Here are some photos from the day:
Showing posts with label cross country. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cross country. Show all posts
Monday, September 13, 2010
Johnny Goes Cross Country!
My friend and I took our horses cross country schooling Saturday. It was Johnny's first time ever really going cross country (he did a hunter pace once) and he was absolutely amazing! He never looked at a single thing!
Here are some photos from the day:
Here are some photos from the day:
Friday, September 4, 2009
Getting Back to Basics
"There are a few basics that all hunters must be able to do." M told us, standing in the middle of a semi-circle of horses on the hunt field during our hunter class. "They must have woah, go, left and right. They must be able to hack out in a group, or leave the group and go off on their own. Everything else is show business in the middle. These are the basics."
It seems so simple when you think about it and if asked, most people would probably say "sure, my horse has all of those things..." but does he really? If your chips in to a jump because he was pulling down the line, then "woah" hasn't been properly established. If he gets lazy and leaves long, then there isn't enough "go." If he gets excited while cantering in a group, then he doesn't hack in company and if he pins his ears back and kicks out when asked to leave the group, then he isn't independent of the herd and listening to his rider. What if he bulges through your outside rein in a dressage test? Then you don't have lateral control of left and right.
Almost any "problem" with horses can be traced back to these 4 simple basics and we explored those basics on Thursday in my hunter class by taking the horses out to the hunt field and asking them to perform certain actions. We established reliability in the group by having a good forward canter out in a big circle around the field. Our objective was to keep our horses in a forward hack canter while still keeping them quiet. The goal was to maintain self carraige on a looped rein over varied terrain without our mounts getting excited. I rode a chestnut TB named Cruz again and he proved to be quite good in the company of other horses. After that, M took us over to the cross country hills and banks and had us start by walking our horses up the hill, then trotting up and trotting down, and finally cantering up one side and walking down the other before turning around to trot back up and down again. This tested our horses ability to leave the group and their responsiveness to our leg, seat and reins. Cruz was really great, except that he wanted to canter back down the hill instead of trot, which reflects his ring manner...his tendancy to get above the bit instead of breaking at the poll. After that we got to jump our horses down a little bank, which was SUPER fun and reminded me of my eventing days :) I've got some great pictures from the lesson...which I will post below. It was such a fun learning experience!!
I applied a lot of these basics to Johnny today. E rode him in the indoor for the first time and he was EXCELLENT. I hacked him yesterday in the outdoor ring and also had a fabulous ride on him. We worked on tempo (woah vs. go) over trot poles, followed by a small x rail with two placing poles (take off and landing rails rolled out 9ft from the fence) which worked on his straightness (left and right...he has a tendancy to duck out on the poles when he is unsure) However he finished off the jumping BEAUTIFULLY and got perfect striding between the poles and the jump. To finish off the lesson I had E work on his canter by just keeping him going to get a consitant tempo (we still drift between 3 and 4 beats sometimes) They had some really nice moments!
Here are the photos from my riding class on Cruz:
cantering around the field
cantering up the hill...
...and down the bank!
Hopefully getting some pictures of Johnny soon!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
It seems so simple when you think about it and if asked, most people would probably say "sure, my horse has all of those things..." but does he really? If your chips in to a jump because he was pulling down the line, then "woah" hasn't been properly established. If he gets lazy and leaves long, then there isn't enough "go." If he gets excited while cantering in a group, then he doesn't hack in company and if he pins his ears back and kicks out when asked to leave the group, then he isn't independent of the herd and listening to his rider. What if he bulges through your outside rein in a dressage test? Then you don't have lateral control of left and right.
Almost any "problem" with horses can be traced back to these 4 simple basics and we explored those basics on Thursday in my hunter class by taking the horses out to the hunt field and asking them to perform certain actions. We established reliability in the group by having a good forward canter out in a big circle around the field. Our objective was to keep our horses in a forward hack canter while still keeping them quiet. The goal was to maintain self carraige on a looped rein over varied terrain without our mounts getting excited. I rode a chestnut TB named Cruz again and he proved to be quite good in the company of other horses. After that, M took us over to the cross country hills and banks and had us start by walking our horses up the hill, then trotting up and trotting down, and finally cantering up one side and walking down the other before turning around to trot back up and down again. This tested our horses ability to leave the group and their responsiveness to our leg, seat and reins. Cruz was really great, except that he wanted to canter back down the hill instead of trot, which reflects his ring manner...his tendancy to get above the bit instead of breaking at the poll. After that we got to jump our horses down a little bank, which was SUPER fun and reminded me of my eventing days :) I've got some great pictures from the lesson...which I will post below. It was such a fun learning experience!!
I applied a lot of these basics to Johnny today. E rode him in the indoor for the first time and he was EXCELLENT. I hacked him yesterday in the outdoor ring and also had a fabulous ride on him. We worked on tempo (woah vs. go) over trot poles, followed by a small x rail with two placing poles (take off and landing rails rolled out 9ft from the fence) which worked on his straightness (left and right...he has a tendancy to duck out on the poles when he is unsure) However he finished off the jumping BEAUTIFULLY and got perfect striding between the poles and the jump. To finish off the lesson I had E work on his canter by just keeping him going to get a consitant tempo (we still drift between 3 and 4 beats sometimes) They had some really nice moments!
Here are the photos from my riding class on Cruz:
cantering around the field
cantering up the hill...
...and down the bank!
Hopefully getting some pictures of Johnny soon!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Home for the Weekend
First week of class didn't go bad at all...like I said in previous posts, I'm DYING for IHSA to start up again (tryouts next week!) and I LOVE my hunter class. I am soooo determined to do well this year and grow even more as a rider. I was 5th last year at Nationals and this year, I want that championship SO badly. If I could qualify in flat and fences that would be AMAZING (highly unlikely, but awesome none the less) and I want LEC to win our region so badly as well. This is just about all I can think about lately.
The good news is that it's been reflecting positively in my riding. I have determination to get things right on the first try...I want M to see that I am clearly making the changes to my riding. The only bad news is that I haven't had a single lesson all summer (ok, one but that was to work on Johnny not me and therefore doesn't count) and I think my equitation has suffered a bit. Last year, going into tryouts I was riding all the time with my trainer on a 3ft school master basically. All winter I worked on myself, and now I'm going into the first part of my season feeling totally unprepared. Although working with John has been amazing and a super awesome learning experience, I've barely jumped over 2ft this summer, but oh well I guess. I'm just going to ride my best and whatever happens will happen.
ANYWAY, as I said, I came home this weekend to pack up Johnny's stuff (he is offically shipping out Tuesday night) and because there was really nothing for me to do at school. I went to the tack shop this afternoon and got some more hoof oil, another tail wrap (because I seemed to have lost my spare...) and a really cute white baby pad with blue trim. I really wanted one of those while square jumper pads with the blue trim, but they were pretty expensive (over $50!) so I settled for the baby pad instead. It's the thicker kind, so I can still use it for a jumper schooling show or combined test. There's no rule against them...hehehe. After shopping, I went to the barn and got greeted by an especially happy Emmy and a decently happy Johnny (we don't have that relationship yet lol). Emmy got to go out first, so I groomed her and saddled her up. She was quite happy to see me and even happier to go out for a hack. After a short walk to warm up, we trotted and cantered down the street to the park (about a mile and a half) and took the loop around the dog park. The trail is nicely mowed grass and so I let her have a short little gallop up one of the small slopes. After that it was into the woods, down the ravine and across a wooden bridge, up another hill and back along the road to go home. Emmy was so happy! She cantered along with her ears flopping back and forth all the way home.
After I walked her out and took her tack off, I sent her out for grass while I got Johnny ready. The weather was perfect for riding...sunny yet cool and breezy so that the horses barely even sweated. Johnny and I did a shorter version of Emmy's dog park loop and when we got back to the barn we did some canter work in the front yard. He threw both leads easily and the canters each direction were smooth! He's getting shoes put on Tuesday afternoon...I'm super excited to see how much better he will move with more support!
Thats about it for today...more tomorrow!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
The good news is that it's been reflecting positively in my riding. I have determination to get things right on the first try...I want M to see that I am clearly making the changes to my riding. The only bad news is that I haven't had a single lesson all summer (ok, one but that was to work on Johnny not me and therefore doesn't count) and I think my equitation has suffered a bit. Last year, going into tryouts I was riding all the time with my trainer on a 3ft school master basically. All winter I worked on myself, and now I'm going into the first part of my season feeling totally unprepared. Although working with John has been amazing and a super awesome learning experience, I've barely jumped over 2ft this summer, but oh well I guess. I'm just going to ride my best and whatever happens will happen.
ANYWAY, as I said, I came home this weekend to pack up Johnny's stuff (he is offically shipping out Tuesday night) and because there was really nothing for me to do at school. I went to the tack shop this afternoon and got some more hoof oil, another tail wrap (because I seemed to have lost my spare...) and a really cute white baby pad with blue trim. I really wanted one of those while square jumper pads with the blue trim, but they were pretty expensive (over $50!) so I settled for the baby pad instead. It's the thicker kind, so I can still use it for a jumper schooling show or combined test. There's no rule against them...hehehe. After shopping, I went to the barn and got greeted by an especially happy Emmy and a decently happy Johnny (we don't have that relationship yet lol). Emmy got to go out first, so I groomed her and saddled her up. She was quite happy to see me and even happier to go out for a hack. After a short walk to warm up, we trotted and cantered down the street to the park (about a mile and a half) and took the loop around the dog park. The trail is nicely mowed grass and so I let her have a short little gallop up one of the small slopes. After that it was into the woods, down the ravine and across a wooden bridge, up another hill and back along the road to go home. Emmy was so happy! She cantered along with her ears flopping back and forth all the way home.
After I walked her out and took her tack off, I sent her out for grass while I got Johnny ready. The weather was perfect for riding...sunny yet cool and breezy so that the horses barely even sweated. Johnny and I did a shorter version of Emmy's dog park loop and when we got back to the barn we did some canter work in the front yard. He threw both leads easily and the canters each direction were smooth! He's getting shoes put on Tuesday afternoon...I'm super excited to see how much better he will move with more support!
Thats about it for today...more tomorrow!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A Different Horse
I rode Johnny last night for the first time in almost 4 days. Between him not feeling so well after the horse show plus the ridiculously hot and humid weather, PLUS his little eye episode (which has since resolved itself) I've basically just been leaving him alone. I figure that he's going to work all winter if E half leases him, so whats a few days off right?
Anyway, he was ready to go yesterday! All he wanted to do was canter and was basically pulling an Emmy..."mistakenly" taking every little signal for canter. I let him gallop up the field a bit once he was warmed up, just to get the butterflies out of his feet and he was feeling so good that when I let him stretch down he actually dropped his nose all the way down to the ground and dolphined up the hill a bit. He wasn't really bucking...just playing. When I asked him for his right lead he threw it so easily and it felt so smooth that I actually had to look to see if he had thrown the correct one, which he had. He's holding that canter lead for longer and longer now and the strides themselves feel much more even and controlled.
After our little play session we worked on some trot poles. John was surprisingly good for them (last time he was like a drunken sailor and had a minor heart attack when he realized that he had to THINK about where his feet were going) I had to keep reminding myself that I needed to be directive with him (Emmy was the kind of ride where you just turn your head and she goes there) and that he's a little claustrophobic with the bridle...a long and quiet rein makes him happiest. Thinking about doing a little more flat work today and then maybe finishing up with some jumping. If the trails are dry enough we can go over there and jump some cross-country...I'm sure he would like that!
I also snapped a picture of him yesterday with my phone...I can't believe how different he looks compared to spring time when I first started working with him...look at the change!
Above is Johnny pictured on May 14, 2009 after I had just finished clipping all of the matted 3 inch long hair off his body (save for the saddle mark and his legs) I had only ridden him 4 times.
Johnny yesterday (Aug. 11, 2009) after four months of correct feeding, deworming, grooming and good riding. What a difference! (and yes, he has a brand on his neck)
Peace.Love.Ponies.
Anyway, he was ready to go yesterday! All he wanted to do was canter and was basically pulling an Emmy..."mistakenly" taking every little signal for canter. I let him gallop up the field a bit once he was warmed up, just to get the butterflies out of his feet and he was feeling so good that when I let him stretch down he actually dropped his nose all the way down to the ground and dolphined up the hill a bit. He wasn't really bucking...just playing. When I asked him for his right lead he threw it so easily and it felt so smooth that I actually had to look to see if he had thrown the correct one, which he had. He's holding that canter lead for longer and longer now and the strides themselves feel much more even and controlled.
After our little play session we worked on some trot poles. John was surprisingly good for them (last time he was like a drunken sailor and had a minor heart attack when he realized that he had to THINK about where his feet were going) I had to keep reminding myself that I needed to be directive with him (Emmy was the kind of ride where you just turn your head and she goes there) and that he's a little claustrophobic with the bridle...a long and quiet rein makes him happiest. Thinking about doing a little more flat work today and then maybe finishing up with some jumping. If the trails are dry enough we can go over there and jump some cross-country...I'm sure he would like that!
I also snapped a picture of him yesterday with my phone...I can't believe how different he looks compared to spring time when I first started working with him...look at the change!
Above is Johnny pictured on May 14, 2009 after I had just finished clipping all of the matted 3 inch long hair off his body (save for the saddle mark and his legs) I had only ridden him 4 times.
Johnny yesterday (Aug. 11, 2009) after four months of correct feeding, deworming, grooming and good riding. What a difference! (and yes, he has a brand on his neck)
Peace.Love.Ponies.
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