So I totally forgot to talk about some things I have learned along the way and so instead of doing it all in one post Ill talk a bit about each gait.
I have been smurfing along and rubbing shoulders with GP riders to try and steal some of their "ways" and though it doesnt magically make me wake up a female Edward Gal (Or a male Anky??) I have learned quite a bit!
Basics basics basics.
I go read about people hob nobbing (sp?) with those who get hob nobbed on and all I see are... Good. Solid. Basics.
Lack of fear of new things and hard things but in small bites, but really, essentially, boring smoring basics perfected.
Leg yeild seems to the be the current old new and yes even at canter.
But wait! Wont their legs tangle up and everyone die? Small bits and bites my cool reading friend. Tiny ones. Personally at canter I like to do it at a walk or trot first before canter to make sure all coordination is good and they are supple enough anyway.
Then once I am cantering I like to just use it a tiny bit like if Im at the rail and could inch a bit closer to start.
Of course spiral in and out using it a bit there on a circle.
Then after they show ability with this I will at a later point do a very straight canter asking for them to move laterally yes :)
These pics dont show any lateral just canter to share but that is one tidbit at this gait that Ive learned recently to use in my tool belt. Ill try to put more each time I think about as I go!
Sooooooo I always have some fad diet or some new workout I’m
trying, because conventional things like denying myself cookies (which I’m
eating some right now) and just doing basics like walking and jumping jacks don’t
seem to cut it with me.
So I tried Pilates last night. Oh, no, not just any Pilates
where you lay on the floor and have to hold different painful positions that
have you checking your bday date to make sure you actually are not 90 years old
because you must be if the gal on the screen can keep her leg in that position….
I call this the cat cleaning itself position, anyway if the gal is holding that
position and not only are you NOT able to do it you are also very much
obviously doing something else entirely. You cant even fake it…. Not even
close.
No. I did the resistance Pilates
with the stretchy thing should come with a date on it of expiration because I
swear after too many stretches it WILL break and honest to goodness its going
to happen when I’m in the worst position ever, with my eye lined up directly
with its trajectory.
Have I told you that I am clumsy
yet? Oh, well, let me just be sure you realize just how clumsy. Ive literally
stepped into not one, two , but THREE items on my floor that COULD be stepped
into since having a daughter. Oh well that happens you say. Not at the same
time. Foot goes into little tiny wagon, I jump hop and trip into another foot
into a box, the one in the wagon leaves the sliding plastic vehicle of death
and steps into the play box. Imagine the stupidest stunt on a comedy you have
seen? That was me. Only I was dead serious, and probably on my iphone.
My husband tells me all of the
time I’m clumsy. Like whenever I’m carrying something fragile he says, “Are you
sure about that?”
Anyway I simply cant tell you how
stupid it was of an idea to give a clumsy person a stretchy thing and have her
pull and wrap and pull it and supposedly try to do it all with a certain amount
of grace. I looked like a bear that had just left hibernation and stepped into
a trap.
Have you ever just felt like the Holidays are going to suck the life out of your riding but its a really nice break?
Honestly I have been riding and working on my riding and reading up on my riding and posting on the boards about my riding and buying new stuff for my riding and dreaming about my riding and then well it is Thanksgiving/Christmas/New year and repeat, buuuu--- uuuut this year I just feel like taking some time to do the dang thing. Yep. Meals and all, tree and decor.
Seriously, this has nothing to do with my new status as a mother ( eye roll ). No really. Okay maybe a little teeny tiny stocking at the end of my non-existing-military issued imaginary chimney has something to do with it.
Instead, this year, I put the brakes on the whole rush towards I dunno what and decided it was time for a little break :)
If it goes anything like my riding I will have to take a few lessons in turkey basting, and probably forget to drop my heels while baking santas cookies.
Dashing through the snow, on a one horse open sleigh? Is he behind the verticle you ask?
Be happy if he has a bridle that fits I reply.
And just what in the North Pole is a jingle horse? (giddyup jingle horse pick up your feet)
Speaking of picking up your feet have you been on the boards lately? All of that new stuff going on there!? JUUUST kidding. Its still right were you left it mid mud slinging at anyone who can actually ride the jingle into their horses vs the shuffle into their buffalo.
So I have a new vid even if it is a bit choppy. My camera gal was too busy to really do it in the end and had to deal with kidlets.
I will leave you with this. My daughter just got a new rocking horse from her Auntie from the west. It neighs and makes sounds. The first thing she did was try and check its teeth... Good girl.
After a fried onion and a baked chicken I ate myself full
enough to start thinking too deeply for any good to come of it.
I started to think about what it I would actually do with
all of this useless knowledge about leg yields and transitions if I ever
decided to give up on my riding endeavors.
At three thousand visits someone has to be reading this so I
ask this of you. Imagine if I decided to give my career the attention it
deserves and I climbed the ladder up to the big high rises where I picture a
far more likable boss. I’m crossing the
road fully dressed the part (I picture myself very thin in this scene), and as
I go to step across the lines in the roadway suddenly I see a cavetti and feel
that bounce the horse gives going over those manmade hazards (albeit effective)
that they are.
Would it all be worth it? Naaah.
I imagine that there a quite a few people
overseas reading these and thinking, “Oh that fattish American, how can she
ride in that unfashionable riding attire and crooked helmet?”
Well the boots are on order for the second time… So there.
Now onto business. I’ve been training with a new trainer for
a couple of months. She is German and like a real German from Germany unlike my
half breed German self that only really means I have big bones, feet, and have
a forehead that just keeps going.
My seat is getting the overhaul it needs, and we are working
towards some real sitting trot this round… Instead of that bouncing awful
forcing it to work sitting trot that I was doing before.
Things are looking up. Really up and I don’t have much else
to say. I want to wait to do an updated vid because honestly we are in that in
between stage where I hate everything I tape because I know better.
We all know the Olympics brings out the patriot in all of use right? Right? Well not really... There are plenty of woman who have the brain of a bathroom stall handwritten message to that (beep) Jessica. I know at times the green monster has made me think things, even say things that I am not proud of.... But you do grow out of these things (we hope), or at least we do grow out of being unable to stop continue to dig our grave after we notice everyone else in the room has stopped eating, or maybe even have lost their appetites over your tirade about how you could do it SOOO much better and just what is everyone including the judges, venue coordinater, spokes person, contenders, audience, that guy that cleans out the porta potty smoking because the sport that you once loved (50 years ago or even 5 minutes before you started your last period), is now completely abusive, impracticle (like thats ever changed) and just. plain. wrong.
My final thought of the day is to go ahead and get those flying monkeys and put THEM in fluffy's stall MKAY? Cause you've elevated to witch while the rest of us still wanna see the best go against the best and dream lollypop dreams of ever getting "there" so you can hate us too ;)
Some updated shots of my pony!
Hopefully Ill have some new horses to add to the roster... I recently got to ride some pretty awesome Connemaras and we have a Percheron coming in YAY!
I am sooo soo soo behind this video is about 6 months ago and prob 20 pounds too sadly enough!
Since the hubby has come home we have caught up on eating in a big way !
Anyway I do believe that the picture above is NOT a rider sizing up his competition, but rather one who is trying to see where everybody is at???
I feel like dressage SHOULD be like this. See those horses to the rear? Pretend they are the 100 billion dollar FEI perfect pony owners. You can A. Focus so much on that, that you get left in the starting gate. B. Focus enough on it so that you get left behind. Or you CAN do what the great Big Red did and run your own race!
All about that these days.
I promised I would ride what could be ridden and a LOVELY addition to my blog was Bella. A mare trained by her teenage owner primarily, and mostly in western disciplines. We did a video of her first ride EVER in dressage and left in UNCUT for your enjoyment.
There is a point in dressage where no matter how well you
ride, or how lovely your horse is you will wonder if you will make it through
the session without hitting the dirt, and even more so THAT other point will come
where you think that maybe it would be better if the broncing began, and the
dirt eating commenced, at least you would have had a ride end badly because
you couldn’t stay on the 8 seconds rather than everyone including your horse,
the trainer, that guy cutting the grass, but even more importantly yourself realize
that you had no clue what you were doing, have no clue what you are doing, and
probably for a long while WON’T have a clue what you are doing and so you
really ended on a “What now?” kind of note.
Later while
re-riding in your dreams and grinding your teeth into your pillow you will wake
up for that midnight summers eve pee to simplify it all into one very dreaded
thing…“Your seat needs lots, lots, and
lots of work.”
If you have hit that
point, or are at that point, or have been at that point, or even if are currently in
the mad house BECAUSE of that point then we are all on the same page… And I
truly believe that NOW is where dressage truly begins.
We can only hope our horse survives the journey!
My sabbatical from blogging has been because I have been on
the high and low crazy train and assuming that we were just ZOOMING along with our
final act before my next blog a shock and awe where I report my amazing climb
to whatever it is we were climbing to… Instead it actually has been a slippery
slope full of suddenly realizing I am in new territory with the horse and
without a trainer. VERY quickly I resolved to figure it out… Very quickly we
started doing lovely work and new stuff… BUT once it became not so new and we needed to make it consistent… ( crickets )
Can you say beginners luck rubs
off really fast when you are bouncing on an animal the size of a mini-coopers
back ten times real fast?
Try it.
I’ll wait.
You see doing a new movement once, twice, even a few days
worth is usually okay because you put your best foot forward and the horse is
usually still willing…. "Alright crazy 5.30 pm lady who is always in a hurry I'll try it .. What the hay!" BUT once they figure it is a little easier to be
crooked in that there shoulder in, and a little quick and flat at that there
lengthening, and maybe just maybe lots of breaking and lots and lots of ignoring
half halts is the way to go because you really have no leg do you DO YOU? TA TA
TADA! You now are not realizing what kind of things you are ANTI-training. Dun
dun DUUUUUUUN… Phantom of the opera music because the twist on this
post-apocalyptic horror show is that YOU are the ANTI-TRAINER!
I will post some of the older videos just to update, but
remember this is post-anti-dressage where I taught some movements, got them
pretty solid, and then proceeded undo all of the other things in the course of
a week… Or two… Or three.
