Video!

I also got video of our Intro C test from the schooling show over Memorial Day weekend. Fun fact is that my co-worker who was there with friends is holding the video camera and you can see my photographer friend to her right and my Jane to the left. I have such amazing friends :)

I have a huge smile on my face both because I'm sort of stunned with how well the test is going and because for the first time I feel like I have a pony since she is tired and keeps trying to quit on me. Especially on the last center line you can really see her try to stop.

Despite the fact that she keeps trying to stop and interrupting the rhythm I'm really happy with the improvement to her gaits

May Goals Review and June Goals - With Show Media!!

I love this one :) There aren't many from outside (this was warmup)
since my friend who took these wasn't available until we did our Intro C indoors.
I'll post more of those soon!

Goals Recap for May:

More Trailer Loading Practice: Success!! I took full advantage of having the ability to practice with Jane's trailer and loaded Katai at least once per week. We struggled a bit at the first show (but got her on both times) and then it was better at the second show.

More Consistency: Yes! If nothing else, with the show we were back to the basics and I really was able to focus on things like maintaining bend and roundness even when Katai had lots of reasons to not listen and not make it easy.

Have a Successful Show(s): This is a two parter for me. I'm also going to role both shows into this one even though one actually happened in June.

1. Success will mean Katai being more relaxed, less frantic, and thus the ability for us to have more fun. Meh, not especially. She was a bit more relaxed at the schooling show but less so at the rated show and she really wasn't relaxed at either.
2. My other goal this year is to win our Intro C class. Nope not our Intro C class but both Training classes at a rated show so I think I surpassed this one :)

And this one!

Goals for June:

Practice More Lateral Work: I've been letting my perfectionist tendencies get in the way and not practicing this since I know we struggle. Instead we just need to practice more of it so that we actually improve. This is the same thing that happened with the canter and now I just need to make these movements as consistent as our canter has gotten.

Continue With Trailer Loading Practice: This was the largest point of stress for me about both shows (whether we'd get her back in the trailer and how much stress it would be). My future goal is to get Katai self loading so that at some point I'd be able to trailer her myself. We're a long way away from that but we're going to just keep right on practicing until we get there.

Practice Other Show Skills: Not that we don't need general riding practice but I have Jane to work with me on that. I want to work on/continue working on the other things that were stressful this weekend such as the hose and baths, riding outside, riding near the trailer, and putting any sort of "gunk" (show sheen, green spot remover, coat conditioner) on the pony without her freaking out. I also want to work on having a bridle number on her bridle so that I don't need to wear it on my boot next time.

There Will Be Blood: 3 Ring Circus Show Recap

*No ponies were harmed in pursuit of this schooling show ;)

This weekend was pretty rough and I certainly wasn't having the best of luck during prep for the show. First, on Friday night for some reason I shut a door that I don't normally close and then proceed to walk into it head first. I really banged up the bridge of my nose and sort of wondered if I'd have a black eye the next day. I'm writing this on Monday and my nose is still swollen and quite sore. I've also still been recovering from my cold so let's just say that I haven't been feeling my best.

On Saturday I went to the barn in the morning for a lesson. The beginning of it was "interrupted" by a horse outside having a meltdown and Katai was very bothered by it so I actually had a great opportunity to practice what it would be like to ride her at the show. We ran through both Intro C and Training 1 and they were great! That evening I went back and gave her a bath so that she'd have as little time as possible to get dirty again.

I don't think I had mentioned it by my ride times for Sunday were 7:44 and 11:04 and the person who trailered us didn't ride until 3:16 so we knew it would be a long day. Due to pony trailering issues (even though she'd been walking in on a loose lead rope prior she realized we were going somewhere and refused to get in) we showed up with an extra trailer about 20 minutes later than I would have liked and I pretty much needed to throw the tack on her and jump on. I did end up doing about 10 minutes of warm up which went well and then we headed into the outdoor ring for our Training 1 test.

With the prep we've been doing I was hopeful that it would go better than our test last year which was Intro C in the same arena. Unfortunately the judge was in a trailer at C again and that proved to be our kryptonite. The judge this year is a fixture in our local dressage community and a really incredible woman. When I finished my test I thanked her and she said it was one of the most dramatic tests she'd seen that day which made me smile. I was smiling and giggling through most of the test actually because stubborn Katai showed up in full force.

Parts of the test were actually worse than last year but I rode WAY better, and actually got a canter in each direction on the correct lead (probably the best part of the test) and most of the movements so we scored much better and received a 50.22%. We also have a new nickname, Drama at C lol.

Reading drama at C still makes me giggle

Reluctant entry, much evasion makes me giggle too because I ended up doing two 10 meter circles trying to get some bend and forward with no luck.

I've been getting as much practice riding Katai with scary things as possible. I've thought that I'm prepared to deal with it but at this test Katai grew roots into the ground and literally would. not. go. forward so all of my aids were pretty useless. Oh well, Jane is going to park the trailer outside and we're going to ride near it to get her used to it. Katai was just scared so pushing her wasn't going to do anything I don't even cary a dressage whip. I did pony club kick her a few times with Jane whooping from the sidelines (lol, I love my instructor) but it really didn't have much effect.

Afterwards Jane said that I looked cool and confident though and I really was grinning through the whole thing. This is Katai's second show and she's always been a difficult ride so what can you do, she just needs more miles and not a beating (more on that later).

I brought her back to the trailer and we relaxed for a little while. She was actually REALLY good about standing there, even when her friend left, and there was way less drama and rearing than I expected. Poor pony baby did get quite exhausted from stress though and fell asleep a few times which was AMAZING to see!

Katai with her "mommy mare" who showed 3rd level this weekend :)

Finally once we got closer to our second test, I got tacked up (with Katai at the trailer by herself woot woot!) and headed to the warmup ring to prep for our Intro C ride. It was in the indoor so I wasn't worried. I warmed up and Katai was on the aids and ready to go and then we went in and rode our test!

I ended up having a bunch of friends at this show. My co-worker happened to be there, the women who took the amazing photos from the show last year was there and took pictures again this year (which I'll share in my next post since I don't have access to them quite yet), plus just a whole bunch of other riding friends that I've made over the past few years. Most of them were standing at the door to the arena, along with Jane, while I rode and after I finished they were all cheering. It was so amazing to have so many wonderful people there routing me on because this has felt like a tough time trying to get Katai to this point and they all recognize that and have seen us at various points in our struggles.

J was also there (the rough instructor that I left) with a few students and one of her students rode Intro C right before I did. We pretty much ignored each other all day (at least until later that day...) but even though I don't really care, it meant something to me that she saw me riding my AMAZING pony at this show and doing well with her. It was even more amazing to have my absolutely incredibly wonderful trainer there with me all day, supporting me and Katai and talking us through this show. I can't believe how lucky I am to have this amazing person in my life.

After that test I got Katai tied back to the trailer and untacked and then went to watch some people ride. Jane went to pick up my test(s) and when she came back to me her face was stormy. She had picked up my Training test but thought it was Intro C. I reminded her that it was Intro C that I did better on and she said "thanks for stopping me because I was about to go shoot that judge". Have I mentioned how much I love having a coach like her? I ended up scoring 64% for my Intro C test which was awesome! We would have scored higher I think but Katai picked up the wrong lead for the second canter circle and was pretty tired by that point so she kept trying to stop. She goes from trot to walk so quickly that even though I was doing my best to keep her in front of my leg, there kept being these weird pauses in our trot rhythm and she actually broke from canter once before I got her going again. Going down the center line at the end of the test she tried to stop 5-6 times and it took everything I had to keep her going. Poor tired baby pony.

I feel like an alternative title to this post could be More Bend Needed

Jane was very happy with this score and felt like it was really accurate. I'm really happy about the 7s and if I can just keep her in front of my leg, and do this more so it's not so exhausting for pony brains we'll be in a good place :)

Finally I tied her up to the trailer and we hung out for an hour or so. By 12:30 we were ready to be done but still had at least 3-4 more hours to go. We alternated walking and hand grazing and sitting by the trailers. I'm hoping that between all the grass she got to eat, the peppermints I shoved in her face, the grooming, and pettings, and all the people that admired her (she seriously collects fans wherever she goes), that she'll have good memories of this show and be even more relaxed next time.

If you look closely you can actually see the brains oozing out of her ears

Finally K went to warm up and I hung out with Katai for awhile. Katai was calling a lot (I think I went a bit deaf yesterday) but was mostly being a really good girl. After awhile Jane came back and said that K's horse was calling a lot too so instead of bringing her back to the trailer they were going to switch to the double over by the ring. I pulled Katai off the trailer and found her some grass to help get her quieter and hopefully remove the distraction from K's horse. Eventually we worked our way past the tree line that you can see in the picture above to where the rings are so that I could watch K's horse from afar.

While I was hanging out I happened to look up and see a horse that I recognized in the ring. The rider prior to K was one of J's students but even from that far away it was clear that J was actually riding. The horse was very clearly upset and there was quite a bit of whip being used. At one point the horse froze up by A (and by froze up I mean it was dancing and rearing and freaking out but unwilling to go forward) and then it bolted. It went straight forward and leapt out of the ring (that happens) but was so panicked in it's bolt that it kept going and went straight over the wooden arena fence RIGHT past K and onto a gravel path between arenas. J got it back into the arena and then got called over by the judge for a talk. They talked for awhile and  while she, of course, got eliminated I'm hoping the judge was pretty firm about how inappropriate that was.  It's just my opinion but I'm really, really, really glad that I'm not working with J anymore.

K ended up having a really great ride!! She doesn't show a ton and is hoping to receive her last two bronze medal scores this year. For not riding in a ton of shows she got a very impressive 60% and is well on the way to getting those scores, hopefully, next weekend!

Finally we went to load pony for the ride home. I'd had my fingers crossed all day that she would be so tired that she'd just walk on but unfortunately it wasn't to be. We tried first to see if she'd ride home in the trailer with K's horse but that wasn't happening (it's a 2 horse straight load with a step up) so we tried Jane's trailer instead (larger two horse straight load with a ramp and with the ability to swing the center divider). She still put up a fight but I will say that she gave in quicker and didn't escalate quite as bad. She still had some bad rears (I actually worried that she was going over backwards at least once) but we ended up getting her on after about 15-20 minutes. Just not the way we're supposed to. Unfortunately I did something stupid and tore up my hand. I ALWAYS wear heavy gloves when I'm doing this and I've had enough rope burns that I know to not try to hold on. I was tired though and also had a long day so I grabbed and held the rope at one point and lost some skin.

Before I got it cleaned up

It actually doesn't hurt that much all things considered or maybe my nose just hurts enough that I don't even care about this lol.  Overall I'm very happy with how this show went. For Katai's second show (away from home) and my fourth dressage show I'm really pleased with our rides and I feel like I've become much more effective. We have some things to work on (all things involving the trailer) but I feel like those just need some continued work and we'll be in a good place to have decent (anything above 50% would feel good to me for next weekend) tests on Saturday!!

I'll share pictures in a followup post once I have access to them. I can't wait to see them!

April Goals Recap and May Goals

Goals for April:

April was so much better for us than March!

Trailer Loading Practice: Pretty much every day that I've been able to (not raining and I'm at the barn with some daylight) I've been working on trailer loading and it's been paying off. She's been on and off quite a few times and while she's still anxious she's not freaking out quite as bad and is calming down quicker after.

Practice Riding the Lateral Work: Again, I'm doing a much better job at practicing this and we've been doing more lateral work in my lessons as well.

Structure Rides More Carefully: Meh, I have been feeling better about this and about how I'm structuring my weeks in general between lunging, riding, and trailer loading.

Trail Ride: Nope, I didn't get this accomplished but I'm happy enough with the trailer loading practice and once the ground dries out (crazy rain!!!!!!) I'll spend more time riding outside.

Goals for May:

I'm so looking forward to May :)

More Trailer Loading Practice: All of the trailer loading practice! I'm going to fully take advantage of the next month or so to do as much of this as possible.

More Consistency: With this I just want to continue to keep things like roundness or bend more consistently through the ride and not lose it for as long as I am now. I've already made lots of progress on this but I need to keep pushing and not just maintain what I've got right now.

Have a Successful Show: This is a two parter for me. Success will mean Katai being more relaxed, less frantic, and thus the ability for us to have more fun. I realize this is a tall order since it will only be her second show (and third time she's trailered off property for an event) but I'll be happy with even small progress.
The second is my goal. Horse shows don't make me competitive, lesson environments do, shows don't. Who knows maybe my mom was competitive enough for both of us at competitions ;) or maybe I just don't care. The more I've thought about our show last year the more I think that part of our extremely low score was that I didn't care enough. I got into the ring with a very relaxed attitude and only got tense/worried when Katai was threatening to blow up. I sort of think that if I'd gone in the ring with more of a plan or goal I'd have ridden rather than just letting her do her thing and would have gotten a better ride. So, my goal this year is to win our Intro C class. Yep, it's a tall order and could be impossible but there's my goal :)
Wether we win or not I'm not going to be upset or anything other than proud at both of us for doing it. However, I am going to push myself this year to do better than just be present and while a score of 40% would technically be an improvement I'm sure we can do better than that.

2016 Goals Review

I think the only consistent thing about my goals in 2016 is that I struggled with them. I've never been good at setting goals and although I tried in 2016 they left a lot to be desired. I think part of what's tough is that shows/clinics/horse events are easy things to build goals around and I just haven't been able to do many of those. With that being said I'm going to recap my favorite things that happened this past year!

Increased my Blogging

I was happy both with the fact that I posted over 140 times (up from the 90 times I posted in 2015) but also that I just had more interesting content and more pictures. I still struggled to get good riding photos but at least there were some good pictures and lots more pictures of Katai and myself.

I think we got extra points because my pony stuck her tongue out at the clinican

Attended my First and Second Dressage Clinic

Yep, I've been riding for a long time (over 19 years) but in that time I've never ridden in a clinic before this year. Plus, of course, it was my first clinic with Katai and my first Dressage clinic. Even though it was at the facility I was boarding at it still felt like a really big deal.

The picture look better than the show felt but it still felt like a big win!

Attended a Schooling Show

This might not seem like a big deal but this was only the 2nd real dressage show I've ever ridden in and only the 5th horse show I've ever ridden in and it was Katai's first real show experience. It was tough on Katai and she was quite stressed but that wasn't unexpected and it felt like a really big deal that we got it done. I would have really liked to have done more shows since I know that what we both need is to just do lots of shows but it's so tough when I don't have my own transportation to shows.

My only satin for the year but it is sort of enough satin for a full year :) 

Attended a Hunter Pace

Even more than the show this felt like a big accomplishment. Katai trailered well and was only minority nervous to handle and then she handled the pace like a champion. The amazingly large ribbon we won just felt like a really big deal and like the work we've been putting in and the strength of our relationship was finally being recognized. It wasn't needed but it was so, so nice.

Sort of a picture of the new facility?

Moved to a barn that I LOVE with an upper level instructor

Let's be honest, I've loved pretty much all of the barns I've boarded at and I still miss L but none has felt as much like home as this one does. It's just so cozy and quiet and having Jane as both an instructor and as the barn owner/manager is just so nice. Because there are so few horses and so few boarders she does really nice things like turning the horses out in the indoor arena on cold days and really customizing the care for each horse.

I don't have any pictures of Katai being ridable
but will be doing more with that this year!

Ending the Year With a Ridable Pony

This is the best thing that happened in 2016 and it didn't really happen until the last few months in 2016. For most of the time that I've had Katai she's had so much tension, so much forward, so much pony sass, and so much attitude that she's been a really tough ride. As soon as I'd start to get good forward and connection she'd lose it and I'd have to work for another 5-10 minutes to get it back. It normally meant that I only had a ridable pony for about 10-20 minutes during my 45 minute lesson and that made progress tough. For multiple reasons, I think, it's gotten SO MUCH BETTER in the last few months and Katai has been so consistent that I can not only make progress with her but I've been able to really work on myself.

Hope

How Katai greeted me the day after all that work.
She was totally mugging for treats (spoiler alert, she got one :-) 

Sunday at the Hunter Pace was amazing. I had so much fun and I think that Katai did too. Taking home a ribbon was the icing on the cake but that isn’t what’s left me feeling like I’m on top of the world for the past few days, it’s that Katai wasn’t a monster to handle, didn’t lose her cool, and didn’t forget how to horse at this event.

I know that I’ve been a little negative about how the last schooling show went and I just want to be clear, that had nothing to do about our dressage score. I think that’s sort of funny and was very fair for how she rode. I do feel like it was an accomplishment that we stayed in the ring and I’m really not disappointed in how she was to ride. It was everything else.

Katai's satin. I used to have all my ribbons (4-H and other horses)
on this picture holder thingy but took everything down except what belongs to Katai

She was a monster to handle on the ground and nearly hurt me a few times. She so completely lost her marbles (didn’t even seem to know I was there) that I’ve just been unsure about how she’ll be to show in future.

It’s not like I think that she’ll never be able to show calmly. She is a very reasonable pony and exposure has really fixed most of the concerns I used to have. In fact, she used to lose it when I cross tied her in the barn and now she gets in the cross ties and pretty much falls asleep and doesn’t move her feet. I know it’s possible, it’s just that with the extent of her freak out at that schooling show I wasn’t sure how many YEARS it was going to take her to calm down and for showing to be fun. I’m just in this for the fun and the thought of dealing with her tantrums for any lengthy period of time was making me feel sick to my stomach.

However, on Sunday she was nearly foot perfect for a young horse. She did throw her shoulder into me a bit, she danced a bit when she was tied and had a couple of nervous poops. She didn’t want to stand still for me to mount and she jigged a bit when I first started riding. All of that is fine, it’s what I signed up for when I got a young horse and decided to start her myself. I didn’t sign up for a horse that was blindly striking out at me (she was so upset that she literally didn’t see me) or rearing into me, or rearing backwards into the wall in her stall at the schooling show. That’s terrifying and something I’m hoping to not repeat and the Hunter Pace on Sunday proved to me that it might not take YEARS for her to be a good pony, maybe just a few months or a year. That gives me so much hope :)

Updates and PSA

I had this whole post done and then for some reason it wouldn't save or post. I, unfortunately, thought that it had so instead of copying it all to save it I just clicked away and lost all that work :(

At any rate my PSA is to please take pictures and videos for yourself of the bad moments. I went back through this blog and was disappointed that I hadn't done more to share the bad moments especially at J's. Katai was such a disaster there that it wasn't like I was all excited to get pictures of her worst moments. At the time I wasn't sure it was going to get any better and that was scary, but now I wish that I'd preserved more of that so that I could look back and see how far we've come. So, learn from me and capture that for yourself, even if you don't want to share it :)

For updates first I wanted to share that Friday and today I was at my parent's place to see them, my sister, and to work on my tack locker!

We added the bottom to the locker (at the far end in the picture above) and the main shelf which you can see as well. We've got a few more pieces to assemble in this main cabinet part but then the majority of the assembly will be in the door.

Making the cutouts for the polo wrap shelves

I'm enjoying this project so much! It's so great to be able to work with and learn from my dad and it's going to be fun to have something to show for it at the end of this.

I also wanted to do a show plans update. Unfortunately everything up until now has fallen through. I really hate not having a trailer and being at other people's mercy. I get anxiety when I can't trust that something like this is actually going to work out since it involves a fair amount of planning on my part and especially with the financial piece of it. It's not like schooling shows are that expensive but my budget is tight. It also takes enough for me to psych myself up for getting my silly baby horse to a show without me feeling like I'm not sure if the trailer is going to actually show up.

At this point I've decided to change my plans a bit for this upcoming weekend (which was supposed to be a schooling show) and take a lesson with L's instructor instead. I'm actually really thrilled about it, just disappointed that I'm not going to be able to make another show. It sucks but until I can get my own trailer that's sort of where I'm at.

The reason this came up this weekend is that my barn is hosting a big name clinician that has quite a few people trailering in. My BM needs several more stalls so some people, including me, have offered to let the BM trailer their horses to a barn just down the road that belongs to L's trainer. It's mainly a boarding situation but because I work with L the instructor has agreed to do a lesson with me. I'm really excited and can't wait to do this with Katai. I think it will be great for Katai's trailering experience and will hopefully be easier on her than a show but still give us the opportunity to practice working away from home.

Act I: Show Recap 5/29

First off, we survived!! There were some rough moments but I'm pumped to have finished our first show together and nothing will be tougher than this first time.

To start off my show "weekend" I planned to get to the barn around 2:30pm on Saturday, bathe the pony, give her some Quietex, and give her a chance to dry before leaving for the show grounds around 4:30pm. On the drive up there I decided that my only goal for the show was to try to make it as good of experience for Katai as I could and to focus on being in the moment and not worrying about anything.

I started off on the right foot when I got to the barn. L was there and I just set to getting my stuff packed and Katai bathed. She was quite offended that I gave her half the tube of paste but then went to a "drugged out" happy place pretty quick. I gave her a bath with no small amount of my purple whitening shampoo and then put her back in her stall with a cooler to dry out.

While I finished getting my tack packed in my car I heard that there was an issue with the hitch for the trailer that L was borrowing and her SO, who was hauling us with his truck, was trying to find a different ball or hitch. There were several phone calls back and forth and then he found a solution and was on his way. He got to the barn pretty quick and we started loading just before 5:00 right after a downpour went through which was a good indicator of how our Sunday would go.

I have been extremely confident that Katai would load (based on the last few experiences) but of course she decided to prove me wrong. We tried the "nice" way first with some grain bribes but eventually I asked for a dressage whip and we had a bit of a "come to jesus" meeting. It wasn't the way that I wanted to start our weekend but eventually she stepped politely on the trailer. She bounced around while L loaded her very quiet and well behaved 4 year old gelding and then we were off.

At the show ground both horses unloaded well, except that Katai was fairly stressy and sweating from her eyeballs, and we put them in their stalls. Katai started eating right away which I was happy about because normally she won't eat at all if she's stressed. She did some screaming and pacing but mostly she wasn't bad. Since she was still pretty stressy we decided to tack up both horses and lunge/walk them over to the ring and see who they were doing before we decided if/when we were going to ride.

Overnight show stabling

Katai was prancy and a bit bratty, but mainly remembering her manners, on the way over to the ring but L's 4 year old was calm and cool as a cucumber. He was calm and sweet and didn't put a foot wrong so was a good example for my 8 year old :) It was drizzling a bit but luckily not raining, which we had been expecting, which was nice!

Main barn

Amazingly, after a little lunging at a walk/trot in each direction in the warm up ring Katai was doing well enough that I climbed on. She was actually really, really, really good once I was on. She listened, was calm, and I rode her all over the warm up ring and small show ring as well as the large show ring. She didn't balk at anything and didn't have any real spooks. I did a bunch of walk, mostly on a loose rein and a bunch of trot. Both L and I kept it pretty short and sweet since we wanted to end while they were still behaving well.

Actually from Sunday while we were hiding from the rain but it's a good picture of the pony in her stall.

We put them back in their stalls and Katai lost her mind. She was throwing herself against the walls and screaming. She nearly took out her bucket twice and wouldn't eat. We fed her her grain and she quieted down and ate and then we left, hoping that she would do better without us standing outside of her stall. Indeed, as we stood out of her site by our vehicles and talked we only heard a scream or two. L and her SO left to get food and I stuck around a little longer to spy on her a little and make sure that she was getting quieter.

I checked on her again after getting my car organized and she was quiet until she spotted me and then got a bit wild again so I made the call to leave and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't get a call that my pony was still wild and screaming later that night. I got home around 8:45, got a few more things organized and packed for the next day and then crawled into bed around 10:00 with an alarm set to wake up around 5:30am.

The Big Show

It's nearly here!!!

Katai and my first show is tomorrow and I'm freaking out a little. Tonight will actually be the scariest part of the experience since L and I are going to trailer our young horses over and she's going to give me a lesson. Katai has never been ridden right after being trailered somewhere and she can be a handful even in her normal environment.

Kissable Nose :-)

In fact, last night I did a ride and my goal was to just trot forward, not nag or micro manage, and do some canter in each direction. That, however, was not Katai's plan and she came out of her stall in quite a mood. Even in the cross ties she was abnormally crabby and even though I was baby talking to her and really taking things easy she wasn't all about that.

Our ride was pretty rough. I was proud of myself because I didn't escalate but I did continue to have expectations of her and didn't throw my hands in the air at any point. I was actually proud of the way she handled it because other than not being willing to travel straight at the walk she was really listening to my corrections and changing her way of going based on my feedback. I also suspect that she may have been in heat which might actually be ok since I'm sure she'll go into heat at the show tomorrow no matter what.

Little hussy ;)

I've got most of my stuff together and just finishing up packing now. I'm leaving around 2:00pm so that I can bathe her and get all my tack together before 4:30 when we're going to trailer over to the grounds.

Wish us luck!!

Spring Schedule and Ride Recap

I have so many fun horse things coming up over the next 1-2 months!

To start off, this weekend I ride on Saturday, lesson on Sunday and then I’ll be going to see H ride in a dressage schooling show at a gorgeous facility on the west side of the twin cities!

The following weekend I don’t have any current horse related plans but then after that (sort of the following weekend) I’ll be riding in another Suzanne Winslade clinic on May 9^th! So excited for that one.

Then, next weekend I have vacation Thursday and Friday with Friday being the start of the MN Horse Expo!! I LOVE going to the horse expo and usually take a day off so that I can spend a ton of time there. In the past it’s been an hour drive for me but now it’s actually within walking distance of where I live (I’ll be driving so that I can do more shopping but it will be a short drive) so that will mean that I can literally spend the whole day there on Friday. On Saturday I’ll be watching H ride in a Janet Foy clinic (!!!) and then we’re going to the expo after and finally I have my lesson on Sunday.

Then there will be another couple of quiet (maybe) weekends and finally on May 29^th Katai and I will basically be doing our first real show. We did do one previous schooling show but I rode in the ring that I was used to having lessons in, with my instructor as my judge, and before the show actually started since I was able to be there then so that doesn’t really count.

To prepare for the clinic and show I’m working hard to make sure that Katai and I are both prepared even though I know the wheels will come off at the show. At least I won’t feel like I didn’t prepare her which will mean that I can be more relaxed.

Speaking of that, I’m so proud of both Katai and myself for our ride last night. To start off I really was thinking about not going. I know, I know, I’ve been trying to actually get 5 rides in for a few weeks now but it was gorgeous out and the plan for riding was to ride indoors. Plus, the next day was supposed to be nice as well and I was going to spend the afternoon/evening at the barn again getting Katai’s feet trimmed.

However, I did make myself go and was so happy that I did. It was very quiet at the barn, probably because everyone else was outside enjoying the gorgeous weather, so that meant that I got the arena to myself and we used all of it. To start off Katai was a little bit short and seemed stiff. I’m sure it was because she tore around on the lunge line yesterday in deeper footing but it did make me wonder how productive our ride was going to be. I ended up being surprised and pleased with her behavior since after our warm up she went right into work mode.

We did a lot of our ride using the whole ring including working on some leg yield. I definitely need to get my body in the right place but right now part of the problem is that when we start going straight down the quarter line Katai knows what’s up and gets fussy. That then makes it hard for me to concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing and just doesn’t set us up for success. The focus last night was to get rid of that fussiness and make this just part of the routine so that Katai continues in the same balance and remains on contact. Then L can help me focus on myself. 

After we did several of those in each direction, playing with staying on the quarter line or sometimes doing a leg yield in either direction, and Katai was calmer and less fussy and took a brief walk break we did some walk/trot/walk transitions. This has always been a struggle for Katai but last night they were better than they’ve ever been. She was staying on the contact and not flinging her head in the air and I could really feel the power coming up and through from behind rather than feeling like we were falling apart on the forehand. She was also really responsive to my leg and going right into the trot when I cued rather than making me beg for it. Even better, she didn’t lose her mind the third or fourth time that I cued for it which is a huge improvement since these normally make her pretty hot.

Finally I decided to ask for a small amount of canter in each direction. Instead of asking her to do it from a slower trot I sort of let her run into in but I was concentrating on myself and making sure that I wasn’t hindering her forward movement by grabbing. Probably because of this, she did a really nice transition without throwing her head in the air and she remained calm and cool through the circle or two that we did. Going to the left, my tough direction from Sunday, I was focusing really hard on my left hand and keeping it forward (again I didn’t have enough contact but that’s better than jerking back as she makes the transition) and we had a lovely transition. She really sat and pushed forward and again remained calmer than she has.

The wheels fell off a little when we came back to trot. Katai was bulging her left shoulder into the circle really bad and didn’t want to bend. Plus she was like a runaway freight train and not listening to my cues to slow down. I got a semi decent half circle and then called it. I really didn’t want to work her into the ground especially after the rest of our ride was so nice and she normally has been doing really well in her trot after canter.

First Quarter Goal Review

Goals for Katai:

 

Speaking of goals, so proud of how we both look here.

Master our canter transitions

  - Nope, still on the struggle bus with this and I haven't been breaking these out and practicing them the way that I should. Of course it hasn't helped that Katai has had a few health issues already this year and we've lost over a month of riding. Not making excuses, it's just made it tough to make consistent progress. This is one of my main goals for the next couple of months.

Perfect Leg Yield

 - Not enough progress on this either but we have been practicing them more despite them not being perfect and that's a big deal for me. More practice needed!

            

Practice riding through at least two Intro tests and at least two Training Level tests

 - Nope, I have memorized Training 1 so that I can practice riding through it but now that I have an idea of what I'm going to do for the first show in May I'm going to focus on doing Intro A and Intro C to see where we have holes.

Sign up for at least two clinics

 - Done! I've ridden in one with Susanne Winslade and have signed up for a second in May. I have a feeling that I'll add at least one more later in the year so we should knock this one out of the park.

           

Go for a trail ride off farm property

 - Nope but that's the MN weather for you. This will happen multiple times this Summer and I have found someone to trailer me and go on trail rides with so that is some progress on this goal.

            

Attend at least two dressage shows

- Great progress on this one! I'm planning on at least 3 schooling shows and possibly a rated or two. I've got my entry form filled out for one at the end of May and am turning in payment for my stall this weekend.

Goals for Katlyn:

Continue with my own self improvement

- Yep! Great progress here and I've continued to experiment with vegan recipes as well as loosing some more weight and getting out more. 

Gain Strength

 - Another yep! I've continued with my work out at home and now I'm going to focus on getting a gym membership and doing more strength training. I'm also planning to do more running this year.   

     

Blog more often

- Meh - My goal is to average 15 posts per month and I just squeaked in 15 in March with way fewer in January and February. I'm going to keep working on this and hopefully do better for the rest of the year.

Better pictures and video both for blog posts and just for myself!

 - I think this is getting a little better. Still no high quality photos but we've also been stuck in the indoor so far with poor lighting. I'm pleased that I got some photos of the clinic and with more posts I've also been able to share more photos. This is another big goal for the rest of the year though. 

Purchase a set of show clothes and tack

- Almost complete! I've got a decent set of schooling show/clinic appropriate attire now. I'd like to add another pair of white breeches but that's not needed for schooling shows so it's not a big deal. 

Finish building tack locker with my dad

- Made great progress so far. Unfortunately my dad's been unavailable on weekends because my poor grandma feel and hurt her knee. He and my family are working on moving her to an apartment nearer to where my parents live so our next few weekends will be focused on that rather than tack trunk building. Priority on family always.

           

Resting On Our Laurels: Lesson Recap 3/20

I had a great lesson on Sunday. Katai was her new, normal self and went right into work mode. We started off with me giving L some more information on how things went at the clinic. It felt like it had been awhile, and it has, since last week Katai had her reactive moment so I did my best to remember the important stuff. The good thing is that through analyzing how things went and working through some of it myself over the last couple of weeks I actually realized something else.

 

Suzanne had made a comment that my glutes were too tight and I needed to use my core more independently. This had actually come up with L previously when she told me to only tighten my abs and not my butt and in that moment I had realized that I’ve always done both at the same time and couldn’t separate them. At that point I started working on it but had sort of forgotten about it. With that comment from Suzanne and the seat realization I had made I’ve been riding different and realized that my tense butt was chasing my poor pony around. It’s crazy what it takes sometimes to really be aware of your body!

 

After a good warmup I got on a 20 meter circle and first we worked on the bend. Very quickly though L started telling me to put leg on. She said that she knew that quiet, not-so-forward, pony is a novelty for me but that I can’t just let her jog around. She shouldn't get quick but she actually needs to use her hind legs. Going to the right especially Katai wants to pull down and drop on the forehand and while everything else is better and she swingier and working through her back she still needs to work and push herself forward and certainly not just drop on the forehand.

 

It was tough, I’ll admit, because I’ve really started to like having a slightly slower, more maneuverable, more relaxed pony. Eventually all of these things will come with her more forward version but now it’s a fine line and I rarely get everything at once. However, once I actually started expecting her to push from behind we got some amazing trot. We also got some AMAZING canter to the left! There was actually some jump to it and some hang time. Katai has always had a decent, three beat, balanced canter but it’s certainly nothing fancy. On Sunday though pony brought the fancy to the left and just not as much to the right which has always been her weaker side.

 

A couple of other things that came up are that I’m over twisting to the inside with my pelvis on the circles to the right, I drop my left shoulder going to the left, and tend to carry my right hand higher than my left. I also give away my right hand and this is starting to cause issues now so I need to really make myself hold (in a giving way) that hand and carry it and not just keep letting go of the contact.

 

The show season came up and I mentioned the first couple of shows that I’m planning on attending. This was the first time I had brought up the Three Ring Circus show with her and I found out that she’s actually taking her green baby horse for the same reason I’m bringing Katai. Because the absolute chaos will be good for him. She is going to trailer in ahead of time and stall overnight so I’m going to try to do the same. We’ll see if there are any stalls available because I know that they normally fill up quickly. If not, it will be a good experience for her to have to stand tied to the trailer and stuff herself with hay (and scream because we all know there will be lots of screaming).

 

And again, my trainer has more faith in us than I seem to :)

 

L brought up opportunity classes (I think this is what she mentioned) and that since I’ve never showed before I actually could do some rated shows this year without having to be a member of organizations (hoping this is what she said. I’ll do some digging over the next week). I asked if I should wait for that until next year and she said –with a big smile on her face- that we should just wait and see how the first few shows go. She was already picking out my rated show schedule and determining which of the local rated shows I should go to. It’s so amazing to have a coach that supports showing, believes in my ability, and is giving me the gentle push I need to just get out and show already!

First Show

Well we did WAY better than I thought we would! 

I would have honestly been happy to not get sixth, there were six people in the class, so second was unbelievably cool! I feel like the whole show was very fairly and accurately judged. Some scores were in the 50s and two people got 70s but otherwise it was mostly spread through the 60s. Katai and I got a 61.25% which I feel was pretty much how our test went. She's been WAY better in lessons of course but because it was intro it was actually below her current schooling ability and we mainly lost points for tension which is the biggest battle with her. I'm so freaking happy about how everything went for her first show!

Haley and I are talking about a doing a schooling show in a few weeks but we need to iron out the details.

Stay tuned!

Surprise

I'm showing tomorrow!!

It's just a small schooling show at my current barn and I'm only riding Into A but I'm actually pretty thrilled :) I've been wanting to begin exposing Katai to some shows even though I knew we weren't necessarily going to be competitive and what better way to get her used to the idea than a show in her normal arena.

It looks like there will be five people riding in the class and while I'm happy to just be attempting a test at a show I'm really hoping that I can do better than fifth. How's that for a goal!

Chubby pony playing queen of the mountain.

My Crazy Weekend

My barn was having a schooling show this Saturday. I hadn't planned on entering but at the last minute J told me that there would be a sport horse In hand class and I REALLY wanted to show Katai. There were a few problems including that I have a white pony who is still pretty sure that the hose is going to eat her so a real bath would be tricky, I have no idea how to do sport horse in hand, plus I haven't ever made Katai trot next to me and even if I could get her to it certainly wouldn't show off her trot very well. I hate being unprepared so I decided to skip it this time but on Friday evening J asked if I would scribe and I jumped at the chance.

It really was great to scribe and get a feel for what the judge was looking for. This was my first time and I was a little nervous but the judge was very patient and helpful and I feel like its a good life skill. I was glad it was a schooling show and that no one showed over 1st level since those tests were already difficult enough.

It was great to spectate and help out, and I would certainly scribe again in a heartbeat, but hopefully I can ride in the next one!

Then on Saturday I ran my first 5K, not an event just on my own, with only one short 15 second walk in the middle! It was my first time running over two miles and I hadn't done that since last year. Tonight I ran another 5K and cut off 3 minutes :)

I'm really glad that I'm making some improvement because I'm entered in a Ragnar in August https://www.ragnarrelay.com. I'm excited but extremely nervous because this will be the first sporting event that I've ever been a part of. I never did any sports as a kid other than riding and even with riding I never had lessons or anyone to push me so I sort of putzed along and just had fun, which is great don't get me wrong but it doesn't encourage any type of fitness. I was certainly never an athletic kid and while my family did lots of hiking and we would sometimes go on long bike rides it was never easy or especially fun for me. I was never thin but going through college and grad school I was starting to get a bit tubby. It's not something that I've ever really brought up on this blog but it was seeing a picture of myself riding Myshla that made me decide I had to change something. 

I started running last year but never made it over two miles and only did that a few times. This winter I didn't run at all because I didn't have access to a treadmill so this year I had to start all over and I am so glad that I did! I'm actually starting to enjoy it and I can tell how much more fit I am just since I got back to it at the beginning of May. Since I started working on my diet and exercise about three years ago I've lost over 40 pounds and my goal is to lose about 15-20 more. Training for the Ragnar this summer will certainly help! 

Finally on Sunday my sister came to visit and came with me to the barn. I was able to convince her to take some pictures. She rocks! They are a little blurry but they are also almost the only pictures I have of me riding Katai so I don't even care.

Can you tell how much I love this pony :-)

Please forgive the wonky elbows and hands. Between the green baby pony things, the fact that J wants my hands a little low and wide right now to help her stretch down, and the fact that I haven't really ridden much at all for the last month since Katai got to the barn my position has certainly been better. Now that I finally have a saddle that fits and a pony that behaves I can start to do the work to bring it together.