Lead Change Bootcamp

Lead changes have never come easy for the BHB. He was never the foal out doing tempi changes in the pasture for fun... heck, I think he only ever did lead changes in the pasture when he was making sharp direction changes while galloping around like a wild fieldhunter! Even then, I'm fairly certain the hind and front ends did not match up at all in the changes. As a 4 year old out fox hunting, I could never get more than a partial change (cross-cantering) from him when galloping around steep corners before he would change back to the prior lead, so I always knew lead changes were going to be our struggle. 

The BHB was starting to school changes and get them around the same time that he became footsore this spring/summer, so he started becoming really resistant to the idea since he associated it with pain. The good news is that I can always get them near 100% over a jump or pole, so the concept is there, it just needed lots of struggling, brainstorming, and trial/error to happen. It's kind of like our pirouettes used to be-- the walk was amazing right off the bat but the canter took some innovation to get him to understand it.

As soon as the BHB took his (forced) vacation days after coming home from Kentucky, Heather started trying changes again on him. At first it went about the same as before, where he would drop his shoulders, put his nose in the air, and run as soon as he was aided. I tried them a couple times too, but rarely got the hind end at the same time (or even with a couple strides) as the front. I watched Heather ride him one day and told her she might want to try them from a pirouette canter. The next day she did and both directions happened without any of the previous issues! So she's going to be trying to build off of that and make them super consistent before asking him to do them from a more forward canter.

I may have found a part-leaser too! She'll be trying out the BHB tomorrow. As much as I'd love to keep him to myself and in full training, it's just too expensive for me to do so at this time. He's such a fun horse to ride and loves to work, so hopefully sharing him with someone else will be a good thing!

US Dressage Finals 2014 Recap

US Dressage Finals were a success! We came home with 4^th place in the second level freestyle and 8^th place in the first level freestyle! After watching the video of my second level freestyle (the $0 freestyle), I wanted to kick myself for not having a round/on the bit horse, but I decided that I’ll just have to wait until next year to redeem myself in that! The BHB was a riot in the awards ceremony—his fieldhunter nature kicked in and he was all “I’ll catch up to them so we don’t get left behind” when we were supposed to be doing a trot lap for awards—so I was pretty much being run away with at a giant trot in both awards ceremonies. I’m hoping to get back to the hunt field this winter where catching up might actually have a benefit.

Posing with our very expensive ribbons!

Just like at Regionals, we managed to keep costs down to a near $1K budget for this trip, although I still don’t know what my trainer’s travel costs will add up to. I actually came in a day early for the show to allow the BHB to settle in, and it was definitely much needed here since he doesn’t tend to travel as well by himself and took a day to get back to normal. Now that horse show season is over, I can replenish my saving account! We may not be showing for awhile since we went a bit over budget with the 2 out-of-town Championship shows this year.

Entry fees: $286

Stabling: $350! For real!

Meals: approx. $50

Hotel: $118

Fuel: $230

T-shirt: $16

Bale of alfalfa hay (the BHB refused to eat regular hay for 2 days so I felt like he needed something): $20

Trainer fees and travel: currently unknown

I had my first post-Championships lesson last night and I think the BHB is excited to get back to the tough stuff! He was quite the firecracker during the entire lesson and was probably quite miffed we didn’t do any medium or extended gaits. We’re working on doing some basic passage to help him figure out how to lift his front end a bit more at the trot, as he is not a natural uphill mover. We’re getting back to the half-passes too, which are really one of his strengths—especially at the trot! I’m sure we’ll get back to establishing a decent pirouette soon, and then maybe I’ll even get to see if I can get him to do lead changes for me! We’re hoping to move up to third level next year and earn a bronze medal and freestyle bar, but we need to get some half-decent lead changes first!

Heading to the US Dressage Finals Tomorrow!

We leave tomorrow morning to head to the US Dressage Finals in Lexington, KY! This week the BHB got a body clip, new shoes, and a health certificate. I’m just hoping I manage to pack everything I need for the trip since I seem to be forgetting everything lately. I plan to get to the KHP by 5pm tomorrow so I have time to get the BHB out for a slow hack/trail ride around the park to stretch his legs. Then on Friday Heather comes up and we’ll do a schooling session on-site before we compete on Saturday morning. Our Saturday morning ride (2^nd level AA freestyle) will be live broastcast on USEF Network if anyone wants to watch him go. I just really hope I can master the second level freestyle because I really love the choreography and music! You bet I’m going to try my hardest riding that thing this weekend! We could REALLY use that $1100 first place prize money (my bank account hates me for doing 2 big out-of-town shows in 2 months)! And the BHB still hasn’t won his own prize cooler yet, so that wouldn’t hurt either ;). With only 2 classes this weekend, the BHB should have plenty of energy to nail every movement.

Last weekend the BHB was officially approved into the Irish Draught studbook and he’ll be sporting an IDHSNA breed society saddle pad during our classes/awards ceremonies. The Irish inspectors liked him, although they said his but was not voluptuous enough to score super high. Oh well, at least it more than serves the purposes we need even if he’s not “all about the bass” like many other Irish Draughts. He proceeded to show them his most plodding gaits ever during the inspection, much to my dismay. I just wish I could have shown them his gaits undersaddle when he actually can be coaxed to giving effort to his work. 

Riding the "Big Trot"

I think riding the big trot may be the nemesis of many adult amateur riders. I'm lucky that I don't struggle as much as others I know, but I'm definitely no master! It has definitely been something I've been trying to work on since I have a horse that's extremely talented in the big trots.

Heather, expert on fancy dressage horses, believes the BHB could easily score 8's and 9's in his medium and extended trots if “I” can push him enough and manage to keep him balanced at the same time… without flopping all over the place myself! In order to keep myself from bouncing around in a big trot, I have a tendency to tense my entire body, which is definitely not the correct way to ride it. It seems to be something you have to ride over and over while experimenting to get it right. Here is what has been helping me so far in improving “big trot” riding:

1. Shorten reins before even thinking about adding impulsion
2. Take a deep breath and sit deep with correct rider position
3. Add collection to help lift the front end and rev up the back legs
4. GO! Loosen the upper thighs while squeezing the calves (and heels if necessary)
5. Keep fingers closed (no spirit fingers!) and slightly pulsing on reins (not hanging!)
6. Keep squeezing with calves and adding some heel/spur if necessary
7. Almost to end, so take another deep breath, pulse calves lightly instead of squeezing to keep impulsion, and add half halts to slow back down

Sounds easy, right? ;)

Step #1 to Preparing for Dressage Finals= Back to Basics

With two weeks remaining until we compete in the US Dressage Finals, you'd think we'd be working on perfecting all of our movements, but drilling movements over and over just pisses off the BHB. So what are we doing? We're going back to basics, and for a very good reason.

Mark is not a fancy warmblood. Theoretically he's actually bred to be a farmer's horse, so he couuld be considered a "blue collar" horse. Now, contrast that to the fact that thoroughbreds were bred for the "sport of kings" and warmbloods were bred to compete in sports that a farmer could never afford the entry fee for. Yet, Mark does a pretty darn good job fitting in on the "dance floor" with high-bred society. He's a very consistent "7" horse, so we have to really work on not giving away a single point of that 70% performance we're quite capable of producing. Points tend to be "given away" in very basic elements of dressage like connection, bend, and balance. So in order to get that 7 (or even 8) we know we can get, we're focusing on those very basic things. This past weekend we worked on polishing our outside rein to inside leg connection and not much else. We also have plans to work quite a bit on other basics like square halts, improving the balance in downward transitions, and getting the proper angle in lateral work.

We may not get any scores above an 8, but you can be sure we're not going to be throwing away points for missing our basics!

Our Entry is in for Dressage Finals! And a Recap of Regionals!

The BHB will be competing in the US Dressage Finals in both the first and second level AA freestyles! We are excited to head back to Kentucky in less than 3 weeks! Entries seem to be much better this year than last, but I'm sure word got around that the show was awesome last year. I'm lucky that this year my classes will both be in the indoor Alltech arena, so no cold/ wind/ frozen/ precipitation to deal with! I'm trying to stable in the heated stable this year since the shedrows had constant noisy wind last year and the BHB needs all the quality sleep he can get at this show. A tack stall was not in the budget for this, so unless I find someone near me who got one and wants to share, I'll be trying to figure out how to best contain my mess in the aisle.

As far as Regionals, we started off with riding possibly our best first level freestyle yet in a VERY soupy arena. Hilda Gurney was one of our judges and gave us a 69% and told the BHB on the way out how adorable he is. Yay for another awesome judge in the BHB fan club! Unfortunately, the other judge for that class tends to score the BHB a bit lower and give some odd comments, so we ended up with a 67% average. Good enough to qualify for a wildcard score to Nationals in a huge (25 people!!!) class.

We got to ride our second level freestyle in the big Rolex ring under the lights (at 7:46pm) while drizzling. We were off to a great start, but we picked up the wrong lead in the first simple change and I was so surprised that we went WAY off course counter-cantering for like 15 seconds (with choreography that provides no room for error) and then I just tried to get all of the required movements in my test. The test ended with me going to centerline for my final halt and realizing I was facing A! So a quick loop around and we halted about 10 seconds after our music ended. But we got all of the required movements in! And the judges were feeling super generous to give us a 68% without too many comments about my frantic all-over-the-place mess of choreography. This put us in 8th place, and although it was high enough to give us a wildcard score, we were the second highest placed adult amateur, so ended up with a Finals invite based on placing. 

We made the exact same major error in our second level championship class. We picked up the left lead instead of the right in the simple change! And those simple changes are double coefficients, so of course it eliminated any chance of doing well. Although several of the people who placed had flying changes in their counter canter and still did well, so who knows. A few other minor bobbles took place (as usual) and we ended up with a 62% score and placed somewhere right in the middle of the class of 45. 

By Sunday, the BHB was completely exhausted. He spent 3 nights partying with 140 other horses in the tent stabling, so was trying to catch a nap any chance he had. I used a whip warming up for our first level championship to help rev him up, but by the time we walked from the warm-up to the arena and had to wait for our bell, he had fallen back into slug mode. So I tried kicking my adorable slug around the arena, and we were given a 66% for our efforts to place in the top half of the 65 horse class. After this class, I was glad we weren't going to be competing in too many classes at the Dressage Finals, since he wore out by the fourth day there, and I probably couldn't afford to enter that many championship classes anyway.

My mother is currently hoarding all of the pictures and videos from Regionals, so nothing to post now. But I did see that one of the photographers at the show got pictures of the BHB medium cantering through the slop with all of his feet well up in the air and his ears pinned back. I thought it was adorable!

Championships on a Budget!

Competing in 4 championship classes at an out-of-town Regional Championships can add up extremely fast! Just my entry fee alone is cringe worthy! So I tried everything I could to cut down the expense of this competition. If I had been able to share a tack stall it would have been ever better! I definitely won't get a tack stall if I go to Nationals unless it's shared. Just too expensive at Dressage Finals costs!

Cost Breakdown:

Competition fees: $751 ($300 in class fees, $61 in office/drug fees, $175 each for my stall and tack stall—I was expecting my barn mate to go and share but she isn’t going, and $40 in meal tickets for my trainer and mom)

Food: Raid pantry to bring protein bars for breakfast and some snacks/drinks for the tack room. Two dinners are included for competitors (Thursday and Saturday).Volunteering 1.5 days gets me 2 lunches and 1 more dinner in exchange of giving some much needed help to the show during my downtimes. We’ll stop at fast food places to eat while travelling. We should be able to spend less than $25/person in extra food.

Hotel: Book $45/night decent motel and share. Total cost for 3 nights= $135 ($67.50 each)

Trailering: Trailer my own horse with my somewhat rusty trailer, and then I’ll have a vehicle too. Estimated fuel cost=$250

Golf cart: $67 a day for a gold cart rental?! Heck no! I’m bringing my bike!

Parking fees: Volunteering gets me a free parking pass at the KHP to save $15!

Total expected costs (for my mom/videographer/groom/motivator and me combined, but excluding trainer fees and her much more expensive hotel): under $1200-- which is still quite expensive, but do-able for a Championship.

The 2014 Region 2 Dressage Mega-Championships

4 days, 8 rings, 13 fully-occupied barns, couple dozen completely sold-out hotels in Lexington, 50-90% chance of rain each day, 680+ horses, and 1750+ rides. Those are just some of the numbers from the 2014 Region 2 GAIG Dressage Championships! It's definitely the biggest horse show I've ever been to!!!

I’m sure the poor organizers are overwhelmed with this monster show. The Championship class entries are exponential considered to any of the other Regional Championships this year. Training level AA has 70 entries! And first level AA (that I’m riding in) has 65! Even one of my freestyle championships has 25 entries—which is absolutely unheard of for non-FEI level freestyles.

 There are only ribbons for the top 8 places, so those ribbons will be elusive for the majority, and well-earned by the few who manage to snag them. Fractions of a point are bound to separate placings at the lower levels. I rode in a class of 50 last year and didn’t manage to place, even though 2^nd place was only .2% above me. I’m wishing I went to the Region 1 Championships in NC this past weekend, because those were nice small classes that were much easier to place in!

My chunky blue-collar horse and I are definitely planning on bringing our A-game to this show, especially since he’ll thrive in the busy atmosphere. We’ll have to compete against pros on fancy warmbloods in our freestyle classes and then against other amateurs fiercely batting for a $2 ribbon (they’re the neck ribbons, so more expensive and prestigious than the regular $.50 ribbons we attack like a TV in Walmart on Black Friday ;)) in the Adult Amateur classes.

The BHB at a couple months old showing his well practiced game face! It's still the exact same today, just a smidge less adorable!

I’m volunteering to help run the show between my classes and strongly encourage any other competitors to volunteer any extra time they may have. And if you’re bringing a husband or parent, you’re pretty much required to volunteer them to keep them occupied ;)

Sometimes the Magic Changes... in Tack Choices!

Last year we found an amazing bit that helped elevate the BHB's front end. This magic bit is a Myler comfort snaffle. 

The Magic Bit: Myler Comfort Snaffle

In the past few months, this bit has lost it's magic :(. It did a great job of helping teach him how to lift up his front end and carry himself, but now he has a tendency to stay above the bit and brace with it. It also does not provide much room for rider hand error without upsetting the horse. He's been preferring one of his $5 bits instead-- a single joint German silver mouthpiece eggbutt bradoon similar to the one below:

The BHB's Current Favorite: $5 Single Joint Bradoon w/ German Silver (aka Copper) Mouthpiece

The BHB likes to work in a variety of different bits and nosebands (or lack of). I found this bit hiding in the bottom of a box of mine this month and decided to toss it in our rotation... and he loves it! He's been going in this bradoon for most of the month and really doing quite well, with much reduced bracing. I felt he was leaning a little too much the other day and switched back to the Myler the next ride, and he was not happy at all about it. There was bracing, head tossing, and overall unhappiness of both horse and rider. So the bits were switched back immediately following that ride, and will likely stay that way until the end of the show season when we'll start working more in a double bridle.

Horses just sometimes change their minds about what tack they prefer. It just takes some experimenting to discover! I'm sure trying curb bits out on him this winter will be boatloads of fun.

USDF Year End Awards!

USDF year end awards are in the process of being finalized. Here's how the BHB did. Not too bad considering the big issues we faced while showing this year (sore feet, extremely hot weather, back to back ride times in extremely hot weather). We probably could have done really well if we rode the extra 4 first level tests to qualify for a First Level Musical Freestyle Challenge, but I didn't really want to spend money going through the same tests Mark memorized last year.

10 Days Until We Leave for Regionals!

Yesterday was the first body clipping day of the winter since the Regional Championships are in less than two weeks! The BHB hates getting his legs clipped, so another epic battle of wills (and carrot bribery) took place. I’d like to think I won since the legs did all end up being fully clipped, but the BHB may have won a bit of an edge since they aren’t the prettiest. We’ll be battling it out again next month.

Freshly body clipped! I miss his richly red colored coat already!

The past few weeks have been pretty easy on the BHB— lots of jumping and trails interspersed with dressage sessions a few times a week. Cross-training is great for a horse’s mindset, especially one bred to be versatile. Mark has been really enjoying the variety and has ended up putting even more effort into his dressage work. I’m sure the cooler weather has had a positive effect on his work ethic too!

We can’t wait to go compete in the extremely large (580+ horse) Regionals competition in Kentucky. Until then, we’re working on some of the areas we tend to have issues in. Today we did a bit of drilling on simple lead changes and adding energy into our lateral trot work, as those currently our biggest downfalls. We’ve also been working quite a bit in counter-canter and on getting great 10m circles.

I’m a bit worried about our second level freestyle still since the choreography is very difficult, but the judges should really reward us if we can do it well. The stickiest area right now is the medium trot to travers since the BHB doesn’t always want to come back from a big trot. Our class time for this is after 7pm on Friday, so I’m also really worried that the BHB will decide he’s done for the day after his 11:30am first level freestyle class and not bring his A-game to this one. I haven’t figured out how to prepare for this yet!

The BHB had a vet appointment today to get his health certification to travel to KY, along with a teeth floating and his fall shots (since he doesn’t typically have much of a reaction to them). My father is getting my trailer and his truck ready to haul to Kentucky, since my trailer is currently with him at the farm. My poor trailer is in dire need of re-painting and some other cosmetic upgrades, so be on the lookout for an ugly trailer with some rust! At least everything else is great shape on the trailer—except the tack room skylight is quite leaky despite multiple attempts at re-caulking. And well, the BHB decided to customize the rubber padding around the front slot when he was younger =/.

Teeth Floating Time!

And the drugged exhaustion after. He needed his stall to hold his head up :)

You can lease the BHB!

I decided it was time to start getting myself financially in a better position, so I’m going to be offering my awesome horse for partial lease (or possibly a shorter term full lease to the right person) after the National Finals in November. Since Mark loves to work almost every day, I don’t want to just cut down the training/lessons to save money. I’d rather find someone to share him with who wants to have the opportunity to ride a super fun horse—be it an adult amateur who wants to learn high level lateral work or an ambitious junior who wants a back-up FEI Junior horse.

Mark is currently the perfect lower level horse and is always fun to ride—he does dressage (is a master at the lateral work), easily jumps around 3' courses, and loves going out on trails or foxhunting. I think he would probably enjoy doing lower level eventing again since he's matured so much mentally and in jumping. His lead changes started getting a bit funky (mentally for him), so we threw them on the back burner since I'm showing at lower levels this winter and they were making him anxious in the counter canter. I'm sure they will be put right back into order once he starts working on them again. I could see Mark taking advantage of someone who lacks authority (he’s a very smart cookie with a little bit of a pony streak), so no timid beginners for this beastie. He really needs someone that isn't afraid to whack him when he deserves it. He prefers people who set very high standards for his behavior that can be mentally challenging for him to meet. 

He’s the perfect size for most women at just a hair under 16hh. He has had tiny people and not so tiny (me L) ride him, and everyone seems to fit him well. He’s like the adult version of a pony, so people who adore ponies but find them too small will adore him! He’s super safe and extremely laid back in any situation except meal time. He is a diehard lifetime cribber, but he wears a collar 24/7 to keep his destruction at a minimum.

The only terms of his partial lease would that it would be “free” as long as he was kept on-site in partial training with our current trainer--which would include one lesson/week. Showing privileges available since he’s such a great little show horse and traveler. Expenses that would be split include: board, training, farrier, and his insurance. You are more than welcome to use my tack—a Custom dressage saddle, 3 bridles with another handful of bits you can rotate, and a jump saddle that doesn’t fit him very well.

The BHB is up for any challenge!

Please contact me if interested! toni.rogers@gmail.com is the best way to reach me. 

Regional Championships are Approaching!

I saw the entry list for Regionals today, and WOW there are lots of entries! Just as I expected there would be. My first level Adult Amateur class has 68 entries!!! It’s going to be even bigger than the ~50 competitors I competed against in my classes last year.

The BHB better be amped up, because it looks like he’s one of two horses that are entered into 4 championship classes (based on my brief scan of the enormous entry list). Hopefully stuffing him full of alfalfa, carrots, sugar cubes, and cookies will help keep him energetic through the weekend. At least he's not going to be entered in any extra classes at this show. I’m sure the cooler weather there will help some too with energy levels.

We have the 2 freestyle classes on Friday (with 23 and 9 entries), Second level AA on Saturday (with 40 entries), and will finish off the weekend with the giant (68 entry) First level AA class on Sunday. 

Body clipping is on the schedule for 2 weeks before Regionals. The BHB would probably be a fluffy pony by Regionals if he wasn't clipped. He doesn't have much extra hair right now, but he can put on a Shetland-thick winter coat practically overnight! 

I'm a bit bummed about missing the IDHSNA annual breed show this year since it looks like it will be awesome. Mark could finally be able to compete in the hunter classes he dreams of doing with all the other chunky-built horses! It's the weekend before National Finals this year and in New Jersey, so I decided it would be way too much travelling for Mark to do. We'll go out and represent the breed in highly competitive dressage instead :). I'm still planning on having him attend breed inspections if they're close this year and on a weekend we're not off competing at a championship show. They're supposed to be in roughly a month, and last I heard they have yet to settle on a date or location for them.

Regional Championships Entered!

We're Ready for Championships!

The BHB's entry has been sent in for the Region 2 Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park in a month! It is going to be an enormous show as both of my regular classes (first and second level) have at least 50 people qualified to compete, my first level one has around 90! The qualification list for this show is astonishingly enormous, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were 500+ competitors at this show! It will definitely be the largest dressage show I've ever competed at... it may even be the largest horse show in any discipline! I entered him the the max number of classes possible to enter a horse at a Championship-- 4 classes! Two regular level classes (first and second level) and freestyles for those two level. 

After introducing some jumping back into the BHB's routine, I've had some wonderful forward rides on him. It ends up that he didn't need the vacation from riding as he was miserable and pacing the fence 4 of the 5 days he had off (I was told after I put him back into work), but I think he did need some more variety added back into his routine. I'm dying to take him out foxhunting, but after sending in a very large check with my Regional Championship entry, he's lucky he's not being bubble wrapped for the next two months! I told Heather yesterday that even if we qualify in all 4 classes for Nationals, we may have to eliminate at least one because of the cost to enter all classes (plus the $350 stabling and the likely $350 tack stall we will probably need-- or share if I'm lucky enough to find someone to split it with). For tack and feed for 4-5 days (and the bikes we take instead of a renting a golf cart), it's really almost necessary to get a tack stall to put it all in. Or else we're stacking around 3 bales of hay, a bucket of feed, all our tack, grooming tools, rider clothing, and more in the aisle way for that many days.

Second level freestyle

I forgot to share our second level freestyle now that the choreography and music timing is all worked out. This is a really exciting freestyle for me since it has so much potential to be awesome if we can really master the movements. The BHB gets a bit excited in the medium trot and doesn't always want to easily come back to do the travers right after, but we're working on it! There was originally a 3/4 turn on the haunches in the middle of the walk section, but I think eliminating it helps the BHB have a more relaxed walk. His amazing walk has not been so great in the show ring lately, so it might be a smart thing to do. The laziness shown in this video is why the BHB is currently on vacation and I'm crossing my fingers for cooler weather at Regionals!

Step 1 for Preparing for the Championship Season: Vacation

The BHB's current mental state

The last thing I expected to do six weeks out from Regional championships was give the BHB an entire week's vacation. Why did I feel it was necessary? Instead of his usual dragging me down centerline, the last two shows (two consecutive weekends) he's balked when I point him to go down centerline, even going so far as to spin around and try bolting once we made it to C. His freestyles this weekend were sluggish and I worked way harder than I should have. Why such a big change?! I went through all the possibilities and came up with 3 possible reasons why this was happening:

1. It was HOT at both shows! The temperatures during our rides ranged from around 85-103 degrees, with most ranging in the mid-upper 90s! Yet, I still couldn't rule out any other reasons on such a short timeline to Regionals.
2. Our cross-training routine has been overhauled since we moved to work with Heather. Instead of the 1-2 days of jumping and 1-2 days of hacking in a field weekly, the BHB has been doing 5 days of straight dressage in an arena. So maybe he's a bit bored getting drilled with dressage work. He's bred to be a cart-pulling, foxhunting, farming, jumping horse-- so I could see him getting bored with just one job to do! I'm planning on getting him out foxhunting some this winter after Nationals since I think we both miss it. We're working with Heather to implement more jumping and out of arena work into his regular schedule. I'm glad he's so solid in the dressage levels we're at, so drilling is not necessary. We just need to keep his fitness levels at least on par to his current state. Jumping should even benefit us in some of our weaker areas!
3. The BHB has been going 5+ days a week of dressage since March. He probably wants to spend some time focusing on ruling his jobless pony friends in the pasture ;). Everyone needs mental and physical vacations sometimes so they don't get burnt out on work. Heck, I need to go spend some time in the tropics this winter with the way my work schedule is looking! But that's not happening unless the BHB's budget is cut way down :(. 

So that's why the BHB has been on vacation since September 1st. I'm planning to jump and hack him outside the ring this weekend if it doesn't rain as much as predicted. Next week we'll add a couple intense dressage rides back in, interspersed with jumping and hacking sessions. After that, we'll do 3-4 days a week of dressage before Regionals, being careful to keep the BHB fresh and eager to show off his dressage skills. We've declared for Nationals in all 4 classes classes we're competing at Regionals, so hopefully that will be on our schedule too!

Why you should consider an Irish Draught for your next dressage horse!

Irish Draughts are safe, sensible, smart, sound, low maintenance, versatile, and full of personality! They are much less expensive than a typical warmblood too. Need I say more?

The BHB's registry

As an amateur I want to have fun when I go out to ride, and my Irish Draught makes that possible. I see other amateurs frequently battling (physically or mentally) with their horses, and I know just how frustrating that can be. My now-retired thoroughbred Blitz was the most amazingly athletic horse around... but there was no changing him no matter how much training I put in. If we made it one step forward in a ride, we'd have to start all over the next time. While it was a bit frustrating, in the end we could have quite a bit of fun out jumping as long as we had a strong bit and big fences to slow him down. He could have easily been an international level eventer in the right hands (those with money and strong arms) if he didn't frequently get carried away galloping at blinding speeds and forget he had a rider on him. Once he started having lingering suspensory issues, we tried to do real dressage, but I was always frustrated after lessons because we would work on the same basic things every single time without making any progress. 

On the other hand, with Mark I'm able to pick up exactly where we left off on the previous ride. He loves to work and learning new tricks is one of his favorite things. He definitely requires a rider that is going to give 100% and not let him cheat on certain things, but it's so refreshing to be constantly taking big steps of progression instead of being stuck in one place. He's quite a trainer favorite too since he's a safe, easy ride that rarely gets flustered. He has a high level of respect those who can teach him new things, and adapts to be a more forward and sensitive ride for them... while he enjoys being a kick-along ride for me. The only thing I hate about having an Irish Draught is that when I tell people his breed they always respond with "he doesn't look like a draft horse" (cue head smack). He may not be the fanciest horse, but some things are much more important to the average amateur rider-- safety and fun are at the top of my list! We do pretty well in the show ring too! And when we're not doing dressage, we can easily go off galloping with a foxhunt or jumping around the local jumper show. What more could you want from an amateur horse?

Here are a couple of my favorite Irish Draught stallions in the US that have competed successfully in dressage and have offspring available for sale:

Lionwood Kinsale's Lad-- Currently rocking the I1 level! Son of FEI dressage horse O'Leary's Irish Diamond!

KEC Double Diamond-- Competed at FEI levels!

And last but definitely not least-- The Pride of Gloster! The BHB's now-deceased sire. He sired some wonderful movers in smaller (~16hh) sizes.

The BHB is back to being a rock star!

The entries to our last two shows for the regular show season to try chasing qualifying scores for our (still in-progress) second level freestyle we'd like to compete with in the championship season. In 2 weeks we're heading to the August Aiken show to spend some time training with Amber, then the following weekend we're going to the GDCTA Labor Day weekend show. Busy times for the BHB!

The BHB has absolutely been rocking his training lately! Putting shoes on really did help him, despite his naturally gorgeous hooves. He's been able to really open up his shoulders and progress on his usual fast-track in his training with less resistance. He's working on muscling up a bit more too! He's finally understanding the concept of canter pirouettes with some exercises we've added in. I've been able to try them on him a couple times, and although it feels like I'm all over the place, evidently we've been getting some decent steps. My ability riding half passes in both trot and canter has been improving quite a bit too, and now my bronze medal doesn't look so far out of reach... although I'm still not ready to play with the lead changes much until we're done with this show season. He knows how to do them really well, he just currently ignores them when I ask him and has lots of anticipation when Heather tries for them. He puts a lot more effort into his work and is quite a bit more hot/sensitive when a pro rides him, so I'm hoping maybe the chill attitude he has with me will help with the anticipation.

My birthday present of new boots arrived this week and they fit perfectly! I ordered the DeNiro brushed leather dressage boots from Smartpak and they are gorgeously shiny! For a dressage boot, they are incredibly fitted through the ankle with softer leather, yet they still have all the other qualities a typical dressage boot would have. I think they will be easier to break in than most boots too!

So excited about my shiny new boots!

Mini-Clinic: Fixing the Hands and Arms

The BHB has been improving leaps and bounds since he had front shoes applied and a thorough massage to relieve any lingering body soreness. So in celebration, I thought I'd share some of the tips and tricks that have helped me improve as a rider.

I'm definitely not a professional or upper level rider, but I'd love to share the things that have made a huge difference in fixing my riding and position issues. My hands and arms are probably my weakest links in riding dressage, so I'm constantly trying to improve them.

1. Shorten the reins... all the time!
• When my reins get too long, everything starts to go downhill.
• The one thing that has made a HUGE impact on me recently was when Heather told me that the top international riders are constantly shortening their reins between movements and even during movements in their tests.  They've just perfected the art of shortening the reins to make it discreet enough so that neither people nor the horse really notice it. This changed my mindset of trying to keep the perfect rein length. Instead, now I'm trying to shorten my reins much more frequently!
• Think about whether you need to shorten your reins or not at every half halt.
2. Shoulder blades back and down
• If my shoulders roll forward, my arms straighten, so in order to fix this I have to think "stick the chest forwards/ upwards" 
3. Elbows at the side
• Obviously a big one for me! I seem to have a hard time getting to that perfect spot with my elbows. Most often I have them too straight, but sometimes I'll also have them too glued to my sides. The elbows should be just in front of being perpendicular to the ground, and the angle of the elbows can vary greatly upon rider build and horse front end build. 
• I hit the gym and do weight exercises that engage and strengthen my lats. There are a million options for these. You can do a search for "lat strengthening exercises" and find some that you have the equipment for. If you don't have weights/gym equipment, you can use straight arm planks  (make sure you "pinch" your armpits to engage the lats) and tricep push-ups to engage the lats (these differ from regular push-ups because you keep your elbows next to your sides the entire time)
4. Double reins reduce fidgeting
• For some reason when I have two reins to hold, my always-busy hands become quiet. I can't wait to see if this holds true at shows once I'm ready to show 3rd+ level where it's legal to use a double bridle.
5. Fingers closed
• I still struggle greatly with this since I want to have super open hunter fingers. I've tried all the "hold x between the reins and your fingers" tricks, but none of them have really helped me. Wearing stickier gloves makes it a little bit better, and grippy reins with stops help a tiny bit too. I'd love to see if anyone has suggestions for this. 
6. Be "side reins" to reduce movement
• In the trot, imagine your arms are creating the same connection as side reins would with the horse's mouth. Hold your hands steady in one spot and don't move them except to do open the rein to the side when needed.
• Holding a grab strap at the front of your saddle can help you distinguish when your arms are actually moving so you can increase arm movement awareness. 
7. Straighten the wrists
• These fix themselves when I have short reins and good arm positioning without tension. At one point in time I was ready to tape Popsicle sticks to my wrists to help with this though!
8. Stop bouncing arms
• If you fix all of the above and lose any extra tension you may have in your shoulders/arms, this should resolve itself.

Uncovering soreness... at a show!

For the past two months, the BHB has been a bit more sluggish and downhill than usual. For the most part we blamed it on the heat coming out, but after watching Heather ride Mark before our show 2 weeks ago, it became evident that he might be foot sore. He was super downhill and his front leg movement resembled a western pleasure shuffle while his hind legs were as snappy as usual. Lately, he's also seemed to digress in his training too and Heather has been struggling with the lead changes he's never had issues with before.

We had the hoof soreness confirmed by our vet who noticed that he seemed slightly off in both fronts while trotting on the lunge. The farrier also examined his hooves when he came out. The BHB didn't react to hoof testers, but his feet are so large that it's hard for anyone to get enough pressure on them! Evidently the footing in the arena we school in (crushed rock, all-weather type material) is making his feet sore. He has absolutely fantastic feet that have foxhunted in mountains and have worked in sand-based footing barefoot without an issue.

So... The BHB got his first pair of dance shoes this morning! I would love to have been able to keep him barefoot forever, but I obviously have to worry about his comfort first and foremost. He's going to have a massage next week to help work out any sore muscles used to compensate for his hoof pain. Then we'll hopefully be able to quickly work back to peak performance condition!

Getting his first pair of shoes!

Getting back to our show results-- I made the BHB do an energetic crawl through 3 tests this weekend before scratching the last. The first day we managed to get our last qualifying scores at first and second level for Regionals. So now we are qualified in 3 classes! If we manage to get a second level freestyle together in time to get qualifying scores, we'll go for a fourth class! I have a rough idea for the freestyle and 2 sets of music picked out that I have to choose from... so it looks like it could happen!

Creating a Freestyle: Music

I'm currently going through the music choosing process for the second time... and I wish it could be the last! Choosing music for a freestyle has proven to be a stressful and time-consuming task. 

The first step is to find your horse's tempo in all 3 gaits. Then it's on to listening to a million soundtracks (mostly browsing youtube.com for me) to find music you like AND would work well in a freestyle. The kicker is that it also has to be the right tempo for your horse. Tempos can be modified, but large modifications (more than around 10%) probably won't end up sounding the way you want. Also, it really needs to be music that's quite pleasing for judges of every background. The BHB's favorite music happens to be R&B... but I can't imagine it would go over as well with the judges as classic rock would!

For the DIY-er, you can download the free music editing program Audacity. It's not a very beginner-friendly program, so if you're not very tech-savvy you might be better off hiring a professional. Heck, anyone would probably be better off hiring a professional... I'm just trying to see if I can squeeze by in creating a great lower-level freestyle without spending more than $3. Granted, I've done plenty of video editing in the past, but editing music seems to be much more complicated.I do realize I may have to end up hiring someone to create seamless music, but at least it will be less expensive since I've picked out the music and made the choreography.

If you're still reading this after hearing how daunting music editing can be, let's go to the next step. First, I did rough edits of the music to eliminate the part of the music that I don't want to use. I figure if I have a 5 minute limit and have to do all of my movements in both directions, then I need no more than 45 seconds of walk, 1 1/2- 2 minutes of canter, and around 2 minutes of trot. Counting in both directions for the trot and canter, and I could probably edit it down to 1 minute trot and canter segments to repeat in my freestyle. I still left 2-3 minutes of music for each gait so that I had enough to easier match it to my choreography without creating horrid franken-music by piecing many different parts together and loosing the natural song flow.

I video-taped my choreography ridden how I'd like to show it so that I could get timing for each movement.  Then I used Audacity to edit the segments. I found the segments I wanted and pieced them together with Fade/ Cross-Fade effects. I'm still learning to use Audacity, so maybe in the future I'll figure out how to use some other effects in editing freestyle music.


A few educational articles on choosing and editing freestyle music:
USDF Connection article "Got Music?"
USDF Connection article "The Wow Factor"
USDF Connection Article "To Turn a Phrase" 

May Chatt Hills Show Recap

Our May show was decent, but I'm not sure we improved any from our April show. I did get 3 more qualifying scores for Regionals-- now we're fully qualified for the first level freestyle and need one more score for both first and second levels. Hopefully we will pick these last necessary scores up at the June Chatt Hills show we plan to attend! I still haven't uploaded videos from my rides, but I definitely will post once I do. 

We weren't set up for the best success since both of our rides each day happened to be less than an hour apart during the heat of the afternoon. The BHB does much better in the morning and/or when it's not 90* out in the blazing sun. I'm sure he would have enjoyed more than a 15 minute break to chill out after the first ride before he had to warm up for our second one. I'm sure the same thing will happen to us at the June Chatt Hills show, so I'm in the process of figuring out how to better prepare so that he can have the energy for the second ride of the day. I think we actually crawled through our second day tests and I could barely manage to get a trot lengthening/mediums out of my beastie. 

After this show, I've decided to edit our freestyle some more, at least the last part of it. We received good scores for movements at this show but then the collective marks were 6's straight down, lowering our score to a 65%. I'm not sure if the judge just hated the music or what... So now I'm going to try increasing the difficulty and improving the music even more!

Right now, I'm trying to finish an application for my GMO's Adult Amateur grant award. Having $750 more to spend on training would be awesome! I'm also planning to go to Aiken to train a week with Amber this summer (late July or early August). The BHB will be overjoyed to see her again and I'm sure will show off all his new tricks to her. 

Videos From Last Weekend's Show

I finally got the videos from our show last weekend uploaded onto youtube.

Our freestyle video. Hopefully next time we show this I won't have to do as many improvisations to stay with the music! I also really need to figure out how to make the one trot music transition a bit smoother before we ride it again!

Here is the first level test 3 in which the BHB checked out of the arena mid-way through. Other than that, it was a relaxed and accurate test.

My fingers are still in the process of healing from some massive blisters I got the week before the show while trying out some glove-rein combinations. I may end up going back to my leather gloves and give the Roeckls a break!

Good Horseman Show Recap

Our first show of the season was a big success, minus one thing. We scored a 71% on our first attempt at a freestyle with finished music that we only ran through twice the day before the competition since I was out of town for work most of the week! We brought home the reserve high score freestyle ribbon of the show too! Once I figure out how to edit one of the transitions to make me happier, I think it will be all set for Regionals and hopefully Nationals with the $2 freestyle! I found through this that I'm pretty good at improvising to stay with the music, and decided on a couple more changes in choreography that I'd like to aim for. Video to come later :)

Here I am with the BHB's ribbons from this show

We made an attempt at riding second level tests on Sunday. The BHB was pretty tired and lazy, so it required much more kicking through than it should have, resulting in gaining the usual "needs more uphill balance" comments. It's not easy to have the necessary uphill balance for dressage when your horse has short legs to begin with, so it's even worse when they are feeling lazy! We still scored a 62% for 2-1 and 65% for 2-2, so I'm extremely happy with our first efforts. Now I know that we need to schedule the harder tests the first day of a show when the BHB has the most energy.

Now for the thing I'm not so happy about. The BHB decided during our 1-3 test that he was going to duck out of the arena at A without any advance warning. He's NEVER offered to do this before and better never ever do so again or the judge will need to close his/her eyes for 5 seconds to break a habit from forming. I heard from the show manager later that the judge was very surprised about it too and that no one saw it coming. The judge was nice enough to let us come back in the arena and score the rest of the test. We were eliminated of course, but at least the BHB did not get the break he was looking for when he ducked out. We were putting in an awesome test that would have garnered right at a 70% too!!! I think the BHB is just not getting enough mental stimulation at first level anymore after riding this test around s dozen times last year. He's ready for much more than I am! I think I'm going to let Heather show him at least once this summer. She thinks she could do 4th level with him, he's so much further advanced than I am!

We have 2 new horses in the barn that are going to join us in showing, so hopefully we'll have a summer show schedule in place soon. Right now I'm not sure which of several options we'll head to next. I'm very excited to try out our freestyle again and try to get all our 5-7 more qualifying scores for Regionals!

Show Preparation: Our Show Packing/Prep List

Our first show of the season is in one week! I'm just finishing putting the freestyle music together today so we can run through the whole thing once or twice before competing! I'm out of town for work Wednesday-Thursday, then have a networking-type event to attend mid-day Friday. Not the ideal work week leading up to a show! On the bright side, I hear the BHB has successfully mastered his first tempi changes with Heather, so maybe I will actually get to try a real lead change someday soon!


One time I trailered to a jumper show across town, unloaded my horse and was preparing to tack up only to discover that I forgot to put my tack in the trailer! Luckily, I was able to send my dad the 30 minutes back to the barn to pick it up, but how mortifying would it be to have that happen at a dressage show when you're much further from home! Also, in dressage we have custom-fitted saddles and bits carefully chosen through trial and error, so it's not as easy to find tack available to borrow as it would in the H/J world where saddles and bridles seem to be constantly thrown from horse to horse.

When I was foxhunting, I wouldn't trust myself to pack everything correctly at 5am on a weekend morning, so I would actually tack up the horse completely before throwing it on the trailer so I could just hop out and mount up. It also helped that I didn't have to saddle a dancing horse at the meets! Now, I don't saddle up before going to a dressage show, but I do make a list to make sure I have everything before leaving for the weekend.

This is the checklist I use for going to shows. It may seem like quite a bit, but most everything should already be in one place (like the trailer) or easily grouped together.


TO DO DAY BEFORE SHOW:
 Bathe Mark
 Clip Mark
 Clean tack
 Fuel-up truck
 Put coggins, health certificate, insurance info in truck

TACK BOX (The bolded items are things that don't always live in the show box):
 Body brushes
 Tail brush
 CANTER Mane & Tail spray
 Hoof pick
 Hoof oil
 Braiding supplies (comb, clip, rubber bands, quickbraid)
 Small cordless clippers (charged)
 Shampoo
 Bathing sponge
 Sweat scraper
 Scissors
 Sunscreen
 Sugar cubes
 Tack cleaning supplies
 Adult amateur calming supplement (I.C.E. mini liquor bottles)
 Clean towels
 Polos/boots for schooling
 For championships: white polos
 Fly spray
 Schooling gloves

PUT IN TRAILER:
 Tack box
 Full hay bag for Mark to munch on
 Show bridle
 Extra noseband option
 Extra bit option
 Saddle
 Girth
 2 white saddle pads
 1 schooling saddle pad
 Thinline pad
 Blankets/sheets if cold weather
 Hay
 Grain

THINGS THAT SHOULD ALREADY BE IN TRAILER:
 Chairs
 Folding table
 Water buckets with hooks
 Feed pan
 Hose with sprayer attachment
 Muck bucket/wheelbarrow
 Pitchfork
 Shavings
 Twine (from hay bales)
 Saddle rack
 Bridle rack
 Folding step stool (for braiding and mounting)

GARMENT BAG:
 Show coat
 Stock shirt (1 per day showing)
 Stock tie
 Boot socks (1 pair per day showing)
 White breeches (1 pair per day showing)

HELMET BAG:
 Show helmet
 Hair net
 White gloves

BOOT BAG:
 Boots
 Spurs
 Boot polish

BACKPACK/SUITCASE:
 Video camera
 2 casual outfits (jeans, t-shirt)
 Schooling shirt and breeches
 Cash for concessions/shopping
 Sweatshirt/jacket
 Sneakers 
 Toiletries (for overnight)
 PJs (for overnight)

COOLER:
 Snacks
 Lunch
 Breakfast (if not staying at free breakfast hotel)
 Water
 Electrolyte drinks (Gatorade, propel, coconut water)
 Carrots

Happy 7th Birthday to the BHB!

The little troublemaker has grown into quite a respectable horse in the last couple years. The most difficult thing about having a very smart and stubborn horse is that they will find ways to entertain themselves if they are not provided with entertainment. This may vary from crawling under fences and taking down all the electric fence insulators to opening gates and terrorizing pasture mates. Luckily, having a job and an irrigated pasture to graze keep the BHB entertained on most days now.

The BHB's first glimpse of the world

To celebrate his birthday this week, I sent in our first show entry for the year. We'll be showing at the Good Horseman show at the GA Intl Horse Park April 26-27. We'll be debuting our currently unfinished first level freestyle and try out 2 second level tests.

Link of the day: Tips from Carl Hester (worth a read!)

When To Step Up a Level

Should you wait for the ideal movement when everything's correct or throw yourself in with a challenge?

Now that I'm re-evaluating my show schedule this season, I've been pondering whether I should go ahead and make the jump to second level at our next show or hold off until I'm more consistent in riding the collected gaits and the canter to walk transitions. There's no such thing as "too uphill" for us either!

After that, I was thinking that we are solid at first level, but there are still some things I'd like to master before we completely move on-- such as softly bent elbows, better downward transitions, and great centerlines. We could be super competitive at first level this year with a very good chance of making it back to Nationals for it. Maybe I'll show first level until we hit a solid 70% a couple times. If I'm going to be showing at first level anyways, I should probably show in the 6 classes we need this season to get enough qualifying scored for the musical freestyle challenge at first level, which would also give us enough first level scores to earn an all-breed award and try to end up in the top 100 in horse of the year.

With a competent rider, the BHB could easily show at third level at the next show, but I have too many basics still lacking... and, well, I'm also not doing schooling all the required movements at that level :). Maybe this fall or next year I'll attempt to get the scores for my bronze medal, but I'm not ready yet!

Our Show Season is Delayed... a Few Weeks

Happy St. Patrick's day! The very Irish BHB demands a kiss (or sugar) from everyone!

Today I had to decide whether or not to enter the April GDCTA show at the GA Intl Horse Park. I had my entry filled out and ready to send in, but wasn't feeling as confident as previous entries. Mark was not yet back to a consistent work schedule due to the weather and Heather and I being out of town quite a bit. I've only had 2-3 riding lessons since the beginning of the year and Mark has only had roughly a half dozen training rides. I have been able to ride at least 3 days a week, but we haven't really advanced in the one area I would like to solidify before showing: my canter-walk-canter transitions. I know it's a small thing, but it keeps me re-evaluating whether we're ready to put together a great second level test since if that's missing, then we likely don't have the second level fundamentals down either. 

I also haven't completed my freestyle yet, so am quite hesitant to enter to show something that I don't even have complete yet. It could mean a last minute hack job putting together the music the night before the show! As the only student of Heather's looking to enter this show, I decided it would be best to delay our show debut this year until the BHB is back in peak shape, I'm confident in my skills, and our freestyle is complete (or close to it). So I think I'm going to redo our show calendar and likely reroute to the Good Horseman Foundation show at the GA Intl Horse Park in April. 

The weather looks like it's going to be quite nice during the next week, so hopefully there will be plenty of riding to be done! The BHB definitely needs to get his head out of (what's left of) his hay bale and back to work! I've already started decreasing his food a bit since he's filling out at roughly the same rate his hay bale is disappearing.