Stressage and the koff

Dressage is undoubtably an art.
It is also just the basic training for horse and rider.

Therefore, if I ride my horse, I should be able to do dressage.
Right?

Well, yes, in theory. But not if your horse develops a slight, but persistant, cough.

Sigh....

Max gets a holiday every year while I am insanely busy with my job. He goes to my coach's place which has the most awesome hills, and he gets to hang out with the Big Horses and also his BFF Dinky. This year, I thought of a Brilliant Plan and convinced Coach that she should ride Max in the Winter Dressage series. He needs to get out and do some stuff (you know, like actually canter and work properly) and she needs to get her competition brain in gear so she can take her warmbloods out competing.

But good ol' Goober starts to cough. And cough. And has a bit of a runny nose, but not really snotty. None of the other horses has any sign of a cough, but maybe it was already brewing and the stress of moving brought it on. He was still perky enough, and eating well (as usual), so it didn't seem worth calling the vet out. We just made sure he was warm, added a few herbs to his "feed" [chaff + minerals, ha! but it is in a feed bin like everyone else's, so must be feed, eh?] and waited.

That was six weeks, and two scratchings from the dressage series ago. He still has the "koff" although it doesn't sound as bad now. I put him out on the lunge on Saturday, and he coughed twice when starting, nearly pulled my arm off cantering around like an idiot, and coughed once more on the other rein. Hmmmmmm.

The grazing owner has heard him cough in the paddock too. I still don't think the vet will be able to do anything but it is starting to drive me cray-cray. We are entered for dressage on June 10th and I haven't ridden him for two and a half months. Might be interesting!

February - goals/achievements

Wow, March already! And officially the start of autumn for us down here next to Antartica.

Not much riding got done this month, due to an exponentially growing workload and all-round crap weather. We have officially had a "stink summer" this year through all of NZ, and although the ground is still pretty good and soft, it hasn't been much chop for anything much. We've spent more time in the indoor arena than we usually do in winter. Okay, maybe not, but you know....

February Goals:
1 - Pilates for my position and core strength.

Success (sort of). We started a horse-focussed Pilates course with Max's physio (she's a Pilates instructor too, as well as a human physio) and we've done 3 sessions. Not much core strength, but some flexibility shown. Definitely wonky all round, but that's not unusual in our group so we all feel about as useless as each other.
I must do some practise though!

2 - Work on trot for both of us, and our fitness

Ummm....Fail. See above for comments on not much riding time. I've only had two riding lesson this month due to one thing and another, once Max had his back up and so we did lots of walking, the other time he was sticking me up, so my coach got on board. So he's improved but me, not so much.


3 - Canter work to improve balance and control. Refine the aids, ensure the correct lead every time

Fail. Ditto lack of riding, but this is an on-going goal so it just goes on the list again.


4 - Continue going on adventures out and about BUT no jig-jogging

Success. We went out solo around the vineyard and had no bolting, just a tad of jig-jogging which was firmly nipped in the bud. He was a bit stressed as they have started the bird-scaring (sparkly tape, bangers etc) and threw a tantrum went we got back to the float. We also went out to a friend's place and hacked for two hours over the hills. Just a little bit of jogging, and one fall (more later on that). AND we went to the Hunt Club's practise day for an outing, and he coped pretty well with the hooning about/whip cracking/lunatic ponies/killer water pump shed. Just one or two one-rein stops when he felt like he was going to leave town. A fellow green horse owner commented on how chilled out he seemed. But then that might be relative to her stroppy skewbald mare who was having a right old paddy!


March goals:

• Work on trot for both of us
• Canter work
• (Hippo)Pilates, and practise!

Unfortunately, March is the start of our crazy/busy season at work. So Max gets to have a nice little holiday where he runs around on some hills, and I go into horse-deprivation. However, there is a sneaky plan where someone else might ride him in some of the Winter Dressage....

January - goals and achievements

I haven't specified any goals for us in the past. But I think I will start doing it now, especially as we finally seem to be getting somewhere!
(With apologies to Andrea at
http://eventing-a-gogo.blogspot.com for stealing her format)

January 2012 Goals:

Rising trot (me) - doing it correctly and working on fitness and core strength
Success - getting better but I need to do more. Also need more pilates work, but our physio is going to do specific horse-rider classes this year! AND I need to sit on my fit ball while I watch TV.

Sitting trot (Max) - schooling with my coach to teach him to lift his back
Success! He looks like a real dressage horse and seems to have a good work ethic.

Canter (both of us!) - give canter a go without freaking out and panicking
Success! We cantered on both reins in Nicky's HUGE arena without tantrums or bucking, or hysteria on my part. We also had a few less-controlled canters around the cross country paddock at the Park. Almost-but-not-quite running away on someone's part, followed by "so you want to canter, do you????" from someone else. Both ended up puffing and exhilarated.

Go out in the world!
Success!We went to Nicky's arena last Saturday (about 15 km from home) with a few wrong turns, so that tested Max's travelling skills. Also this month, we have been out for a hack along the Tutaekuri River, and in a groupof about 6 at the beach. Unfortunately, Max decided he would jig-jog all the way home both times. So he isn't going out in a group again until we have that sorted.


Summer twilight dressage
Fail. The first one was just two weeks after New Year's and we hadn't done enough riding. The second one was last week, and still not enough riding, no canter skills and I'm over paying good entry fees just for an outing. We need to be getting out with the intention of competing.


February Goals:
1 - Pilates for my position and core strength
2 - Work on trot for both of us, and our fitness
3 - Canter work to improve balance and control. Refine the aids, ensure the correct lead every time
4 - Continue going on adventures out and about BUT no jig-jogging


That should keep us out of trouble for a bit...

A good horse is never a bad colour

From The Young Lady's Equestrian Manual (circa 1838)

"Of all colours presented by the horse, none is so rich and at the same time, so elegant and chaste, as a bright bay; provided the mane, tail and lower parts of the legs be black. A small white star on the forehead, and a white speck on one of the heels, are to be considered rather as beauties than defects: but much white either on the face or legs … is quite the reverse of desirable."

Ha! I'm finally fashionable. 

Only two hundred years or so too late, of course.

Christmas Ribbon Day 2011

Yep, that is a first-place ribbon, and for the Turn-out class no less!!!

This was our first attempt at showing (also called "dolly classes" or just-going-around-in-interminable-circles) at the riding club Christmas ribbon day. Showing is not at all my cup of tea, it bores me senseless and I feel very uncomfortable with the whole beauty show mentality. I hate people looking at me and I would rather have a task to do - having a dressage test or some jumps to do suits my goal-focussed brain much better.

However, as we are not ready to do any jumping at this stage, there aren't many options for outings. And I figure it is good for both of us to go out in a crowd and experience a day at a show. I definitely need to do more practise on plaiting and figure out how to use my new braiding wires that are so much easier to get out than rubber bands!

Maxie was undeniably a star! He managed to keep his plaits in overnight and only rolled in the mud a little bit so it took longer for me to make myself presentable than it did for him. I didn't think we had a snowball's chance in a supernova in the turnout class, but figured we might as well as some of the others hadn't plaited. And waddyaknow - we won it! He does look gorgeous in the photo but I suspect the judge didn't look at my plaits very closely, and my gear doesn't match and so on. But a red ribbon is a red ribbon!

We also placed third in Best PARC Riding Club Mount, fourth in Best Mannered and fifth in Best Rider. As we don't yet have a steady trot, we definitely were not going to canter in a huge paddock, but that didn't seem to worry the judge.So, four ribbons out of six classes and I am more than happy to now retire from showing forever more!

He was definitely tired by the last class and kept turning his head around to look at me as if to say "Why are we still going around out here?" I suspect I have started to turn him into a bit of a nancy boy dressage queen with only riding in the indoor arena for less than an hour. Note to self - get in the saddle for longer! So we didn't do the games classes and he got to stand at the float and demolish a large haynet for a while.

After lunch, we dressed up for the fancy dress class - more on that soon!

I was so pleased with how my little guy coped with a very big day out (for him), behaved perfectly when the others were cantering around him, stood well at the float when I left him, and loaded up and went home like a champion. Other people might wonder why I didn't do the jumping as well, but I think this was quite enough for a green horse to cope with. My coach is a great believer in breaking things down into small do-able chunks, and so I think that throwing Max into a whole day would be too much for him. Maybe next year we can go jumping?

Happy St. Stephen's Day

As I missed the opportunity to wish the world a happy Christmas, I will send my thoughts to everyone for the feast of St. Stephen.

AKA Boxing Day here. Which is now the number one shopping day of all the year in New Zealand. And this year, even I found myself braving the shops with my Mum. Luckily, any of the shops I find interesting aren't open today. So my bank accounts were safe.

Season's Greetings to all.
(Next year, you never know, I might even get a themed photo to post!)

A week off

Lucky ol' Maxie Potaxie got a week off. I had planned for us to have a lesson but my coach wasn't feeling well, so she cancelled. I then spent most of the day watching the local dressage Champs (eek!) and so we just had a bit of a stroll around the paddocks. On the Sunday I had volunteered to write for forementioned Champs (double eek, as I got put in a Grand Prix class!). We had a little wander around the vineyard that afternoon but nothing like real work.

Then I was off for the week for work meetings, staying at our other site about 4 hours drive away. The fun of staying in motels and eating out all the time has definitely worn off!

One thing though, looking at the photo above taken on the Sunday, it sure has dried out here in the past week.

Max goes hacking!

Big breakthrough this weekend!

We'd had a good but pretty tough lesson on Saturday and if Max was feeling anywhere near as sore as I was, we just needed to do something different. So I thought we would try to go hacking in the vineyard again.


Just down the road from the paddock is one of our vineyards. Now, vineyards are brilliant for hacking around and doing fitness work. They leave huge headlands at the end of the rows so they can turn the tractors with sprayers etc around. See below:

So this means there is lots of grassed space around the edge of the vineyard which is all nicely mowed, flat and pretty safe. And the whole vineyard is fenced because although vines tend not to stray very much, they graze sheep there in winter. So if you did happen to fall off your horse, he can't go very far!

Even though it is just a mere 400 meters down the road, we took the float because it is not worth the arguments and stress of trying to ride up there. Apparently the roadside is overflowing with horse-eating tigers/lions/lampposts. Not to mention the blood-thirsty alpaccas that appear over the fence occasionally! We arrived, I shut the gate and unloaded the boy. He came off looking like a bit of a giraffe, but settled down when there was no-one to talk to.

I quickly got him saddled up and climbed on from the side of the float (note to self: teach horse to stand next to things for mounting). Off we went, a bit bouncy and syncopated, and indeed, quite giraffe-like. I have found that singing and talking to him helps. But I am not naturally talkative, so quickly run out of things to say, so I resorted to quoting any poetry I could remember. Not much poetry, it seems - a couple of Shakespeare's soliloquies, Spike Milligan, and some Pam Ayres. Poor horse.

But we survived a mostly sane ride right around the block, including across the scarey bridge and under the wind machines. I was so proud of my little guy! There was no way on earth he was going anywhere near the creek but I'm sure we can overcome this. We can go hacking!!!

Twilight Thursdays (5)

This week at the Park, I worked on introducing Max to the concept of "hacking". This requires some bravery especially for chicken bay horses who think everything might bite them. It seems that the secret is to keep said chicken horse distracted from approaching threats by asking him to stay focussed on what the rider asks.

So we wended our way around the Park. I just kept changing direction everytime he got distracted. So it was a pretty erratic path and must have looked completely insane to anyone watching. But what the hell, this is about my horse, not what anyone else thinks.

We even got into the Tucker paddock (very scarey area full of tigers!) and got all the way around the perimeter and through the (dry) water jump a couple of times. Success!

Jumping phase - combined training

50 cm.

One foot and 8 inches (I think)

Not the actual round, but representative

That's not going to get us to the Olympics.

Well, it might but it will be a v  e  r  y   s  l  o  w  journey! However, we all have to start somewhere. And since we don't really have canter doing a jumping round is a big ask. (But look at how snapped-up those knees are! George Morris would be impressed.)

I was so proud of my little guy. He was pretty freaked out by all the coloured poles, and wings and fillers and STUFF! in front of him. The riding club girls had got out most of our toys, so we had a green wall, a white picket fence, a painted fill as well as lots of oxers. But I just sat quietly, put my legs on and said "Yes!" everytime Max got a bit looky. He is such an honest horse, he just believed me and went forward. We lost a bit of control in the in-between bits (hence the long time for the jumpoff) and so I think no more jumping for us till we are more in control.

But I think this is a good sign for the future, if he will listen and go even when he isn't sure. I just have to figure out how to make him catty and brave for cross country. Anyone want to take a little llama-horse out hunting for me????

Combined training

No photos of this as the photographer was also the secretary. Probably just as well, really.

I know we aren't ready for real competition. But it was just a low level, riding club day and I figure every time I have to ride into a dressage arena will be good for my nerves. At least this time we weren't completely last or eliminated. 
 Results:

Test 1.1 

Max 53.63

This put us in 8th=, and the winning score was only 60.

50cm SJ 
Max C C C C C C C C C C 0 
Jumpoff C C C C C C 0 1.09.78
We were 8th in this too. But I was so proud of him as this was his first ever clear round, and jump off!


Now that I think about it, this was quite a step up for us. We had only ever done the low level Pony Club or Training tests, so this was our first ever real dressage test! Good to start with the first prelim test (1.1) even if we didn't do the canter part of it.


In my previous lessons we had worked on a warm-up routine. Starting with lots of walking to get the fluids moving and the muscles warmed up. Long rein to start, then picking him up and starting to use some contact to ask for roundness. Alternating working paces with stretchy rests, and then adding in a bit of trot. Now, our trot is still a work in progress, so I do just a little bit. Or else it all turns to crap and the llama is back with a vengence! 

On the day my nerves were obviously affecting Max as he was quite spooky, and "looky" at the other horses, the cross-country jumps etc. I just kept asking him to concentrate (as best he could) and tried to stick to the plan. The judging was running early, but I know my rules, so I kept on warming up till my set time. Then a friend on a young TB went past, looking greenish and sick. I offered her my time so she could get it over with, and then rode after her.


We were tense, but there were a few (all too short, fleeting) moments of nice work where it all came together. Unfortunately if you don't do the canter parts of this test, you end up endlessly trotting with just one walk on a loose rein across the diagonal. We scored 4s for all of the canter parts, so overall we didn't do too badly. The judge's comments were fair, including criticism of my circles (diamond shaped) but also some nice comments too.


Next - show jumping!

Twilight Thursday (4)

It rained.


Rally cancelled.

: (

Twilight Thursdays (3)

We had to miss a week, as I was away for work but we were back again this week. I had had a pretty shit day with vehicle issues and running late for appointments and lots of swearing. So I wanted to have a quiet outing on my nice little horse to cheer me up.
And good ol' Maxie did just that!

It was just an intimate gathering of three, all young/green horses, so we stuck together. Nice too, not to have others hooning about and no displays of rearing/bucking/bolting. The pony club had left up a little showjumping course for us to use and put away. Even at 65 cm it was too big for us greenies, so luckily K was on hand to reduce it to a ridiculous height (on the bottom of the jumpstands!).

Max for some reason best known to himself, charged off and cantered through the trotting poles. Maybe a bit of panic from seeing so many poles? Who knows, but I kept quiet and got him trotting through with some nice elevation in the end. We played around with trying to achieve a nice working trot and popping over any jumps that got in the way. Max found it all very exciting though and kept breaking into a rough canter, so I think we need to get some real jumping lessons soon.

The only negative thing was that he has started to be difficult to load into the float. I wonder if the longer trip the other weekend has scared him a bit, and there is a definite regression in his behaviour. I'll have to invest some time in more float training, although he still goes on pretty easily. It's just annoying when he doesn't just walk straight on! I have to remind myself how far we have come with this though, and not panic.

Twilight Thursdays (2)

See what I mean about the tummy?

So this week was a bit less stressful for us. No loose horses galloping about to start with. Max seemed to recognise the park, and go "all right, here we are again". We set off hacking around with a group of others, one of who was a young mare that was feeling pretty fresh. She started hopping up and down which didn't seem to worry Max as long as I kept him distracted.

We got over to the other side of the cross country paddock (all the flags were up for an ODE that weekend, sigh...) and I was talking to the woman next to me on a little skewbald. She had just finished saying he was much better this week, when he suddenly bolted off on her. She held on as long as she could, and then crashed to the ground in a heap. All that excitement, with people yelling helpful advice, set off the mare again. She started to seriously rear and then threw in a good buck as well. Poor old K didn't have a chance of sitting through that, so she hit the ground too.

Max was pretty googly-eyed by this stage and starting to tense up, so I took him off on a quiet mission to catch the loose pony. He helped me do that and we returned the pony to the shaken but unhurt rider.
After that, we just pottered around practising being brave on our own, with a few halts here and there and decided that was enough for one day.

So although my little horse is green and a bit spooky, it could be worse!

Max Snax

I'm a great believer in positive reinforcement and/or food bribes. One of Max's favourite treats are little crunchy biscuit-like thingies. He will load onto the float and then crane his head and neck right around to look at me behind him. The look on his face is all "I've done my bit, now where's my reward?". So I always have a few in my pocket to give him.

But then the shops ran out!

I asked my good friend, Dr Google, about a recipe and had a go at making my own horse treats. The first batch was obviously very palatable to Max (but then he is known for being a "gannet") if a bit crumbly. I'm sure a bit of experimentation will sort that out though.
 
He loves them, so I called them Max Snax!

• 1 c flour (preferably wholemeal)
• 1 c rolled oats
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 Tablespoons molasses (optional)
• other options - crushed linseed, sunflower seeds, coarse cornmeal etc

Line a shallow baking tin or tray with baking paper. Set oven at 150 C.
Mix ingredients together.
Add enough water to make a firm dough.
Press out till about 0.5 cm thick, mark into squares with a knife.
Bake gently for at least an hour, until very crunchy.
Turn the oven off, and leave to dry out in the oven.
Store in an air-tight container. Hand out if your horse deserves them, especially once he is in the float.
(Or if you just feel like it!).

Twilight Thursdays

Our riding club is based at our Equestrian Park, and so we have access to a great venue. Each Thursday now that Daylight Savings has started, we have a twilight rally after work.

The plan is to get Max to as many of these rallies as I can. Hopefully they will be quiet little low-stress outings for us, and then I might be able to take him out on a few small/short treks. There is only so much riding around in circles that a girl and her horse can cope with!

Max was a bit astonished to be wrapped up and loaded into the float on a weeknight. I was well-armed with Max Snax though, so he went on happily enough. The Park is only a few ks down the road, so it is a quick trip and we were among the first to arrive. He came off the float looking  like a giraffe, and immediately made friends with the two horses at the next-door float. That was going swimmingly until they went off to ride in the other paddock. So panicky little Stress Horse appears, spinning around to the end of his rope and knocking me aside as I tried to put his boots on.

I had started to get some sense back into his brain when someone else arrived, and promptly let go of their horse, who proceded to gallop around the paddock like a manaic. Great! Stress Horse was back and even more hyped up now. Eventually I caught the offender, handed him back to his (completely unembarrassed, unworried) owner, (thanks for that!) and got Max tacked up. I'd added a running martingale so I had something to hang on to in an emergency, and to stop the llama getting his head up too far.

We did a bit of ground work, and wandered about talking to everyone for a while. Then we went off to the PC paddock where I used one of the cross country jumps to get on. Training size rolltop = Max sized mounting block!

He was a bit tense to start with, all googly eyes and llama neck. But we just kept trooping on with some accompaniment from his newest BFF Maurice, until Maurice lost the plot and we went solo. There were people cantering huge circles, thundering past jumping the cross country jumps, horses going sideways in a panic, and the horse-eating sheep - all of which he coped with really well. I was so proud of how he got his brain in gear and got calmer as we went on. We ended by popping over a few little poles (cross training is the way to go for the baby eventer!) and I went home very proud of my little guy.

The Unbearable Roundness of Bellies

It is fair to say that Max is a "good doer".

He gets through winter with just some hay, the paddock and maybe 400 grams of barley a day. The rest of the year he just gets a skerrick of chaff and sugarbeet to disguise his minerals and toxin binder.

This year I was behind the balland missed the boat and he managed to pile on at least 30 kilos in a week. His paddock mate moved out, and I hadn't realised how much the grass was growing so was still hard feeding him. And when I took his cover off in front of my coach - it was a bit like seeing the Thelwell pony, but with longer legs!

 

Image from www.thelwell.org.uk with thanks

Not quite what I have in mind when I think of my all rounder!

So that was the end of the hard feed, he got moved into another paddock with two mates and I contemplated a muzzle. I haven't inflicted the muzzle on him yet as he has dropped quite a lot of weight already. But it is there and waiting...

Progress, of Sorts

In the two years I've had Max, we have had ups and downs. I guess some people would think it is taking way too long for us to get out and do anything. But I have to remember that I'm just a novice, with my first green horse, and that my job gets in the way of my riding.

I am hugely, extremely lucky to have a talented, well educated coach to help me on the way. She is also busy - working, training her own horses, training other people's, and teaching.

She got on Max the other day and it was impressive to see my little horse pick himself up and move! He is capable of really swinging his back and even though he isn't completely straight (he dishes) he looked like a dressage horse. Now, I just have to learn how to ride like that and we might get somewhere.

He is now really good to load into the float (as long as there are Max Treats for him once he's on). I took him to the Park the other weekend, just to watch and eat his haynet. He came off the float, took a good look at everything and then stood to be groomed and walked around calmly. And then he loaded up and went home. No problems.

So this week we will start going to the Twilight rallies the riding club are running. If I can find a girth to go around that tummy (!), we will have a ride around and just see how things go.

Dressage - the day after

We survived.

 

In fact I was laughing during my second test. See, I just stress myself out.

Stressage!

Now that I have 2 tests to ride this Sunday, I am wondering why I keep entering things.

We are not ready to be seen in public.

We won't be cantering at A, and so will get a big fat 0 on that movement.

On both legs.

So we will come last (unless someone is silly enough to get eliminated).
We got eliminated last time for jumping out of the arena.

My coach is probably just too polite to tell me that I'm just wasting my money and time.

I can't ride to save myself.

I have to plait Max up, and that is going to be a dog's breakfast. And I'm not even going to attempt to plait his tail, or pull it. It is lovely and natural, and is going to stay that way.

I'm going home to drink some wine now. (Sob).