and could turn on a dime if need be, so I cued Ping to canter (perfect departure!) and began to circle around. I relax into it, but then there is suddenly a grey horse rocketing past and I have no choice but to pull Ping up. Right in full view of the judge. I was convinced I had just blown the class. But thank god, I was still determined to show Ping off the best I could, so I continued to maneuver myself into the closest open pocket and picked Ping’s canter back up. From there Ping and I continued to work the arena as best as we could, he was a hair more difficult to get to bend into the corners and he gave me a little sass transitioning down to the walk, but that was the least of my worries as we were asked to reverse to our harder direction. Already I was planning on being a little more proactive with my aids this way, but Ping surprised me in the best way possible; he was so unbelievably supple and easy just bending at walk alone. Our trot proved to be equally easy, but throughout I was thinking about our right lead. Ping had been so perfect about it in warm up, but would he need more leg now or would repeating I asked in warm up be enough? I decided to not add more leg, and to my relief Ping gave me a flawless departure, and a strong canter to finish the class. As I lined up I had no expectations, but I was still happy. Nerves were gone, Ping and I had worked the best we could, so, needless to say, hearing my number announced for fourth place was both a complete shock and icing on the cake.

Our equitation class was began just after our hunter class, so thankfully aside from a short break on a loose rein we didn’t have to worry about the bustling of going in and out of the show ring. Since the size of the class diminished considerably, finding a good pocket before we were being judged was relatively easy. Our trot to the left was as good as I could ask for; Ping, was still bending and staying in his place in the arena beautifully, and I could feel my equitation was still holding strong. The only thing I could feel that was concerning me was that we were both feeling a little tired, Ping from being out in several classes earlier in the day, me from the release of all the stress from the past month or so. It wasn’t a huge difference yet, just a note that he took a little more leg to get going and was a little heavy in my hands transitioning down. Our canter to the left remained strong, but Ping’s heaviness in my hands transitioning down was much more apparent, and our transition down took a hair longer than I would have liked. After we reversed to the right, the announcer called for a sitting trot. Somehow Ping managed to trot with more lift than he usually did (seriously, he was tired a minute ago, where did it come from, haha!) making his trot a little harder to sit, but as I had planned on keeping his trot harder to sit to begin with, it ended up working to my advantage. Our canter to the right, bless Ping’s heart, is where we blew it for real. We had to ask for the lead on the straightaway, and Ping was a boss picking up the correct lead, and to start, it was better than all of our canters combined! Ping was light in the bridle, carrying himself beautifully, bending nicely, the works. But as we started to get close to the judge’s box I could feel all the tiredness catching up with him, and his topline started to get lower, and lower, and lower. My body responded as much as it could, but, like Ping, my exhaustion had caught up to me too, and Ping dropped into trot right in front of the judge. I was able to regain the lead and finish off strong, but there was no chance of us placing in the class. By the way I was freaking out in the morning I should’ve been totally crushed, but I was elated. I couldn’t knock Ping one bit, he worked his butt off despite coming out of the show completely exhausted, and after a talk with Ping’s owner and the Eq Nazi, I was thrilled to hear how well I was equitating, and that if the break hadn’t happened I would have likely placed second.

Coming away from this show, I’ve taken it as both a huge learning experience and an even bigger confidence builder. It wasn’t something I thought I was totally prepared for; having to flip flop between multiple horse, facing the prospect of showing strange horse just two weeks before the show, and then, finally, facing my own worst enemy: myself. And not only was I able to tango with riders that compete year round, I came out of it braver and more sure of myself, a first of many hurdles to fully regaining my confidence. I’m so thankful to Ping, for giving me his all on the good days and the bad, and showing unbelievable patience with my mistakes until I could rise to the occasion. To my Pine Grove family, for being so encouraging and keeping me crying laughing throughout this whole journey, and above all, I am so unbelievably thankful to Ping’s owner and my trainer. For giving me the opportunity to ride Ping, for having faith in me when I had none, and above all, pushing me when I was ready to give up, so that I could finally realize what they knew all along. Until next time, safe riding!

And so begins Team Pine Grove’s show weekend! Our day began like any other Saturday, before we could ship out to the show grounds there was still a full day of lessons to teach. In the meantime, any spare minute of free time we had was spent meticulously cleaning tack, grooming the horses, filling our tack trunk with everything we would need at the show and throwing anything we could move at the time into the trailer. Once lessons were finished, the last of the packing and shipping the first load of horses (Flash and Patrick) went in a blur.

Myself and a few other girls stayed at the show grounds to help with prepping our assigned stalls unloading the horses and the trailer, and once we were ready for the last load of horses (Ping and Mags) we headed up to the show office to get our numbers. After discussing classes with the Eq Nazi, I got my final line-up. I was to be competing in two classes, Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle, and Modified Equitation on the flat. Originally we had planned on me riding in more classes, but having sensed my nerves throughout the week, we both decided that I would most likely only be able to mentally handle the two.

After making sure all the horses were groomed again and had been given their dinner, we began tacking up for our schooling in the warm up ring. I rode Ping last, and to be completely honest, I’ve never been more embarrassed. If it hadn’t been for the Eq Nazi and Katie, one of Pine Grove’s working students, I probably would have been too frozen to even get on Ping. And once I got on, it was even more downhill from there. Ping was perfect as could be and showed unreal patience with me, but from start to finish I was in borderline panic-mode. I was barely able to produce an acceptable trot, and my canters, even tracking left, were mediocre at best, to say nothing of my equitation; my head was spinning so much I couldn’t even think about what was out of place, let alone try and fix it. While Katie and the Eq Nazi did everything they could to help my frame of mind, eventually it became more and more obvious that the schooling wasn’t going to get any better, and had me get off. I had always heard that a bad schooling equals a good show, but as I went to bed that night, I wondering how I was going to pull the show off at all.

This is honestly starting to get exhausting. My trainer decided that myself and the other girls showing should ride in our show clothes the day before we shipped out to the show grounds, since there was a chance the girls that had never ridden in show clothes would feel weird. Her instructions for me were to work on the issues I was having on the 5th, and above all try to relax. In some ways I definitely improved, other ways... definitely not so much.

Our trotwork was definitely (and thankfully) much improved from the 5th. I was still a little nervous, but I was able to control pinching my knee a lot better this time, and overall my body was much more relaxed. We still did a ton of work with figure eights, so I could keep working mine and Ping’s stronger and weaker sides evenly.Unfortunately, because I was nervous, my heels weren’t down as much as they normally are on a good day. That’s not saying a whole lot since my heels don’t drop that far, but I’d definitely prefer them to be that tiny bit deeper. That, and I have a really hard time smiling while I’m concentrating on a million other things in terms of my eq and what Ping’s body is doing. Pretty sure the Eq Nazi wanted to kill me for it, haha!

And here is, again, where I fell apart. Getting my right lead is still a never ending struggle, but thankfully I’ve definitely gotten a handle on getting the left lead. Once we were cantering though, Ping started to get a little stronger than I was used to. It shouldn’t have been a big deal for me, but, carrying on the trend from the past few rides, I couldn’t completely relax, and kept gripping with my knee and planting my hands more or less in my crotch. More or less my own personal recipe for disaster. I was more or less able to muddle through it, at the very least, but it wasn’t pretty at all. Again, I really can’t fault Ping on this one, after riding for as long as I have I should be able to handle him feeling a little more up.

So, not to sound like a broken record, but this was, again, not a great ride on my part, and not one I want to sit on before shipping to the show grounds. Hopefully I’ll be able to get over my nerves enough for our schooling session tomorrow. At least then I’d feel a little better going into show day on Sunday. Until next time, safe riding!

Aaand we are now less than a week from the show day!! Agh, I almost wish I didn’t know what day we were showing, cuz the closer we’re getting to the date, the anxiety is getting more and more intense, and it’s really starting to effect my rides, this one included. I was able to get through some of my initial issues I started with in this ride, and I did improve some on some issues I was having during our last ride, but as a whole.... That sick feeling in my stomach isn’t getting much better..

Our trotwork this ride actually started off somewhat on the decline. I don’t know how I let my nerves seep into my trotwork, maybe it was because we were trying out different bits (Ping’s normal bit isn’t allowed in hunter/eq) maybe it was something else entirely, I don’t completely know, but regardless of what it was, I was so nervous, and my equitation suffered enormously. I was stiff everywhere, I couldn’t stop my knee from pinching, I was perched in the saddle, the list goes on and on. Thank god I had some sense in my brain to realize this and not push myself too much. I put any and all goals for this ride on the back-burner, and decided to keep things really simple. The good thing was my hands were soft and not death gripping and I still had enough use out of my legs to bend Ping, so obviously my first instinct was to build on that. Lots and lots of figure eights, circles, anything that could maybe get me dialed in. And thankfully it worked, to some extent. I never hit the point of total relaxation, but I was able to open up my knee some and relax my seat to a degree.

Because I was having so much trouble keeping cool at trot, I decided that it was best that I keep my canter really short and only pick one battle for the day. Since at this point I was finding Ping’s left lead canter easier to pick up, I decided to focus on his right lead: get a clean transition, keep the canter once around, and then canter once so I had evenly worked both sides. And again, thank god I didn’t push myself. Getting his right lead was definitely easier to pick up today than it was on the 2nd, but definitely not completely proficient enough for the show ring. On a good day I would wholeheartedly rip myself apart for that, but, since this was definitely not a good day, I had to remind myself to cut myself a little slack, and let myself have an easy left lead canter to finish off.

First thing’s first, happy 2016 everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful year and best of luck if you have any resolutions for the new year! I was definitely starting to feel the pressure of how close to showing we were, and despite keeping my hack relatively short, it was definitely showing. I try not to let not so great rides get me down, but this one has me a little bit concerned.

Thankfully for me, my trotwork remains pretty solid. My arms were still stiff in spots, so I did a lot of circling to supple them up, as well as working the independence of my legs. Since I know I’m showing in at least one equitation class, I did some practicing with lengthening and extending Ping’s stride for my rising and sitting trot. Ping lengthened beautifully for me, and came back just as well. I made an extra effort to make his trot a little hard to sit for me, sounds counter-intuitive but after hearing Christine Traurig complain about how riders have to make their horses crawl to be able to sit their trot, I figured it would be worth testing out in the show. And even though I was supposed to be working on myself, I was able to sneak in a tiny bit of fun in between. The Eq Nazi prefers for me to keep Ping out of frame because the majority of my classes were hunter classes, I couldn’t resist feeling what he was like put together, and after getting the ok asked him to come round for a small bit of my last sit trot. And oh. My. God. I’ve been riding for almost fourteen years now and I’ve never felt power like that, and I’m still kicking myself that I don’t have any pictures of it. God, going back to school horses after him is going to be so hard!

As for our canter work... there are few times I’m glad there’s no photo evidence of me riding, and this was one of them. I don’t know why, but for whatever reason my mind went into anxiety mode and my canter work became nothing but struggling. Struggling to get leads, even tracking left which is both Ping’s and my stronger directions, struggling to keep the canter, and struggling to keep my equitation in check. I couldn’t stop pinching my knee, couldn’t keep my shoulders and arms relaxed, and I was pumping my upper body like no tomorrow. Thankfully I found a halfway decent canter to walk off on, but as far as everything else went, I wouldn’t have blamed Ping if he had decided he had had enough of my nervous ass and sent me flying.