The Balance Challenge: Lesson Recap 4/4

I'm running out of media again so here's some shiny butt for your viewing pleasure ;)

I had another great lesson this Tuesday! We started with lots of bending at the walk and then before too long went to the trot. Katai was tight and sucked back to start but with lots of bending and some focus on serpentines she loosened right up and started to be more forward.

We did some leg yield and lengthenings and then did some should in midway down the long side, across the short diagonal, and then into canter. Katai did really well, I did less well but after a few times started to get the timing better. To make it even more difficult We added a spiral in at the canter after we picked it up and Jane really had me focus on the bend and inside leg.

I quickly realized that I've NEVER actually used my inside leg at the canter. Let's just say that there's some room for improvement ;) At any rate we got some extremely nice canter and I've got new homework which is always fun.

That already felt like a big deal and like we'd had a successful lesson but then we did some work on transitions. We've only really worked on these once or twice and the goal this time was to do walk to sitting trot to rising trot and then back to sitting trot to walk. With lots of coaching from Jane we got some really nice work. We found that I'm still using my reins too much in the downward transitions, not pulling back but holding to the point of thinking backwards rather than forwards.

Pony is humble about her shininess though

After that we talked a lot about me not being such a perfectionist. Jane told me, and I feel this is a huge compliment, that she's not worried that I'll mess Katai up at this point. She said there's always the chance that during a ride we'll go backwards a bit but that overall she's seen us improve enough and feels that I have enough feel that I'm not going to just keep doing something that is making things worse. Plus, with regular lessons how far wrong can I go.

She wants me to play around with things and try stuff out. She said to keep challenging Katai's balance and playing with things to see what works best for both of us. As a perfectionist that's really tough for me but Jane knows that. Have I mentioned how much I love working with Jane as my instructor?

I've also been feeling better and way more motivated as the spring weather change is starting to smooth out a little which is awesome! I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend at the barn.

March/First Quarter Goals Review and Goals for April

Goals for March:

Let Go During Lateral Work: Yes!! This one is actually going so much better. Overall I want to practice lateral work more than I did for March since I just didn't ride as much (I lost about 2.5 weeks out of the month for work, unsound pony, and vacation)

Structure Rides More Carefully: Meh, again mainly with inconsistent riding this didn't specifically get better. I would say that I'm varying work more and doing more stretchy intermixed. Mostly though I just didn't ride enough in March for me to make progress here.

Work on Trailer Loading: Unfortunately the unseasonably warm weather didn't continue and I lost at least 1-2 weeks on being in Seattle and going to the World Cup. In the end I only worked on this one day out of the month which means this was a fail.

Ride More: Meh, the goal was to be at the barn 6 days per week. This was more outside of my control than it's been though with Katai being off for a week due to #mareproblems and then off for a week while I was in Seattle for work.

Goals for 2017:

Post an average of 15 times per month: This is going SO well!
            Increase the number of pictures - Mostly I think this is way better than past years
            Increase the quality of my photos - Nope, not at all and they may be getting worse actually
            Do more review posts - Not sure that I've done more but I think I've had some good review posts so far

Buy a Trailer: Unfortunately as mentioned earlier this one is now out :(

Trailer EVERYWHERE: Still a goal but no trailering so far in the first part of the year.

Ride in Another Dressage Clinic: Haven't succeeded at this yet but things are in the works!

2nd Level Goals: This was to be able to ride all of the movements at home, not necessarily to show 2nd and I would say we're doing really well here! We've been doing S-I, and are going to start working on some beginning counter canter at my next lesson! The other movements that are still fairly new to us are Leg Yield (which is getting way better), H-I, Canter in general (so sad but so true), Halt, sitting trot, and you know, actually being able to control my pony. I could be wrong but I feel like the movement we're furthest from is the walk/canter transition. I feel like we're making great progress on this one for where we are in the year though!

Pony just has #bulldozing goals

Goals for April:

First, can I just say that I can't believe it's April! March was a weirdly off month for both of us but I think that we're both at a great place to pick things up and head into April :)

Trailer Loading Practice: Even without buying a trailer this is absolutely my main goal for the year and it will probably be part of my monthly goals for at least the next few months. I just need to get her out there and work on it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. that I can. No excuses.

Practice Riding the Lateral Work: This is something I've sort of been doing but without as much focus as I should. It's fairly new to me and it's a struggle so sometimes I just don't feel like it and skip working on it. Not that I need to drill it every time but I do want to focus on practicing this on a regular basis between lessons.

Structure Rides More Carefully: This one makes it on again as well and hopefully with a more regular month of riding I'll be able to make progress here.

Trail Ride: Thanks to not having an especially safe place to ride a green and spunky pony outside (only a narrow gravel road) it's scary to work Katai outside. However, I need to get her outside of the arena both for practice, so that I can actually handle her outside at a show, and for both of our mental states. I'd like to actually ride her outside at least once by the end of April which means lots of ground work outside first.

Third Day at World Cup: Freestyle!

First, before I post any updates on the World Cup I need to brag about my girl for a minute. If you follow me on Instagram you've already seen this but I wanted to post it here too because I'm so proud.

I was going through some video footage from Monday that I got of Katai free lunging after our work outside and got this!

I think that she has her own pony World Cup dreams ;) The best part was that this wasn't just one isolated moment. She trotted like this for a bit and then cantered like this.

I am glad though that she practices this particular movement without me...

Katai's own version of a freestyle

Annnnyyywaaayy, back to the World Cup Freestyle!

I had a great time on Saturday for my third day of the event. I believe I got there around 11:00 or so. My mom and I had picked up some salads and brought them with us to eat there since they didn’t have many vegan friendly food options. We watched some of the warmups while we ate and then my mom brought her knitting to a coffee shop while I met up with a few people.

 First I went back to see Stephanie (Hand Gallop) at her booth! We had more of a chance to talk and I tried on some amazing breeches including the pink ones. I really liked the pink but ultimately it was just a little too bright for me :) I also realized later that I’m not sure if I ever really said goodbye to you Stephanie so I’m sorry if I didn’t!! It got a little chaotic since H came and found me while we were talking and then I found out that H and Stephanie know each other. Such a small world!!



via GIPHY

H was there with a few people from her barn and they had been doing a lot of shopping. She and I talked while some of her group did some shopping and then they separated to drop off their purchases at the car and I went to do some shopping of my own. I have to say that I’m really proud of myself because I only ended up with one purchase and it was something I needed. The one thing I really wanted to shop for was a show shirt. I have a nice polo for schooling shows (and will probably pick up a couple more $5 polos from Old Navy because that’s tough to beat!) but my only show shirt isn’t my favorite and it’s starting to get a bit big on me. I had tried on and loved the HorseWare Ireland shirt but wanted to check out my options and probably get a shirt that wasn’t also navy blue.

I hadn’t tried anything on yet at that point because I was only finding shirts that were $200+ and I’m just not willing to spend that on a show shirt. A jacket or boots yes, but not a show shirt especially since at that price point I feel like you’re really just paying for the name and I just don’t care enough. However, H had bought a show shirt that I really liked and while she hadn’t told me the price I decided to go check it out. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the booth that the shirts were marked at $89 which was totally doable for me for such a nice show shirt. My favorite thing was that the fabric was a little thicker so, while still breathable, it didn’t show every single bump or bulge of my torso. I was able to try the shirt on in black but I wanted this really gorgeous light grey/cream color that they had and they didn’t have it in my size so I ended up ordering it from them. Because of that, even though I did buy something I didn’t have anything to carry which was sort of nice.

The only proof of my shopping.
I wanted a picture of what they were because I really liked
them but since they were priced at $349 I doubt I'd even buy a pair.

I had forgotten that clothes are taxed though (since they aren’t in MN) so that stinks but, oh well, I’m really happy with my shirt and can’t wait to get it!

 By the time I’d done that it was pretty much time for the show. I had planned to meet up with another friend (one of L’s students) but she was running a little late (due to the long walk at the zoo lol) so we planned to meet up during the break. I headed up to get my seat and met my mom there and then watched the Freestyle!


via GIPHY - Isabell Werth!!!

I LOVED seeing all of the tests but I have to admit that I actually liked watching the Grand Prix better. I didn’t expect that but for some reason it was just more fun for me to watch. With that being said the freestyle was AMAZING and it was so great to see Isabell Werth win! I still think I loved Laura Grave’s freestyle just a bit more but Isabell’s was truly spectacular. Since we had a long drive ahead of us we left right after Isabell’s ride and didn’t hang around but I did see the footage of the awards ceremony and it would have been fun to be there to see Isabell share her champagne!

After getting to my parents and picking up Veggie I ended up getting home around 12:30am and went straight to bed. It’s good to be home since it was a pretty intense three days with a couple of late nights and long drives. I’m really hoping to do either Rolex or WEG next year! I also have to say that while it was AMAZING to be there and definitely something that I’ve always wanted to do, I think I enjoy the Pony Cup just a little bit more. I enjoy that there isn’t much separation between the spectators and the competitors there and that it’s more pony specific so it’s something that I can actually see myself doing some day. While it’s an expensive event to go to for the level (not exactly seeing Olympians there for the most part) since I fly rather than drive, it’s something that I’m hoping to do again next year if not this year.

Second Day at World Cup Finals: Exploring Omaha

I'm such a dork but it's not every day that
you see equestrian sports on bus stop benches

Since my mom was nice enough to accompany me and dressage (and horses in general) just isn't her thing I'd left Monday as a day where we could do some other things so that she'd have a little break. I was also excited to explore some of the other things in Omaha including the Zoo.

We got up and went for a walk to a coffee shop but unfortunately couldn't find the Starbucks we were headed for so we went to a nearby Target Starbucks instead. After that we headed straight to the Omaha zoo!

Grumpy bird was grumpy

It was fun and I got so many pictures of the animals. We have a great zoo locally but they don't/haven't had elephants or rhinos so it was fun to see those here. It was a little rainy and cold out but by the time that we left it had warmed up to 57* and felt pretty good.

It was a long good walk so my feet and legs were quite sore by the end of the day but I certainly got my steps in.

Poisonous snakes may be part of why living in MN is nice

After stopping for some food we went back to the adorable AirBnB so that my mom could take a nap since she hadn't slept particularly well the day before.

In the afternoon my mom and I got coffee at an award winning local coffee shop called Archetype Coffee and it was delicious. Otherwise we pretty much snacked and rested for the rest of the evening. So nice to be here with my mom but it's a bit different than how I may spend my time if I were on my own :)

First Day at World Cup Finals: Grand Prix

Certainly a rainy, dreary drive getting to Omaha!

I had an amazing first day at the World Cup Finals in Omaha! It was a rainy, gloomy day outside so that much better to be spending it at the event center. I got there around 11:00 with my mom in tow and started out by doing some shopping. There were some amazing brands there that I wouldn't normally get the chance to look at and try on so I was taking full advantage.

So far I haven't found anything that I "need" but there's still some time left ;)

Amazing boots

Prior to the show starting I also met Stephanie from Hand Gallop! She's the first blogger that I've met and it was so great to talk with her.  It was fun being able to talk about the amazing people in the blogging community and I may try to join in on a Rolex trip for next year! I was also eyeing some of the breeches at the booth she was working at so I'll be back on Saturday to try some on including a very cute pair of bright pink ones #adultponyriderftw

Then my mom and I got our seats for the Grand Prix. I really, truly enjoyed it and it's the first event of this level that I've ever been present at. Our seats were fairly high up but they were actually pretty good and it was nice to be able to have a birds eye view of the whole arena. It also made watching the geometry really easy since we were looking down from above.

I got some very cool, if tiny, pictures of some of the competitors. I feel like Mister X won the adorableness category but Laura Graves and Edward Gal were my favorite riders. Both were just so smooth and quiet. Laura Graves showed second to last and was in first place with just Isabell Werth to go. I had my fingers crossed but also knew how unlikely it would be for her to place over Isabell and I was right, Isabell showed last and came in with the only score over 80 of the night. She was so precise and wonderful but I personally still think that Laura should have won.

Laura Graves!!! She had my favorite ride but tough to beat Isabell Werth

It was completely amazing to be there no matter who won though and I can't wait to attend the Freestyle on Saturday!

After the competition I walked to Starbucks and saw this poster. So cool!!!

I had thought of getting tickets to show jumping on Friday but my mom was already getting a little tired of watching this and since we've already got tickets to the Freestyle on Saturday we decided to check out the Omaha Zoo tomorrow and do some other sightseeing.

Third Time's The Charm: Lesson Recap 3/28

I'm blogging from Omaha, NE right now but we just got here late last night and haven't been over to the Century Link Center yet so other than a late and rainy drive I don't have much to share yet. So EXCITED to be here though!

At any rate I wanted to recap my lesson on Tuesday because after an ok lesson last Saturday and a decent lesson the Tuesday before this one felt really great.

Katai certainly didn't have much energy and Jane always has a lot of empathy for her (Jane says no sympathy, just empathy :) so she kept it pretty easy during the warm up and gave her lots of walk breaks. After a nice walk warm up with some head to the wall leg yields and a bit of trot when we took a walk break Katai dramatically threw on the breaks and scratched her head on her leg. Jane started laughing that Katai was rearranging her hair and then said that Kati would be "one of those girls that take selfies all the time". We both started giggling pretty hard at that point because she absolutely nailed Katai's attitude.

After some of the best, most consistant canter that we've ever had (again Jane was pretty gentle with us and didn't do much) she had us do some shoulder in. It went ok, it's been way too long since I've worked on it (my fault really but also the two weeks off) so I was really on the struggle bus and couldn't get my aids to work together. Jane took pity on me and gave us a walk break. I was thinking we were maybe done but she asked if we'd like to do some haunches in and since I was hungry for a second chance I went for it.

I struggled through the first direction but going to the left we NAILED it down the entire long side. It felt amazing and Jane said it looked perfect! We did a bit of stretchy trot and then called it there.

My main take away was that I need to get her more forward off my leg. Most of the time she's like a run away freight train which means I constantly have the brakes on. I get used to not needing to use my forward aids strongly but on days like Tuesday she needs more forward and I need to use them more. I'm also realizing that this might have something to do with our transition struggle since if she's not used to me using my leg it might be more of a big deal to her when I do use my legs.

The other really exciting thing is that Jane mentioned at the end of my lesson that we're going to work on half pass again next time and we're going to start doing shallow loop serpentines! I'm so, so excited and I've been wondering when we're going to start introducing counter canter. Not that we could start it when her canter with the correct lead was a hot mess but I've been looking forward to starting some counter canter work so I'm excited that we're finally there!

Time for Trailer Practice

Random pictures today, sorry for the lack of media!

This empty room is becoming the man cave
he even had his rawhide in there for awhile

My plan for Sunday was to take it a little easier from a dressage work perspective and to work Katai outside and lunge her. However, it ended up being a cold dreary and windy day so Katai was pretty amped up and I decided to ride instead.

My parent's barn has been steadily falling down over the past few years

 I had a great, if short, ride and the resident trainer (not Jane but the person who rides her young horse) was there and riding one of the training horses so it was great practice for Katai. At the last barn there were routinely other horses in the arena with us but here there aren’t so she was a little excited about it. I was able to keep her attention though with my new riding skills and she was really a good girl and didn’t have any tantrums to speak of.

You can still see a cross tie hanging there :)

Then Monday ended up being beautifully warm and sunny with temperatures in the upper 50s. It was SO NICE!! I decided to use it to my advantage and took Katai for a walk around the trailers. It’s pretty muddy out and the trailer wasn’t hooked up or in a particularly good place so I didn’t even open the door the full way, just got Katai walking around outside.

 We had some hairy moments.

Katai is much fitter than she was so between the passage, rearing, and (this is new) striking out it was like trying to handle a very fuzzy white dragon but I was really proud of how I handled it. I was able to stay really calm and soft and gentle with her but was very firm about keeping her out of my space and not letting her just barge ahead. We had a couple of discussions but they were “quieter” than they would have been in the past. I also stuck with it longer and walked her around a few times and stuck it out by the trailers for a while. We ended with a pony that was stilled amped but quieter and listening.

My amazing fellow boarder printed out this
calendar and marked the shows she's thinking about on it!

Frankly, it’s the first time she’s been out there since December so I don’t blame her for being feisty about it. My goal for the next month or so is just to get her lots of exposure to the outdoors as well as to the trailer. Before I even start working on loading again I want her to be calm near the back of the trailer with the doors open as normally that’s been getting her so freaked out that even thinking about trying to get her loaded is silly. If we can at least get there then I’m not as worried about actually getting her loaded.

Makeup: Lesson Recap 3/27 and Weekend Updates

I had a great makeup lesson on Saturday. Katai was really a good little pumpkin but wasn't completely sure she wanted to work on the canter. It's gone from a gait that we never do and therefore exciting to a gait that's a lot of work so the first time I asked her to canter in each direction I got some pretty good ponytechnics with lots of bucking.

To get the canter we cued for it out of leg yield once we hit the wall at the end of the arena and she did pretty well in one direction but was pretty stiff to the other side and didn't want to flex to the left at all.

 We did a bit of lateral work and also got the alignment better than we have. Overall though, while Katai was trying she was just unwilling to flex to the left and wanted to retract her neck.

Jane and I also had a great time talking about the FEI World Cup and I'm getting even more excited to be there!

Also baked some amazing banana bread!!

After my lesson I went to my parent's farm and worked with my dad on my tack locker. He's made some progress this spring with some of the smaller things that needed time between (for the glue to dry) since it was just slowing our process down too much but we made a bunch more progress on Saturday when I was there.

Door with polo wrap shelves

The main part of the cabinet

These drawers go in the right side of the cabinet. 

I can't wait to get the building part done now so that I can start to decorate it haha.

Attack of the GIFs

I really enjoy seeing everyone’s GIFs and it’s such a nice way to see clips of a ride without needing to watch through a whole video so I decided to make some of my own. Not the best video but hopefully you can kind of see what's going on.


via GIPHY

 On Thursday I had a ride planned with Katai and initially planned to work on reinforcing my forward cues. Katai moves off one leg or the other very well but ever since we started to introduce the concept of lateral work she is extremely resistant to my leg cues to go forward. This results in lots of giraffe-ing, sometimes bucking, and my favorite *dripping sarcasm* when she just completely stops and refuses to move.

We’ve tried being firm, we’ve tried being gentle, we’ve tried whip reinforcement, etc. but nothing has really worked. I think it’s a combination of pony stubbornness, feeling overwhelmed with pressure (asking to go forward into a giving hand with both legs rather than one apparently fries pony brains), and sometimes maybe a little muscle soreness/tiredness. Just the day before I’d watched this video and there were two big things that stuck out to me.



One was, although I know this and we’ve tried it, the insistence that the horse listen to forward. Ultimately I shouldn’t feel bad about it, she just needs to go when I ask for it. It doesn’t need to be pretty she just needs to go. The other was the concept of still concentrating on the outside rein even to the direction that the horse has a tougher time bending to. This is what Jane is coaching but in a slightly different format and I’ve probably still been asking for too much inside bend to the left. This helped me realize that I need to focus more on the shoulder and not losing it to the outside rather than having an equal bend to the inside as what I have to the right.

At any rate I planned to work on reinforcing forward during my ride on Thursday. I knew that she’d be a tired from our lesson on Tuesday so I kind of thought she’d be in full on refusal mode which would likely have the most impact. I was going to throw the reins at her completely, ask gently, and then quickly escalate my aids until I got a nice forward reaction. Then, a missing piece, I was going to practice it a lot during that ride and not give up. I also carried a dressage whip so that just in case she completely ignored my strong kicks (it’s happened in the past) I could reinforce with the dressage whip as well. After all of that, I cued for the trot and got this.


via GIPHY

No fireworks, no giraffe-ing. Even better, I got the same reaction twice and during the entire ride I never got a no reaction. A couple of things were different including the completely loose rein. She’s great with her transitions in side reins on the lunge so clearly I’m doing something (or she just doesn’t feel like I can reinforce my aids from the saddle, the bugger). I also was working on changes within the walk and asking for a larger walk, I’m wondering if maybe she sometimes just feels surprised by my forward cues but because I’d set her up better this time she was more willing.

Things to think about anyway!

Then later I got this sort of cute "no" response to cantering. Poor pony was tired. If there were volume you'd hear me giggling at her :)


via GIPHY

We went right back to canter after that and had a good canter in both directions but she needed to express her dislike of the situation. Pony was clearly tired though so we kept it pretty short.


via GIPHY

So Thrilled!

That I’m going to the FEI World Cup in Omaha! This is quite last minute as it just became official yesterday but I’m so completely excited.

I’d made it my goal to go to Rolex this year but it just didn’t work out with my budget. However, with the ability to drive to Omaha (it’s under a 6 hour drive from where I live) and after finding a cheap AirBnB I decided to do this one. Ultimately, while Rolex would be AMAZING this is dressage specific which is pretty darn cool, as is the fact that it’s typically not in the US.

 I was able to con my mom into coming with me which means we'll be able to share driving duties and split some of the expenses. Right now we have tickets for the Grand Prix on Thursday and the Freestyle on Saturday. I’d like to attend showjumping on Friday as well but I may wait until we get there and see if we can pick up tickets rather than buying ahead.

 I’m going to take lots of pictures and do lots of shopping and the time off and with my mom will be so wonderful.

I’m also curious if any other bloggers will be there? If so, it would be fun to meet people. Let me know and I’ll send you my email address so that we can figure out a time and place to meet

Back to Work: Lesson Recap 3/21

Just something a little different until I can get more riding footage

After missing two lessons I’ll admit to having a bit of anxiety as I drove to the barn for my lesson this Tuesday. Partially that was just the fact that when I mounted up on Saturday for my first ride back it felt pretty foreign after two weeks off. Part of it was also just not feeling especially confident about how Katai would behave after the time off and the cold front we were dealing with that day.

 At any rate when I got to the barn she was quiet and easy to get groomed and tacked up. I later learned that she’d been a hellion for Jane when Jane led her back to the barn but she really behaved well in the barn and also for my lesson so maybe she got rid of all of the shenanigans on her own. 

Jane’s early assessment was that between the cold and the time off Katai needed a long warmup and lots of work to get her bending. We had a REALLY nice warmup with her and she was on the bit right away and stretching down and forward rather than doing a giraffe impression. After a fairly long walk warmup we went to trot and Jane wanted me to really focus on getting the contact on both reins and really using my outside rein appropriately. I think we both expected some fireworks because contact on both reins can put so much pressure on pony mare brains but she was right with us the whole time. She never once got upset and, while I needed to keep the contact fairly active at first to show her what I wanted, we got to a place pretty quickly where she was consistently on both reins. It was a great feeling!

 After that we did some leg yields but Jane wanted more crossover than we were getting. I think Katai was slightly stiff and after running around like a goofball all day probably just didn’t feel like using herself. We switched to head to the wall leg yields to help with the crossover. I really struggled but then once I got it at the walk Jane had us do it at the trot. That was way too tough for my brain so after a few good moments (that were really total mistakes on my part since I still couldn’t quite figure out what I was doing) we took a walk break and then went to canter.

We worked on spirals at the canter again and Jane really had me focus on getting my body to bend/turn the correct way and not to collapse or lean. Katai did REALLY well with these! I really think the work with the Vienna reins has been paying off and, of course, all of our ridden canter work is paying off as well. Our transitions were all pretty good, I was able to keep my position pretty well, especially to the left, and overall this exercise went way better on Tuesday than it has in the past. It’s still a bit of a struggle for me but practice makes perfect :)

I have some great homework to work on, including more of those leg yields along the wall, but tonight will be another night off and then I'll ride/lunge/do a spa day Thursday-Sunday. I've got a make up lesson on Saturday so I'll have another recap this weekend!

I’ve also got an exciting announcement to share soon!