Vets and Farriers

*My post from yesterday has formatting issues that I'm having trouble fixing. I'm going to go back and get it fixed but I pulled it for now until I can.

It's the time of year for spring shots and of course this year I needed my Coggins by the first show (actually going to drop it off today so that I don't have to remember it next weekend) so Katai was seen by the vet last month. Because a mistake was made with paperwork processing I didn't get my paperwork until just last week (this happened to me last year too).

I looked it over when it got here and was surprised to see this.

Of course she had to roll and give herself these spots before her pictures. In the second photo you can tell that she's second guessing it though. Also, not a bad conformation shot in the first one ;)

It's not like I really know how old Katai is so I wouldn't be at all surprised if I got her age wrong but I've been pretty sure that she's 7-8 and not 9. First of all, these pictures in 2013 from about 6 months after I got her.

Look at how butt high she is here

She does not look like a 6 year old pony here. Maybe a 6 year old warmblood but not a 6 year old pony. I would have guessed 3-4 honestly between her physical and mental maturity. However, the vet was at the barn without me and no one at the barn remembers Katai's age so I can only imagine that he looked at her teeth. I know that teeth don't lie and honestly it doesn't really matter to me what her age is. She's as old as she is and she will get as old as she'll get, knowing her actual age doesn't change it.

However, I was so surprised that I looked back through her records to see if I could find any additional information and I found this.

Sorry it's blurry but it has her birthdate as 1/1/2008

There are three big vet clinics in the area. One is the very highly respected University of MN vet hospital. This is where most people send their horses for major surgery if they have the choice and it's just known, locally anyway, for it's amazing care. That is who this age came from and again, no one would have told the her age so they would have been aging her by her teeth. This would make her 8 this year which is closer to what I was thinking. The vet that saw her this spring is the other most respected vet in the area and is the other place that people will take horses for surgery or emergencies so I trust them as well.

Finally, I went back to the first Coggins I got on her (again from the clinic that just saw her this spring) and saw this. 

Another 1/1/2007 birthdate

I was at this appointment but I remember that he checked her teeth. I actually don't think that I ever really looked at this age and certainly don't remember it coming up but at the time I had two ponies and a dog being seen and Katai was a handful so I maybe just didn't retain it.

Either way, it really doesn't matter, I just think it's interesting and one of the reasons that I'd like to get a pony that's registered next time, just to take some of the guesswork out of it.

Then yesterday I had planned for the trimmer and was going to get off work a bit early to head to the barn when I got this.

Whatever her age is, she's really becoming a mature lady and that makes me very happy.

Trainer Ride: Lesson Recap 5/15

I really enjoy having an instructor that can ride my horse occasionally since I feel like it's such a great way for her to really feel what's going on in a way that she may not always be able to see from the ground (although L is damn good at seeing what's going on from the ground). It was actually part of why I decided to take lessons with L since not only was she willing and able to ride but she was small enough to ride my smallish dressage pony in a way that another instructor might not have been.

With that in mind, I really don't want to go more than a few months without having her hop on and make sure that I'm not setting Katai up with any habits. I have a pretty good feel for when something isn't going the way that it should but I'm not nearly the rider that L is. So, at my last lesson I brought up that I wanted L to ride Katai again soon. I mentioned that we could wait until after the show but L said that she wanted to ride at the lesson today instead. Then I'll have two more (since I'm getting a lesson at the show grounds) lessons before the show.

Love the extra fluffy mane in this one

In the meantime L had three lessons scheduled to ride with Susanne Winslade but found out that two of her client horses that she'd planned on riding were lame. When she mentioned it to Susanne apparently Susanne made a comment along the lines of, "Too bad you can't ride that spectacular little pony that your student rode on Monday." L messaged me on Tuesday but unfortunately it just wasn't in the budget for me to pay for any additional lessons. At any rate I was thrilled to hear that Susanne really liked Katai and that L would have wanted to ride her in a lesson. The only comment that Susanne made was that Katai was really locked up on the left side which both L and I are aware of.

L started off working on just kind of figuring out where Katai was at since it's been quite some time since she rode last. Then she started working on getting her to release to the left. At first there was some not so pretty stuff but then she really did it and L really got her back up in that direction which is tough impossible for me to do.

After that she was working on doing some sitting trot, transitions within the trot, shoulder in, haunches in, and canter in each direction. There were some great moments, good moments, and not so good moments but Katai tried everything that L challenged her with. She had a few minor moments but absolutely no melt downs. I asked L how she felt and was extremely flattered when L said that I'd been doing a good job with her and that Katai felt great :-) L also mentioned that everything she was schooling was from 1st level! She said that some of it wasn't very good yet but still, it made me so happy to hear that she's getting to the point where we can at least school it!

A moment of sass

However, we were both annoyed to see that my saddle is really sliding forward again. Katai has lost some weight (in a totally good way as you can see from the photos) but it means that her saddle is sliding again and not necessarily a great fit anyway. We talked about getting the Prestige Lucky trial again (I'll be calling on Monday) and I'm really hoping that it will be the answer. L had to get off twice to adjust my saddle today which is demoralizing at best. I'll be riding her with the half pad again until I can get a saddle that fits.

Spring Favorites

It's maybe a little early for this since it's still feeling like spring here but to break up my monotonous, pony pictureless posts it would be good to do a review post. This time I'm going to do this a little differently since I've been trying to be careful with my budget recently and so haven't been buying much. I do, however, have a few not favorites that I'd like to share.

The Good

TuffRider Outer Armor High Neck Turnout

I have both the heavy and medium version of the blankets and I LOVE them. They fit my pony perfectly since they aren't made particularly deep (Katai looks like she's wearing her mom's dress in some other blankets) plus they make her look badass! I love the colors and details and the reflective strips make her easy to see in the dark :-) I've had the medium one (in navy) since 2013 and it still looks just like new. I got the black one more recently, 2015 maybe?, but that one has been holding up just as well so far.

Old, old picture but here is the blanket on my pretty girl

Higher Standards Leather Soap

Another one that I don't think I've talked about much but had for awhile. In fact my container is almost gone so I'm going to need to order some more soon!

Like everyone else that I've ever read a review from about this stuff I LOVE it. It works so well and smells fabulous, I've got the Rosemary Mint version. I'm weird and actually enjoy cleaning my tack but this soap makes me look forward to it even more since it just smells so nice and leaves my tack so clean and soft. I would highly recommend this over any other saddle soap that I've used.

Neue Schule Eggbutt

This one I know that I've talked about before but I haven't really done a review. I LOVE this bit. It's the only bit that I could find that actually sized the diameter of their mouth piece specifically for a pony's lower pallet. Otherwise I was looking at bridoons and hoping that I could find one in a narrow enough mouthpiece which was tough since Katai wears a 4.5" bit.

When I found the Neue Schule bits they were exactly what I was looking for, basically a pony friendly Sprenger so even though the price was pretty high I went ahead and decided to try them. I'm so glad that I did! Katai instantly was quiet and happy in this bit and it's never changed. I've never had the feeling that it would make sense to try a different bit and normally if she's having any type of evasion it's because I'm doing something funky with my hands and not because of anything I can actually attribute to the bit. She always has a nice, appropriately foamy mouth and normally just softly mouths the bit. Sometimes when we're asking her for something that's a little tougher she'll chomp a little but I'm not blaming that on the bit at all, just normal for my pony who can be a tough little nugget sometimes.

The only thing I can ever imagine doing to change out this bit is buying another of the same once this gets a bit more chewed up. Otherwise I think it's perfect!

My bit on Katai's old bridle

The Bad

Rambo Rain Sheet (no link since this is an older version that I can't find online)

I have nothing bad to say at all about Rambo blankets and sheets in general but this thing just doesn't fit my pony at all. It's a 66" (her normal blanket size) that I got second hand on Facebook. Unfortunately it's just too deep and gaps and binds at the chest. She's wearing it for now since my favorite plaid rainsheet, pictured here;

is getting to the point where it just has too many holes to be usable. However, as soon as I don't feel guilty about it the Rambo is going right back up for sale and I'll be buying a Schneiders or something  that isn't so deep and actually fits her.

Ovation White Breeches

I have a pair of this same exact style of breeches in a dark brown that I love so when I saw them on Riding Warehouse in white I decided to get these for my show breeches. I honestly don't absolutely love the ones I have but they're made of a fairly thick material that I felt good about having in white since I didn't feel like they'd show every little thing, plus I already knew that they fit decently.

However, unfortunately they showed up with an unstitched hole in the crotch (not a good surprise when I tried them on) and I think the sizing was off. Every single pair of breeches that I have is a 26 which is what I ordered these in. However, when I tried them on the waistband felt like it was going to break my hips when I was trying to get it closed. All I can imagine is that they're actually a mislabeled 24. I even went and tried on the exact same breeches that I have in a 26 wondering if I'd suddenly gained a whole bunch of weight or something, those fit perfectly so it wasn't that.

Riding Warehouse was awesome, of course, and immediately took them back and sent me a refund but when I was thinking about it I realized that I like the way that Dover breeches fit better and they have a cheaper white pair that I'm going to try instead.

The Ugly

F.O.A.L. Show Shirt

I've seriously never found a show shirt that I think is the least attractive so when I saw this one on someone's Youtube I was excited and put it on my wishlist. Then when I saw that Riding Warehouse was carrying them I decided to go ahead and get one.

I struggle a little with shirts in general since I have a large chest which most show shirts seem to not accommodate well. Because of that I ordered this shirt a little large but when I tried it on I wanted to barf. It added lumps and bumps where there weren't any to begin with and just was not at all flattering. I tried it on a few times and then finally decided to return it. If you are flatter chested or have fewer curves than I do this shirt might work. My only real negative for this shirt in general is that it has a zipper up the front under the buttons and because of the thin, silky fabric, the rather heavy duty zipper tended to create bulges.

I'm going to find some time to go to a tack store and try on more show shirts (I haven't tried some on in the past but never very seriously) to see if there's a brand that's better for someone with some curves but for now I'm just going to plan on wearing polo shirts since I've only got schooling shows coming up anyway.

Cute right? Oh well...

Clinic Recap 5/9

I’ve had a weird couple of weeks. Just personal stuff going on (#datingproblems) but I’ve felt a little out of touch with riding and I’ve had less direction and motivation to ride and blog. However, the clinic with Susanne Winslade went really well!

However, we did have an interesting start since there had been a driving horse (combined driving Haflinger) scheduled before Katai and I started so not only did Katai get a little nervous in the crossties trying to figure out what was going on in the ring but when they drove out they left the door at the end of the arena open. When I was at J’s place open arena doors always led to a mini Katai meltdown and the doors on this area have never been open so I was curious how she would be. I took the time to walk her down there before I mounted up and she was up and curious but not losing her mind so I wasn’t that worried. However, as soon as I mounted up she lost her mind a little.

Thankfully Susanne was of the same opinion that I am and expressed that Katai was just going to need to get over it. We worked on getting and keeping at least one ear on me for the first several minutes and after a few great, forward, connected, directed 20 meter circles in each direction Katai was doing quite well. Susanne wanted me to get her head and neck a little lower than I’ve been getting it. Luckily after all our homework since the last clinic we were able to get there easily and I could immediately feel her start swinging better over her back.

After a few circles and straights with lower ears and a nice connection, Susanne had us start another exercise where we were supposed to spiral in and then leg yield out. Neither Katai or I are good at leg yielding so after a couple times in each direction, as Susanne saw how stuck we were on the struggle bus, she changed it to a "head to the wall" leg yield.

That’s when I started to get a little frustrated with myself. I’ve never learned how to properly do a leg yield and always struggled plus Katai hasn’t ever really learned to do them correctly. She actually used to rear as soon as you put her head to the wall so it wasn’t an effective way to teach this to her previously. During the clinic I was extremely proud that she not only didn’t rear but didn’t lose her mind with the amount of pressure we were putting on her. However, it didn’t mean that we were able to get anywhere ourselves. Poor Susanne had to watch us drunkenly and incorrectly try to accomplish this for a full arena before I let her know that I really didn’t know what I was doing and needed help.

Susanne came over and assisted on the ground and after almost another full arena Katai got it! She really is a smart cookie  After that we did it in the other direction and it was a little rough but we got it, she got the concept of moving her haunches without blowing through her shoulder and I was able to start to understand how to keep her neck straight, not let her blow through her shoulder, and keep her haunches at the correct angle.

What was really interesting is that there is this bodyworker lady (she works more with musculature, not so much chiro) that has attended the last couple of clinics with Susanne and she made an observation, along with Susanne, once we got back that Katai is built like a little body builder but that it’s her "external musculature" and not her internal. She said that the "Internal Musculature" will be strengthened more by stretching and that the occasional slight shortness that I had mentioned (left hind) previously would likely be helped by this stretchy work of getting Katai to cross over properly behind. She also mentioned that she thinks the shortness is coming from Katai’s stifle and maybe fetlock which at least helps me know a little more about where to watch. She didn’t think that it was time to call the vet but suggested that if it goes on for much longer despite doing additional/different work it might be good to get Katai a massage and maybe some body work.

This lady is doing some specific work with horses and riders on Monday and I’m going to do everything I can to get there and have a "lesson" since I think it would be SOO helpful!

Finally, right at the end of our lesson, we went to canter. Susanne wanted me to do three circles and do our best. Unfortunately as I cued for it, Katai actually bucked again which was disappointing since she hasn’t in a while and then half way around the second circle had a big, random spook. Because of that I never really got her on the bit and straight so we didn’t get to show our best work. After our disastrous canter Susanne wanted us to work on straightness and I think that we’ve been over bending the pony. Susanne was having me keep her neck straighter and wanted her haunches out more on the circle. She said that Katai has been throwing her haunches in on the transitions which is likely caused by us trying to keep her bent for the transitions. I’m sure I’m the culprit since I tend to exaggerate and if a little is good, more will be better right? Oops!

I’m going to chat about this with L so that she can help me understand what Susanne was seeing. Last time I thought, for example, that Susanne wanted me to turn my upper body out on the circle (confusing since that’s not what I thought I was supposed to be doing) but after talking to L realized that I was turning and collapsing in so bad that Susanne was just using it as a tool. Indeed, this time it didn’t come up at all since I’ve been working on being straighter myself.

Unfortunately H wasn’t able to make it since I rode right in the middle of the day so I didn’t get pictures. I’ll have to find someone to take some at one of my next rides so that I have some more content since this blog is getting boring without it!

Hands: Lesson Recap 5/7

I had my lesson on Saturday this week since I was riding in the clinic on Monday and we wanted to be sure to give Katai a day off in between. I got to the barn nice and early and it was gorgeous out. I was hoping to ride outside but there was thick, heavy smoke in the air from the Canadian wildfires so we decided to ride inside where they had the fans going and the air was a little clearer.

Katai has been on a roll recently and the lesson started off really well. She's starting to get the idea of walking nicely on the bit and using it as a breather rather than just always wanting to go as quickly as she can. We were focusing on getting the correct bend and again, doing movements from training level tests, just not in the order of training level tests.

One of my biggest take-aways was that I really need to have my reins shorter. I've been leaving them longer but then I end up with my elbows back too far when I need to shorten. As soon as I shortened them and put my arms further forward Katai relaxed and was more steady on the contact. I also tend to flatten my left hand so we worked on that.

The other big thing that I learned was to start preparing for the bend earlier. We were working on doing the 20 meter circle at B and I was on the turning struggle bus. It either took me half way around the circle to get the proper bend or I was doing too much with the reins. L told me to focus on getting her in shoulder fore before the 20 meter circle and it clicked.

Finally we did some transitions into canter and at the first one L said, "your body is so much better than it was!". It made me happy because I've been working really hard on getting my hip bones more even.

I'll have a recap of the clinic up soon!

The Real Dressage Training Period

The real dressage training pyramid

Yep, that's right I'm still shopping for a saddle again. I'm still waiting on the Prestige dealer in the US to get a new Prestige lucky in for a trial. I'd be more actively looking while I wait except both L and I think theres a really good chance that the Lucky will be a great fit for both Katai and myself.

I have to admit that a very small part of the appeal for me is that it comes in brown.

Yummy

I don't know why but I've always loved brown tack and when I started seeing people with brown dressage tack I was very envious. When I figured out that it actually looked better on Katai than black tack I knew that my next saddle was going to be brown. I love my current brown dressage tack but my goal for next year is to find a saddle that fits (hopefully in brown) and get a PS of Sweden bridle that matches. If it can be brown I'll be even happier.

My current saddle isn't horrible but it still slides forward and I've noticed a patch of messed up hair on the middle of the left side of her back more than once. I've got a reminder on my calendar on the 16th of this month to reach back out about the saddle and hopefully they can ship it my way for a trial. I'm really hoping that this might be the answer for us!

Bubbles, Bell Curves, and Lesson Recaps

I had a couple of posts figured out and then had a couple of things going on so didn't get anything posted for awhile. Because of that you get all of the posts in one!

Last week I was going to post about how I feel like as I'm finding these little holes in my riding and Katai's training that it's sort of like these little bubbles. One example of these is that when she gets quick I pull my legs off. Then I don't support her and when I ask for something there's that slight gap where she isn't supported (the air in the bubble) and then as the contact picks up on the other side she over reacts (sort of like the bubble popping). I've been working to make sure that I'm removing those little gaps and/or only using them appropriately.

Then after reading this post over at SprinklerBandits I started thinking about how a bell curve could help me stop freaking out about Katai's small sorenesses.

I realized as I was reading that post that if I focus on Katai's normal rather than freaking out about things I've read about other horse's normal I'll be more keyed in to what is actually going on and not over-reacting. I started thinking about this tonight when I was at the barn and had a great ride despite some initial stiffness :)

Then I had a great lesson on Sunday! We're continuing to put together different pieces of training level tests. Katai was very good and we had some great work. There was more bucking and I think we identified that I'm tensing up as I ask which is causing her to feel stuck. However, we got to a great place and overall she was really great. We did uncover my complete inability to turn down the center line so I have some work to do there but otherwise it went really well.

This coming Monday is the Suzanne Winslade clinic so we moved my lesson to Saturday so that Katai can have a rest day between my normal lesson and the clinic. More updates to follow!

Redheadlins Blog Hop

Redheadlins started this amazing blog hop and I HAD to join.

After all I work in HR so I've heard all kinds of crazy things. I can certainly imagine a few concerns that people might bring to HR about Katai.

1. She gave me the stink eye

Like all mares Katai has really perfected the mare face. One example is;

Look at that glare

2. She's always talking

Katai is a big talker, she's loud and shrill and likes to express her opinion about how late her dinner is, even when she's still got leftovers from her last meal.

3. She put my stapler in jello

Yes, Katai would totally be a prankster. She loves to antagonize her paddock pal and would be exactly the type of coworker that would put your stapler right in a big bowl of jello.

Under Pressure

Yep, mainly my head. I've also been really headache prone my entire life and it's never worse than when I'm stressed or when the weather is changing. Right now there is some of both and so I've had a few days of bad headaches. I was doing ok until today when it got worse and I just didn't feel like I could function anymore. I was able to make it through work all day and was firmly convinced that I'd be able to make it to the barn but once I got home I just couldn't make myself climb in the car. I was functioning so poorly that I was forgetting to close the refrigerator door.

I wasn't able to go see Katai on Monday or Tuesday so now it's been three days and I miss my pony. I'd had a couple of weeks where I was at the barn 5-6 days per week and I had been neglecting my chores and home stuff so I guess it was time to catch up. I can't WAIT to see her tomorrow and I'm hoping she won't be too bouncy but she certainly has license to be a firecracker.

In other more positive news, I'm solidifying plans to go to the National Dressage Pony Cup again this year! I hadn't realized that it was in July since I'd been when it was in September but July actually works out better for me. I've requested some time off work and I'm talking to H about plane tickets and where to stay while we're out there.

There are a couple of people from H's barn that are going to show at the NDP so it will be fun to have someone there to cheer for in particular. I'll share updates on my gorgeous girl tomorrow!

The Ugly: Lesson Recap 4/24

Today was one of those lessons that felt ugly but accomplished a lot. Katai had been in all day and with our sort of weird week she wasn't feeling dressage time in the sandbox today. Also, after the Janet Foy clinic and a couple of clinic videos I watched I was doing more to correct her when she was misbehaving.

Pretending to be eventers with an awesome duct tape patch job

I had learned to do no, to almost no correction, when she was having meltdowns because once she started melting down she wouldn't stop for the rest of the ride. The problem is that now she's not doing that any more and when I'm not correcting her when she's doing something wrong, like bulging her ribs into my leg and not listening at all to my leg cues, I'm just allowing her to get away with something and not really teaching her anything. Today I started correcting her and then going back to how I was riding before and guess what, no meltdown!

Katai got rinsed off since she actually got a little sweaty. It was cold so she got to wear her baker while she was cooling off

She would react of course but that's what she's supposed to do. Then she would go back to her normal self except she would be listening better! Woohoo!!! I have a horse that is rideable. There was still a lot of ugly because then she would be a bit more spicy and I certainly got more head tossing than normal but we also had some amazing moments with a pony that was in front of my leg but listening to me. The fact that I started off with a very resistant and sassy pony who only wanted to canter and ended up with a compliant pony that was really listening and in front of my leg but not melting down is basically a miracle.

We were working mainly on movements from training level tests. We did a lot of using the whole arena and free walk diagonals as well as free walk zig zags. The closest we came to a meld down was when we were working on changing the bend through a trot diagonal and Katai didn't want to listen to my leg. I've got some homework here to make sure that I'm always riding her between my leg aids and demanding that she listen the first time that I ask and neither making me nag or even throwing herself into my aids (which is her favorite). Mainly though my goal is to do this without making her melt down so I'll be working on being firm but continuing to be tactful.

Should be easy enough...

Vacation and Development

First, thank you all for your comments on my last post. It was very helpful and also made me feel better. I think my goal is to just take my worrying down a notch and push myself to ride her at least a little even when I think she might be sore since I honestly know that it will help and it isn't anything more than I'd expect for myself.

I've been really enjoying my vacation but it's been a busy few days. On Thursday I went to the barn and then threw a party for my roommate's birthday. Then Friday was MN Horse Expo day!! Honestly, it was fun but the vendors have been worse and worse for the past few years. The expo was always dominated by western tack vendors but this year it was particularly bad.

How Guy's horses started out. You can also tell that this wasn't very well attended although the bleachers I was sitting in were much more full

I did go for a few hours and saw Guy McClean and did a little shopping at the used tack sale but that's it. I didn't have any reason to stay after that so I didn't. The expo is always on the same weekend as Rolex and next year I'd really like to try to do Rolex instead.

Guy and two horses at liberty side passing over a horse that's laying down. The trust that the horses have in him is amazing.

After the expo I went to the barn with the goal of getting Katai in the outdoor arena again. She started off nice and calm but then something got to her and she went tearing around for awhile again. Finally she slowed herself down and we did a nice walk around the arena. I discovered when she slowed down that she'd put a massive hole in one the left rear leg wrap. One of those moments where I'm glad I put them on her because who knows what she might have done to her leg without it. Then, since she was calm, I climbed up and walked her around for a little while and finally did a short bit of trot and then canter. She remained calm but very up and forward.

Then Saturday, since she wore herself out Friday, I just wanted to take her out for a trail ride. I'll admit that I've become a bit of a DQ recently when it comes to riding out of the safe confines of the indoor arena but my goal for the next month is to get her outside at least a little every day. I know that she's going to melt down for the show next month but at least if she's really comfortable outside it will make things a little better. So, Saturday I braved up and rode her around the paddocks outside. I started at 12 riding at my parents by doing trail rides so I'm comfortable out there once I'm up and know how to safely diffuse situations, it's just that last time I rode her extensively outside was when she was a green baby and now, even though she's a trained horse, I have flash backs to that untrained baby horse. Plus, then she was unpredictable (my least favorite thing) but now she is far more athletic and able to do things that really could unseat me which she really wasn't up to before.

Random picture of the vegan sushi I made for dinner to break up the wall of text

At any rate she was pretty good on her baby trail ride. She started off not listening at all and thought a couple of times about doing something naughty. In the end though we had a very reasonable and calm walk around and then went out at a trot again. I just did a long trot along one side of the pens and then turned around and walked her back. She didn't want to go back and neither did I but the footing is still pretty iffy and she was still prepared to be naughty so before I pushed it that far today I wanted to just end on a good note.

Once I climbed off she didn't want to stand still so we schooled that a little and once I had a decent stand we went back, untacked, and then she got hand grazed for a little before I left for the Janet Foy clinic.

Janet was great to watch again and H rode really well. Last time her horse was being naughty (he's a pony and it's normal for him) but this time he was really chill and focused so they were able to accomplish a lot. Mainly she worked on getting him more even in the bend since, just like most horses, he's still pretty one sided. He is also strong on the same side that Katai is so it was really helpful to watch.

H and Janet talking about lengthening the upper part of her pony's neck

I saw part of the horse before H rode and he was an amazing Welsh/German Riding Pony that was probably right around 14 hands and extremely athletic. He was only 5 so they were just working on consistent rhythm and contact but oh my gosh was he ever amazing. I wish I had gotten there a little earlier so that I could have seen his whole ride! After H rode I watched part of a Friesian's ride but he and his rider were working on such different things than I am that I decided to talk to H instead while she untacked and cooled her horse out. Then I went back in to see this big grey Holsteiner that was training 3rd. He was a great horse, very balanced and extremely well trained. His trainer was up and seemed like a very accomplished rider. She and Janet were having fun with him and working on all of his buttons. It was fun to watch them improving his changes because even though it's way above my head, it's interesting to see how the same concepts are still used as at the lower levels.

Such a gorgeous horse even if he's about 3 hands too tall for me ;)

Working on Half Pass

We're making plans for the National Dressage Pony Cup this year and talking about our show seasons. H and her horse went to their first schooling show already and she said that he was a handful. She was also reassuring though that he was WAY better at the end of the show than the beginning and I'm hoping that Katai will be the same. He is 13 and she's 7 but still hopefully something from the show will stick and she'll retain it for the next one. H is also planning a whole bunch of shows this year so I think I'm going to try to add some to my schedule as well, I just have to figure out which ones!