Moving On: Part 2

Today I'm going to be meeting with my top 2 barn choices to get more information on them and hopefully figure out which one we will move to. Amber helped me choose both of these places and has assured me that both trainers would be a great fit with the BHB. Granted, both of these trainers have successfully competed up to the Grand Prix level and have great resumes, so they should be more than capable of helping the BHB succeed in dressage.

In preparation to meet with the potential new trainers, I've created my plan for showing that includes the shows that are currently on my radar for each month (April's GDCTA show in Conyers through Nationals at the KHP in November), along with a clinic in July I'd like to apply to and see if I get selected to ride in. If nothing else, this plan will show my dedication to dressage and how serious of a competitor I'd like to be!

I got word from Amber that she's planning on moving most of her horses and things to Aiken this coming weekend, so this will probably be the weekend the BHB gets to move since I'm on a work trip most of next week and won't be able to move him that weekend. Hopefully his new coggins the vet pulled yesterday comes back quickly so we can have our necessary papers to get into a new barn.

This past weekend I did a full body clip on the BHB so that he would look presentable in public. He hadn't been clipped for a few months and looked more like a rogue mountain pony  than a sleek sport horse, so it was a necessary step to get him taken seriously by his TBD new trainer. The blades on my Wahl Arco clippers dulled before I could finish his ears or lower legs. So his ears are still fuzzy and the hair on his lower legs was obviously hacked off by large body clippers and contains noticeable lines. I've been thinking of trying to find another pair of smaller cordless clippers since there are a couple things I'm not a huge fan about on the Wahl Arcos. Having cordless clippers is truly a necessity for me as they come in handy so often! 

Post-body clipping. There is definitely not a "Pre-Clipping" photo in existence!

As a side note, my retired OTTB Blitz celebrated his 20th birthday yesterday! He's been retired for around 5 years because of DSLD (Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis) but is still an extremely happy horse. The BHB doesn't celebrate his 7th birthday until April.

Moving On: Part 1

I live to the right of the "R" in GEORGIA. Nearly all horse farms have ceased to exist in the big yellow area, but some still remain on the edges of it. Otherwise, it's quite a long commute!

I got word this morning that the owners of the facility the BHB is currently at are closing the barn down and want everyone out ASAP. The property has been for sale for over 2 1/2 years, so I'm sure the owners are frustrated with the lack of sale and cost of maintaining the property. Amber is lucky to have a very nice barn in Aiken she's been working at recently, so she can move the Atlanta half of her business there easily. This leaves me in a tough spot since my job is in Atlanta and I'd like to keep the BHB where I can go ride several times a week. My apartment lease doesn't end until around Halloween either, which is essentially a show season away, so I'm not really looking to move at the moment.

Right now, Amber is trying to help me pick out somewhere to move to where we can continue to follow our dreams under another trainer's guidance. Unfortunately, the Atlanta area has turned a majority of the horse facilities into subdivisions, and those that are still horse properties tend to have limited or no turnout, but I want to go somewhere with turnout. Adding into that the fact that I can't afford to be at a high-end place and I'd really like to not drive more than an hour each way, and suddenly the list of eligible places is quite short. 

Picking out a place to board a horse in the Atlanta metro is chock-full of making trade-offs, so you really have to know what the most important things are to you--is it...?:

• Turnout (duration, size, individual or group)
• Quality of care (24/7 person onsite, reliability)
• Price per month (board and lessons/training)
• Riding arena (size, covered available, fields to hack in, trails)
• Instructors available
• Distance from where you live (or work)

Because unless you have a giant budget or are willing to live further out, you probably can only choose three of the above. I wish I could move to Aiken to stay with Amber, but I'm not sure I'd like a nearly 3 hour commute each time I needed to go into the office. I've definitely thought of moving out that area before so I could be closer to Belle Meade Hunt, but so far that remains a fleeting thought. The BHB really loves Amber though, so I would definitely move if it was even a possibility right now.

In order to save some money/ invest more in the BHB, I've thought about moving my retired horse up to my parent's farm now that my father is going to be retired and there constantly. I would need to invest in re-fencing a pasture to be safe for horses and providing some sort of shelter before he moved there, so it has some steep upfront costs. He would also need a companion, so I'd likely be taking in another older horse and adding vet/farrier bills. 

In the end, I feel that everything horse related always comes down to money... and I still sit waiting for that rich husband to come knocking at my door.

Desk Jockey Dressage Diva: Stretch out the Psoas

My tight hips are the primary cause of some major riding position issues. As with anyone slaving away at a computer desk everyday in order to afford horses, I have incredibly tight hip flexors. This gives me the tendency to ride in a "chair seat" (with my legs a bit in front of me) or will cause me to tilt my upper body forward like a hunter/jumper rider to close my hips to a more comfortable angle. This causes my pelvis to tilt forward, directly diminishing the effectiveness of my seat.

My psoas muscles are so incredibly contracted that trying to stretch them out while in the saddle only causes painful spasms, so I have to do my hip stretching off the horse. While I haven't found the magical cure to releasing hip tightness, there are some things that have helped some.

• My physical therapist recommends getting up from the computer and walking around for a minute or two every hour.
• Using a foam roller can help loosen up some of the tight area... but is not very comfortable. I do this at least 1-2 times per week.

                                  

• Here is a great video sequence of most of the yoga stretches I use daily: 

Successful Dressage Horses Don't Need Long Legs

I'm sure I'm going to discuss the topic of conformational challenges and successful dressage horses several times in the future, but it's an extremely interesting topic for me since the BHB is not "the ideal" that many people have in mind for a dressage horse. Yet, the same "conformation challenges" he has are seen in some of the top dressage horses.

Heather Blitz on Paragon, one of the longest-legged horses in International Dressage.

I was reading a Dressage Today article from the January 2014 issue that I can't seem to forget! The article "Building the Ideal Dressage Horse" states that "Most good dressage horses are on the tall-and-narrow side." While that might be completely true for some riders, such as Edward Gal, I'd like to highlight a few top dressage horses that do not fit that particular mold. Just walk up to an FEI jog and you'll find several horses with big barrels, wide shoulders, and non-spidery legs. In fact, I was recently watching the live-streamed Global Dressage Festival specifically to look at conformation and movement and noticed that very few horses in the FEI PSG had long, spidery front legs. In fact, most of the horses seem to have front legs much shorter than their hind legs, but all of them had a very powerful hind end. The horses with the shortest front legs seemed to have some of the biggest reach in the extended gaits. As far as the Grand Prix horses go, I believe I did see a tendency towards longer legs than the PSG horses.

Short front legs and "10" extensions!

In a clinic video, Carl Hester mentions that his star mount Uthopia has extremely short front legs. Uthopia also happens to be around 16hh and regularly receives 9s and 10s for his extended trot. Bonus of short legs and a compact horse= they always know where their legs are so they can figure out how to stretch them out! Another horse he owns, superstar Valegro, isn't so narrow-chested and long-legged either! Valegro is also 16.2hh, so not a tall horse. From personal experience, it's so much easier making a 10m circle with a 15hh horse than an 18hh one, so I'm not sure why everyone wants the big horses. He went on to talk about how the hind end is what really matters to him, the power and the amount of step underneath. That gives me hope for the BHB, because he has a fantastic hind end, but definitely also has the short front legs.

I'd love to have Amber ride the BHB in a clinic with Carl Hester someday. Since he has been so successful bringing along horses with the same conformational challenges the BHB has, I feel he could help the BHB progress in a short time.

Front view of Valegro-- No spider legs!

The Importance of Cross-training

One of my favorite riders, Ingrid Klimke, is a top internationally-recognized rider in both eventing and dressage. She cross-trains all of her horses, despite what they might be bred to do or currently competing in. Even dressage phenomenon Damon Hill (who recently scored a 90.375% in his GP Freestyle)  "enjoy[ed] the days when he [did] his dressage training outdoors on the hills and [had] a lot of fun with the gymnastic jumping" (via Ingrid Klimke's website). I'm sure any horse would enjoy working outside the dressage sandbox, just as I enjoy times when I get to leave my work computer!

I wouldn't have discovered the BHB's love for dressage without cross-training! He enjoys breaking up the normal routine with training in other disciplines. The Irish Draught is bred to be a multipurpose horse, so he quite talented in other arenas. Lately, we've added quite a bit of jumping into his exercise routine to chip into the seemingly endless energy he's amounted with all of the ice days we've had in the past month. I find dressage and jumping compliment each other very well, and progressing in one of them has a positive impact on the other one. 

For instance, dressage is wonderful for creating high levels of body control/awareness in the horse (and rider), while jumping increases hind end power and helps to open the shoulders. The BHB has improved his jumping with the power and control of his hindquarters that was gained through dressage work. I find jumping to be a nice cardio workout for me, and riding in a jump saddle with short stirrups at the posting trot builds leg strength. I used to be able to out-squat most of the guys on my high school's football team thanks to the hours I spent in a jump saddle everyday. Foxhunting is great for teaching a horse to move forward, be bolder, deal with crowds, and keep balanced on any terrain. The horses gain quite a bit of stamina while foxhunting too since hunts typically last 3-4 hours and consist mostly of galloping and trotting. 

I could go on all night about the many other physical and mental benefits cross-training has on allowing a horse and rider to reach their maximum potential. But I won't. Instead, I hope that you keep your mind open to other riding opportunities that can improve your horse and your own riding. 

Products We Love: The Boots BHB Wears

I like to put boots on Mark's front legs for rides. He's never needed them before with his short legs, but I'd rather not risk any freak leg injuries. The same reason I wear a helmet for every ride or wear a seat belt when I'm in a car. Better to be safe than sorry!

Stock picture of the XC Lite boots, because mine are not this clean

I really like our New Equine Wear (N.E.W.) boots. Mark got his first pair of X-Country Lite boots as a 4 year old when we had eventing dreams, and I still use these almost every ride for schooling 3 years later. They're still holding up quite well too! They are very lightweight, flexible, have extra protection for the back of the cannon bone, and (most importantly) fit Mark's short and wide cannon bones better than any other boots I've tried.

The super-fluffy fleece brushing boots

Last year I picked up a pair of the N.E.W. fleece brushing boots. They don't get as hot and wet as most other fleece or wool-lined boots do. The fleece is actually quite lightweight and fluffy instead of dense like the Valena or Dover boots, making the entire boot fairly lightweight. These are in my show box right now and I use them primarily when we school at shows. With the seemingly-endless rain we've received in the past year, saturating the ground, I haven't used these for schooling at home as much as I'd like.  I tend to grab the XC Lite boots first instead of these since I can easily hose them off and immediately put them away after riding. Also, the XC Lite boots have been through millions of mud puddles in the past 3 years, so I don't feel bad about getting them filthy.

Creating a Freestyle: Choreography

The first step I've taken in creating a first level freestyle to debut this year is putting together choreography. With my research background, I felt the need to search and browse over everything I could find on about creating the best freestyle possible. The USDF e-TRAK section is chock full of information and is accessible via the USDF by current members.

Obviously the first step in creating a freestyle is to know the basics. So go check out the score sheet for your level to find the required and forbidden movements. It's also good to have an idea of the coefficients associated with each aspect of the test so you can try to maximize your score. The scoring associated with freestyles is different from regular dressage tests, so it's a good idea to understand freestyle scoring.

Great tips for choreography from a Dressage Today article:

Add difficulty to minimum technical requirements at the level to improve your "degree of difficulty" score.

Add a little technical difficulty to each movement or combination rather than taking a few "all or nothing" risks.

Directional arena placement of movements should account for the judge's viewpoint.

Consider which movements, like half pass, are best performed going toward C and plan other movements as directional set-ups.

Short connecting lines make efficient use of arena space and your time allotment.

Difficult transitions add to your "degree of difficulty" score.

Keep the walk short and simple to preserve time for more brilliant movements in trot and canter.

Quick changes of bend add difficulty.

Combine several movements in sequence to show the greatest number of requirements in the least amount of space possible.

Frequent transitions between paces add difficulty.

In movements such as half pass, riding a longer or steeper line than required in tests at the level adds difficulty.

Create space in your design scheme to include one or more "insurance lines" (chance to do movements a second time).

Performing a technical movement in a connecting line, such as the short side of the arena, uses arena space efficiently.

Use centerlines to add technically scored movements to your design.

Practice alternate movements on the final centerline and you add an "insurance line" to your program.

Other great resources for freestyle choreography:
USDF e-TRAK article "Let the Show Begin"
USDF Connection article "Tackling Choreography"
USDF Connection article "A Primer on Freestyle Creation"
USDF Connection article "Judges on Freestyle"
USDF Connection article "So You Think You Can Dance"
USDF Freestyle Committee handout "Understanding Artistic Impression"

Spotted, Splashed, and Swirled: The Bend Or Spots

In the coming 3-part series, How Much Bling Can a Horse Possibly Have?  Spotted, Splashed, and Swirled we will explore the wild markings covering the BHB. The first one will be about the eye-catching Bend Or spots covering his body.

He has so many of them! And even more appear each year! Here are a few of them:

Sometimes I wonder if he's part Appaloosa?!

That's not dirt on his neck!

At the speed these things multiply, he may be mostly black 10 years from now! I noticed some starting to appear on his head last month! Interestingly, his sire line (through Clover Hill) can be traced back 12 generations to the Thoroughbred Bend Or, the namesake of the spots. 

Products We Love: Taming the Tail

Since every horse person seems to constantly be searching for the perfect products, I thought I'd start to share some of the products that I really like.  

It takes effort to keep those wavy curls from turning into dreadlocks!

The BHB grows hair as fast and dense as any fuzzy pony! This includes mane, tail, and body hair. His tail is the most difficult thing to keep looking nice. His mane can be difficult to keep on the short side, but he will get actual dreads in his tail if it's not maintained. Everyone one dreams of having giant, fluffy tails on their horses, but keeping it from becoming a tail full of dreads takes frequent maintenance, and I'm not just talking about once a week brushing! I used to bang the BHB's tail nearly to his hocks at the first frost of every year for hunting, but Amber nearly had a heart attack when I chopped 8 inches off in fall of 2012. It grew back to his fetlocks by the spring, but now I pretty much let her handle the tail trimming to avoid any future panic :)

I was gifted a bottle of Carr & Day & Martin's CANTER mane and tail conditioner for Christmas of 2007 and have been hooked ever since! It's so much better than any other equine hair product I've ever used. It's just as effective, maybe even more so, as Cowboy Magic detangler... yet it leave the tails incredibly soft and silky without stickiness. I find that it stays effective for nearly a week, so I only need to apply it once a week. 

Perfect for horses prone to dreadlocks!

The only downside to this stuff is the cost. It runs around $16-18 for the small bottle. I go through around 2-3 of these bottles a year using it liberally once a week and everyday at shows. So while it's not the most budget-friendly, it keeps Mark from running around with a tail full of nasty dreadlocks! With that in mind, I vote this product well worth the cost for a single/double horse-owner. Maybe not so much of a good value for the horse trainer though, unless they can bill the clients with bushy tailed horses for it.

Get Personal With the BHB!

It's time to get a profile of the BHB up here!


Registered Name: Flagmount's Trademark

Barn Name: "Mark"

Breed: Irish Draught, born and raised in the USA!

Birthday: April 3, 2007

Sire: The Pride of Gloster (Clover Hill x Bantry's Pride/ Pride of Shaunlara)

Dam: Prescott's Flagmount Dancer (Flagmount King x Aadvarnock Gem/Bobin)

Likes:

• Food
• Treats
• Sugary substances
• Humans with food
• Clover
• Alfalfa
• Really anything that's green
• Getting ridden 5x a week
• Training rides
• Showing off my cool moves
• Wearing a blanket
• Pawing
• Cribbing
• Going to horse shows
• Meeting new horses
• Watching other horses getting ridden
• Taunting small animals
• Plotting chaos
• Causing chaos
• Trying to outsmart humans
• Figuring out how to dismantle things

Dislikes: 

• Salt added to food
• Supplements added to food
• Food not being served on time
• Not getting enough food
• When it's quiet
• When there's no turnout because of nasty weather
• Not getting vacation days
• Freezing weather
• Hot weather
• Wearing a cribbing collar
• Riding in a trailer alone
• Getting legs clipped (it tickles!)

Bringing Home the Awards

Last night I went to the GDCTA (my local USDF GMO) Awards Gala to receive the BHB's awards from last show season. The GDCTA puts on an awesome annual awards banquet with a huge silent auction, raffles for barn baskets, and an art exhibit with pieces for sale. Of course I also have to mention the great food buffet and ever-popular drink stands too. 

I took home the 3rd place ribbon in Training Level Adult Amateur and 8th place in First Level AA. It was great to see my barn mates and Amber taking home ribbons too! Going to awards banquets really motivates me to improve my riding. More importantly, I get to reflect on how much fun I had showing in the last year!

One Giant Training Level Ribbon

I organized a barn basket this year by buying stuff and begging barn mates to give me things for it. The (not at all unique) theme was items that any Dressage Queen would love. I donated the white version of our favorite dressage pad, white polo wraps that I sewed a felt heart with crown applique on, a blingy picture frame, and the actual basket. Some other items in our basket included a facial, a bottle of wine, wine charms, and (of course) a tiara. It was quite awesome! 

Who wouldn't want to win this?!

The weather was a marvelous 60*+  for today, despite 10* temperatures and snow 5 days prior. I schooled the BHB on the flat and talked over some freestyle choreography with Amber. The BHB had a fantastic jumping day last week before the freeze, so will be doing quite a bit of jumping in the next few weeks to keep him entertained while I'm off travelling for work. His canter and body control over the jumps has reportedly improved tremendously with his dressage training. We may even enter some jumper shows this year to try earning some $$$ to pay for his dressage showing!