Cinder goes to Boarding School

I promise I'll update about Peebs' adventure but I'm still waiting for the pro photog to get back to me. Apparently he only posts some of the pics he took and if none of yours got posted you have to email him. So fingers crossed he gets back to me and took pics of us!

Anyways, Cinder left for boarding school yesterday. I was surprisingly anxious about it. Even though Trainer S seems super nice and sweet, I had visions of Cinder getting judged, or somehow flunking out. I was also trying to figure out what tack I should send her with. I didn't want to be "that" owner and bombard S with a ton of questions, or show up with a tack room's worth of shit, so I narrowed it down to brushes, Cinder's boots, and her bridle. And she's only 25mins away so if I need to bring something else over I will.

She wasn't too sure about the decorations till we gave her her grain then they became perfectly fine

Tuesday, the day before she left, A's mom, J, gave Cinder a going away party. She and A decorated Cinder's stall front, bough a goodie basket of treats, and then got pizza and a cake for us humans. J was almost more worried than I was about Cinder leaving. She's super attached to Cinder, since Cin is such an attention whore. I've already told J I'll take her over to visit.

Treats, a jolly ball, fly spray, lickit, and a salt block

I realized as I was hooking up the trailer that Cinder hasn't been hauled anywhere since she came to TCF last year. A was helping load and coming with me and thankfully it only took about a minute to get Cinder on the trailer. She did pitch a big fit during the first 10mins of the drive and arrived drenched in sweat. I guess I should haul her more than once a year.

I've only had a couple nightmares about her deciding to jump out of her stall

She settled in at VVF relatively quickly. Trainer S had just thrown everyone dinner so there was hay in her stall and after investigating Cinder quickly started eating.  Currently she's right next to the cross ties and tack room, so she'll get getting everyone's attention as they go past her, which she'll love. Trainer S and I talked a little bit more and I reluctantly said good bye and told Cinder to behave. I am going to check on her after work but S said she'll text me updates.

Two Years

Wednesday was McKenna and my two year anniversary. I really can't believe it's been that long. In many ways I feel like a slacker and that we should be farther along in her training than we are but all I do is have to look back at where she was and I realize how far we've come.

First ride.

Two years later

We had a lesson that night and apparently I had my big girl breeches on because we jumped the boxes for the first time! I think it was a combination of the new bit, trot poles, and actually feeling like I had brakes because I was much braver than I have been for months, if ever with her. It felt like we were on the same page and I could relax a bit and let her go. Especially after the fences I was able to get up in a half seat and let her cruise right along. It was a very, very nice feeling. 

I got this mom!

What Success is to Me

I've been mentally writing this post for the past couple days, and think it's perfect that Tracy posted on it as well.  On Saturday we had another dressage lesson with TS and on Sunday our massage therapist was out to work on McKenna. On both days I was complimented on just how far the mare's come and how she seems like (finally) she's growing up.

Tia trying to get McKenna to play in the paddocks.  McKenna says "I've grown up now, I don't do that anymore"

Our lesson went really, really well.  We started with some walk-halt-rein back exercises that I've been doing after watching the Melanie Smith Taylor clinic. I've found that it helps McKenna focus, especially went she wants to be a bit up or spooky.  TS really had me focus on making sure McKenna was straight.  Both directions she wanted to float her haunches to the left, but a little left leg and right rein fixed that.

We then moved on to trot work where we were again complemented on how far McKenna's come.  She was able to come round, work the whole arena, and change directions and bend quietly.  TS had us come back to the walk to star some leg yields, and once we go them we tried it at the trot.  I've attempted leg yields a few times, but I'm never quite sure I have them on my own.  TS said they looked very good, the only thing I need was a bit more opening outside rein to help guide her over.  We did get told to not do too many; McKenna's the type of horse that once she's got something she gets cranky if we drill it too much. She's got a healthy ego and knows when she's right and doesn't see the point in doing something again.

The look of a champ

Four our canter work McKenna did her normal routine going right: counter bend, slow down, and not want to go forward.  TS said I was nagging too much with my inside leg, to give her one or two swift "karate kicks" then take pressure off.  I was also sitting too deep in my left seat bone when I needed to shift my weight to the right.  Once I figured myself out and quit nagging the mare, we had some nice canter transitions.  Funny how that works.  TS had me do a circle at each short end then start some shallow serpentines, from the rail to the quarter line and back, to introduce the feeling of counter canter.  Our first few times were pretty rough, but we improved each time and that's what matters.  That's our homework for next time.

At the end of the lesson we stopped and chatted with TS in the center of the right and she kept complimenting me and McKenna (including lots of head scratches and baby talk), saying just what an nice horse she is and how far she's become.  It really made my happy and I realized that this is what success is.  It's taking an unbalanced, somewhat crazy young OTTB and bringing them along myself.  It's that feeling of accomplishment after a great lesson or hack knowing you put this horse together and knowing there's still more to come.

Off The Rails

Considering how little I've ridden or worked the horses in the past few weeks, McKenna was awesome in our lesson last night.  I lunged before getting on, making sure she got her bucks out.  To warm up Jen had us do some baby leg yields at the walk.  Usually I do leg yields from the quarter line to the rail, but in doing that McKenna would pop her shoulder and fake it.  But going from the rail to the quarter line, she would stay connected and actually leg yield. 

In our trot work McKenna's been a bit sassy, flipping her head to avoid contact or bending.  Every time she did that, I was to circle her and ask for bending and softness.  As soon as we turned away from the rail she would quit the head flipping and become so soft and round.  We did a lot of circling, sometimes only going two or three steps straight along the long sides before circling again.  Right now her biggest issue is that she leans to the outside and wants to use the rail as a crutch and not bend her body.  By working her off the rail and doing random circles she has to listen to me as to where we are going and how to bend and use her body.

Along with that, we did some changes of direction across the diagonal lines.  Going right to left, she'll move off my left leg and change the bend pretty well.  Left to right is much harder.  She wants to pop the outside shoulder and when I put my right leg on to ask her to move over she gets excited and tries to canter.  We went back and forth working on having a strong half halt with both reins, then asking her to move over with the right leg while opening the left rein. It got better but it's definitely something we'll have to work on.

I had asked Jen for some pole exercises to do since I know I get bored with baby flat work and I'm pretty sure McKenna does too. She set up a baby 6inch crossrail in the center of the ring at X and told me to circle over it.  We started to the right, McKenna's better side, and the first time she looked at it but wasn't scared or worried.  More of a "Huh, that's new" type of thing.  I admittedly was a bit nervous of how she'd handle it so I didn't give her the best ride and let her get crooked and a bit behind my leg but McKenna just trotted right over it, no problem.  We came back around a few times till we could get the right approach and every time she just stepped right over. 



Proud of her first "jump"

We changed direction and the first time going left we had some steering issues after the crossrail and almost ran into the wall.  Oops.  But the second time was much better and by the third time I had her exactly where she needed to be.  We'll start working that exercise into our routine and the next step will be to figure 8 over it, making sure to get a nice change of bend.

"It's an easy four"

I'm convinced that sometime in the last week some one stole Buddy and replaced him with another horse that looks identical but is forward, light, and responds to aides!  Buddy was awesome in our lesson yesterday.  We started by trotting in and trotting out of a line with two tiny verticals.  Normally he couldn't care less about trot fences, so I wasn't expecting it to be a hard exercise. Well, he jumped the first very well and so strong down the line we had to circle so I could get him to trot.  Same thing the second time thru, only I was able to halt him a stride away from the second fence, then back him up and trot it.  By the third time he figured out what we wanted and we had a nice line.

From there we did a small, single oxer on the outside.  He started out a little behind my leg, and we got a couple iffy spots to it.  After one lap around the ring at a hand gallop, he was much more adjustable and we nailed it.  We took at walk break at this point while Jen adjusted some of the fence heights and made the oxer bigger and into a Swedish.

Jen gave me a little course to do, starting with the line we warmed up with.  She said "it's an easy four."  Well, nobody told Buddy that and we zoomed up the line in about 3.25 strides. At the second stide I thought "Oh shit" and started praying. I thought we were crashing thru the second fence for sure, but he somehow got his feet under him and made it over.  We went to do it a couple more times, and he was so strong I had to hold him all the way down the line but we got the four.  When did my horse suddenly have big boy strides?

 During another walk break Jen and I talked about how that now that the fences are going up (we were doing 2'6"-2'9"), and he has to use his body correctly, that he's opening up his stride and really jumping with a lot more scope. The down side, is he gets tired quicker and we can't do as many jumps per lesson. We ended up doing only about 45 mins, but it was productive.

We went back to do the rest of the course Jen set, minus the line, so we could work on some of the turns.  It was a single diagonal plank fence, to the outside oxer, to another single diagonal with the new box under it, then a quick right hand rollback to another diagonal.  There were a couple times he wanted to get quick and lean thru the turns so we circled, but over all he was great.  When I asked him to move up, he did, and even though we had to circle he came away better balanced and packaged.  We had one fence that he was sitting on his hind end to so much, that I felt like I was riding Phoenix.  Buddy tend to be down hill, but yesterday his front end was so lifted and up.  I'm not exactly sure how to ride it yet, but I like it!