4-legged Friends

I have to say, I am THRILLED that Kaylee likes horses as much as she does. She also loves trains, cats, and her puppies, but she also likes the animal that is part of my soul. Robert took these videos today while she was playing with her horses/ponies and watching "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimeron". I just had to post them because they are adorable.

Yes, I am coaching her a little in the video, but that is just because we started filming just as she was getting done putting them to "bed" so she was starting to lose interest.

This is by far her favorite part of this movie. Lol, if you couldn't tell!

I re-opened the wound

on my heart. The one that I didn't think was still there.

I have been reading this blog for the past couple weeks, and it reminded me of a dream I once had.

When I was younger, I would have given anything to be a professional event rider. If not a pro. I would have loved to be able to live the life this girl lives. She gets to live her life for her horse and the sport of eventing.

A little background on the subject sense I don't write about horses much anymore:

My family has almost always had horses and we all got to ride and compete regularly. I was lucky enough to take lessons and compete in a few little one day mini events. Granted, the jumps were barely there (no more than 18") and two of them were for 4H, but to me they were the best ever!

Over the years, my confidence got shaken by riding, and falling off of, some crazy horses. That made me decide that I would rather just do Dressage. I had always been fascinated by Dressage, and love the feeling of a horse under me who is moving at its best. So I pushed the idea of eventing to the back of my mind.....and I thought I was fine with it.

Until now.

Now I don't have the time, money, or opportunity to live that kind of life, and it is kind of breaking my heart. I ache to be on a powerful horse galloping over a cross country course. I ache to have a special horse who I can dote on and play with. I really miss the adrenaline rush that comes with the danger of galloping over solid obstacles. I miss it all...

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my husband and daughter. I love the life I have now as a mom. I can't wait to have a little family. There is just a little part of me that wishes that I had the life that my 14 year old un-realistic self wanted.

Maybe someday.

Lesson 11/4/08

I hadn't heard anything about Meadow Lark from Marlo, so I figured my lesson was still on. I really was afraid that I was going to get there and find out the Meadow Lark had died, or been put to sleep. I was so happy that when I pulled up to the barn, there she was! It turns out that she was severely anemic, and that caused her gut to shut down which caused the colic. She was given oil to clear out her system, and several other medicines to keep her from dying. Then she was put on medicine for the anemia. She is like a different horse!

Marlo asked me to walk her a bunch while the lesson before me ended. Then before I got on, she started to try to lunge her. Little miss Meadow Lark decided that this ment she could lay down on the ground and roll; with a $1200 saddle on her back!! Marlo was screaming at her and finally had to smack her with the dressage whip in her hand to keep her from fully flip over on the saddle. Then I got to get on!

The lesson went very well. My pony finally had enough energy that I didn't feel like I was killing her. I think this anemia problem has been there for a long time. She was happy to work, and had energy without losing her mind and being wild. I worked a lot on having my ankles pushed out and the weight on my big toes which makes my internal rotation more solid and puts my tendon on better. This was really hard for me because I walk with my weight on the insides of my heels. I did a lot of trot work, learning to use compressions and decompressons on my armpit. That is where I tighten the muscles behind my armpit, which puts more tention and pressure on the reins, and then I loosen the muscles to give the horse a chance to self carry. It was really hard for me to do this, because I am used to giving and releasing with my finger so I don't keep my hands closed on the reins.

The canter work was great this week because for the first time ever Meadow Lark was happy to canter, and didn't get exausted. The one thing she still had trouble with though was slowing just to a trot after cantering. Marlo said that it is because she used to get so tired before that she needed to walk afterwards rather than trot. Another thing I really need to work on is, at the canter, keeping my lower leg back and off the horse's side. Then I work with gravity to keep my tendons on the horse's long back muscles. I also need to work on using my knees to leverage my butt on to the saddle on the beat of the canter that would usually lift me off the saddle. This balances and slows the horse's gate.

The past couple weeks I have had no excitment or want to go to my lessons. I really think that I have depression. I think this because I went from thinking about my lessons and Dressage all the time and practicing my position whenever I could, to never thinking about it and not really wanting to go to my lessons. I enjoyed my lesson this week, but up until I was in the saddle riding I had no desire to even go through with the lesson. It is really odd that my desire for this comes and goes like this. My interest in Agility hasn't changed, but I haven't been working with Hobbs as much as I was in the beginning. I don't know if that is because I don't want to or if it is just because I have started to run out of things to work on with him.

Hopefully on these days that I don't want to go to my lessons, the hour drive from Ogden will not deter me from going anyways.

Lessons and Meadow Lark

Last week my lesson went ok. I did wonderfully, and everything was getting easier and better. Meadow Lark however was not doing great. She had been kind of lethargic sense my lesson with Joanie, and was really tired during my lesson. We didn't push her very much, and she tried her hardest. There wasn't any pony stubbornness going on, she really was giving it her all and just couldn't do what I was asking. I figured all she needed was some rest and a break. I know I did! I was so happy after my lesson to realise that I had a whole week to recover from three lessons in one week.

About an hour ago Marlo called and said that Meadow Lark was still pretty out of it. She told me that she had colic yesterday, and was getting some blood work done. Marlo thinks there is something else going wrong with her organs, and that the colic was a symptem of that. I am really crossing my fingers that everything is ok with that cute pony! I am so afraid that the next thing I am going to hear is that she had to be put down. That would be really sad. So I am not going to have a lesson today, and will definatly have one next week even if I am using another horse. I really hope I get my Meadow Lark back though!

Best Lesson of My Life!

Yesterday was my riding lesson at Bella Stables with Joanie. All I can say is WOW!! I learned more in that 45 minutes than I have ever in a lesson!

I was really nervous all day, and went early to watch two of the lessons before mine....and to calm my nerves and get excited for my lesson. I got to watch Nancy with her ENORMOUS Hanoverian gelding. I can't even imagine riding a horse that big. She did a wonderful job with him, and has improved in the three weeks since I saw her ride for Joanie last. Then I got to watch Marlo's working student Jen ride her mare Kelly. This mare I guess has has some huge problems with soundness and moving in general. Jen never canter's this mare! They made Huge improvements in just one lesson! Joanie hadn't ever seen the mare, but thought she had potential to get completely past her issues and one day canter.

I got Meadow Lark(ML) ready, and warmed her up outside...which didn't go well at all! I was so afraid this was going to be a disaster. ML was very leg heavy, didn't want to go forward, and I for some reason couldn't keep my position very well. I was dreading having a horrible lesson (especially for $110) and embarrasing myself. Little did I know it would be amazing.

Finally it was my turn inside, and first Joanie talked to be about my riding experience and about what I wanted to work on. Body position was my answer and the lesson started. She had me just ride for a minute; trot in both directions, and then she had me come down and she talked to be about what she saw. Her first comment was that I had very well toned thighs, and that they were very stable in the saddle, and she didn't want to change them! I was happy with that, because I feel that way too. Then she started her critique, which was a lot of what I have been working on already. After a few rounds of posting trot she had me sit the trot which turned out to be incredibly easy! I usually have trouble sitting the trot, but this time it was very simple!

Joanie wanted me to pay closer attention to my seat bones and by the time I was sitting the trot I had a good idea of where they were, and where they needed to be. She also wanted my back to be in "neutral spine" which is where the curves of your back are the size they should be, and the they compress and extend without much effort....that doesn't make sense to anyone else, but I know what I am talking about. With my back in neutral spine, I really feel like I am hunched over, but really I am just sitting up straight rather than arching my back.

The best part of the lesson was when she put ML on the lunge line and had me drop my stirrups so that I could make a bicycle movement with my thighs, which in turn pushes one seat bone at a time down on the long back muscle of the horse. It was the most amazing Ah ha! moment ever! It just finally clicked, and I could feel that I was infuencing the movement of ML's back! Joanie told me to imagine that the horse's back was a basket ball and my seat was a hand and I was dribbling the ball. There would be a definate push down and an allow up. That is exactly what it felt like!! It felt like I was the one bouncing her back up and down, rather than her bouncing me up and down in the saddle. Joanie said that I found what is called my "Sweet Spot" and to remember the feeling. Once I was off the lunge line, I was very glad that I could keep that position!

Then I cantered a bit for her, and got my "sweet spot" a couple of times! ML was really lazy and kept breaking to the trot, so that was frustraiting. I am starting to realize that posting trot and canter are going to be the hardest gaits to master with sitting trot being the easiest. Most of the lesson was spent in sitting trot working with me being in neutral spine, and keeping my lower leg off, and bouncing ML's back with my seat. It was amazing and I can't wait for her to come next time! I will be taking more than one lesson next time.

Riding Lesson 10-14-08

Yesterday's lesson was a mixture of frustration and triumph. I was nervous already because I am taking a lesson from Joane on Saturday, and wanted to get everything I could out to this lesson to prepare for that one.

After I warmed up and did some box turns with Medow Lark.......oh first off her owner was there!

As I was tacking up, this lady came over and started talking to me. Kind of weird, and then I asked if she was Medow Lark's owner...and she was! It was a little un nerving to have her watching me groom her and tack up. Definitly not something I needed when I was already a bit nervous. I hope she didn't think I was rude, but I was trying to concentrate on what I was doing. I tried to be polite and ask questions about Medow Lark.

So once I was on in the ring, I forgot about the owner sitting on the side of the ring. I was totally focused on my internal rotation, boards, belly button to the spine, keeping upright, elbows bent and lowered, fingers closed, and weight on my big toe. All while I was steering and breathing. The lesson progressed quickly, and Marlo kept reminding me to keep my leg off the horse. Then before Meadow Lark could get tired, we cantered! It was much smoother getting her into the canter this time because I didn't get worked up about it. During the canter was a little bit harder this time. I was really focused on keeping my lower leg off, and in turn I was leaning forward a lot! Every time I tried to lean back I would lose my internal rotation and my lower leg would go on again. AGH! I want super muscles so this wont be as hard! I didn't even have time to think about my "1,2" beat at the canter or about leveraging with my thighs.

My trot work wasn't much better, because I realised that I wasn't doing my two-point thigh right. That is where I go into two point, and then start posting keeping my legs in the right internal rotation position. Well, the part I wasn't doing is the most important part! While I am in two point I am supposed to take the weight out of my stirrups so that I am using my thighs to keep my self in two point! That makes my thighs work in the way they are supposed to at all times. Once I realised that, I realised how much I wasn't using my thighs for my internal rotation!

Marlo coached me into the proper posting feeling...it is called having a sticky butt. Ok, not as weird as it sounds. It is where the down part of my posting, when done right, makes it feel like my butt is sticky and is pulling the horses back up with me when I rise. There is SO much to remember all at the same time! I can't wait for some of it to become natural and easy so that I can work on the other stuff! Why do I have to be so impatient about it!?! Anyways the new things I have to work on are:

Sticky butt on the down part of posting
Use my abs as if I am doing a crunch just before I hit the saddle
Concentrate on landing VERY softly on the the saddle
Going to the top of the rise EVERY time I post
Feel like I am going to jump my hips right over the horse's head
Using the outside of my thigh to keep my internal rotation
Feel like I am kneeling in the saddle
It is ok if I feel like my leg is too far back...then it is in the right place
LEAN BACK!!
Take my legs off the horse at the canter, bump the horse if needed, but don't grip
CLOSE MY FINGERS ON THE REINS!!
Put weight on my toes, especially my big toes

What I am hoping to work on during my lesson on Saturday is Body Position. Hopefully Joane will be kind, and help me! I am so nervous!!

Another Great Lesson

Today's lesson was excellent! While I warmed up Medow Lark, Marlo and I talked about the lessons with Jonie I had watched last saturday. I am taking a lesson from her not this saturday, but next and I am already nervous about it!

It seemed like my internal rotation was easier this week than it has been. Marlo must have agreed because she said that it looked like I was ready to canter! Cantering is the scary stuff for me, so I got a little tense. I got a little over zealous and spanked Medow Lark with the whip and she kicked out the first time I tried to get her to canter. Then I relaxed a bit and asked again more nicely, and off she went in a wonderful canter! I am glad that I got the first canter over with. I didn't fall off and I will be less nervous next time....I hope.

There was a little excitment during my lesson, when the stallion next door started screaming and making a huge ruccus in his stall. Marlo went over to make sure he wasn't loose. He wasn't but one of her mares was over there! It was Midnight the other lesson horse. She came flying into the arena through one of the side doors and almost ran over us! Needless to say that got Medow Lark rialed. Marlo asked me to dismount to calm her down, and finally we caught Midnight and put her back in her pen. Other than that it was an uneventful lesson.

Some new things I learned were:

To keep my torso vertical instead of leaning forward (imagine someone pulling back on my bra
At the canter there is a one, two, one, two beat with the seat bones. Beat one is the outside seat bone, and beat two is the inside
Lift with the thighs on the two beat at the canter
Keep my torso vertical especially when asking for the canter
Keep my lower leg further back to keep in under my body more
Lower my back muscle by keeping my elbows bent and lowered.
Fingers stay closed to keep the reins at a consistant length
Concentrait on putting weight on my big toes to close the top of the lower triangle (from the top of the inside of the thighs to my feet
Once again it was a very informative lesson, and I can't wait for next week! And I get to have two then!

Day With Mom

Yesterday I went on a horse ride with my mom! It was great! I haven't been on a horse in almost a year, which is kind of pathetic. We trailered the horses up the canyon and rode for a couple hours.

We parked near a camp ground surounded by a lot of beautiful trees

My trusty steed "Laddy" He is a Foxtrotter gelding, and is really nice to ride. He was having a bit of a bad day, but we got along pretty well.

My wonderful mom and her Arabian mare "Annie". This mare has come SO far since we got her several years ago. She was very nervous and skitish for a long time. After hundreds of trail rides, she has calmed down and is a great girl.

Me and Lad looking a little happier

He has HUGE ears!Us on the trail.

Lad didn't want to stand still long enough to take the picture. He didn't realize that if he had just stood still so we could get a good shot, we could get moving.

Mom, and Annie....who still didn't want to look at the camera.

Some more of the scenery

I hope I can go riding more often, and start taking some riding lessons again. After our ride we went home and picked some veggies out of mom's garden. It will be great to have some fresh vegetables.

I BOUGHT A HORSE TODAY!!!

I don't think I have mentioned on here that horses used to be a HUGE part of my life. If you had asked me 5 years ago if I thought I would have gone almost 6 months now without even touching a horse, I would have told you I would die first. Well obviously I am not dead....I thought I might die for the first few months back in 2005-6 when it was over a year between real horse rides. I thought that it would be good to at least blog once in a while about my horse adventures until I finally have a horse of my own again.
I will be posting once in a while as I good barn shopping for a place to take lessons. Then people can see how truly addicted I am.
The horses obsession started before I can even remember, the earliest I remember being around a horse was when I was between 1 and 1 1/2 and my mom's old horse "Teton" was being put down. I remember being out in the field with Teton, and the family taking pictures by the Teton. That memory kind of gave me a warped idea of how big horses are. Because I could look straight up and see the horse's belly so I thought horses were all that big. I asked for a horse every Christmas I can remember, and always got tons of horse related things. Thinking of it now I am glad I didn't get one for Christmas because I wouldn't have appreciated it very much. My parents got our first horse when I was 7 or 8. She was a young Quarter Horse named Mercedes. She was black....I think....but us children were only allowed to ride her if we were being led by someone.
The next horse we got was a QH mare named Missy, who would be my first 4-H horse. This was when I was 8 or 9 so Missy would have been 9 or 10. We bought her and her 2 month old filly who we named Penny. My parents still own Penny today. My mom taught me to ride Missy slowly, and was careful to keep me and my sister safe while we rode. Missy wasn't the calmest horse in the world and was quite a challenge sometimes....especially at 4-H meetings. We rode western back then and I barely even knew about the world of English riding let alone Dressage. Our next horses came really close together, and i don't remember the exact order. There was Caysann, a Chestnut Arabian mare who was at least 15 when we bought her. There was also Ginger, an older, Chestnut, welsh pony. Last but not least was Abbey, a bay Arabian mare who became my horse to ride. Abbey was also pretty old when we bought her but was still in great condition. As frustrating as she was sometimes she was a great horse.
I have pictures of these horses I just don't have them in digital format to be able to post any of them. Maybe I will later sometime. After we moved from Idaho to Utah in 1996 we got a 16 year old white Arabian Gelding named Sheikh. He was my buddy from day one. I did a lot of work with him on retraining him from English to western and then a few years later, back again to English. He was the last horse that was "mine" and he was a great horse. I competed in several shows with him and in a couple mini events. Here are a few pictures of him....I don't have a lot.


One of the mini events we competed in. I think this was the one where we got a score of 72 on our dressage test...granted it was almost the easiest test out there, but still good for a 19 year old horse!!

My baby boy's beautiful head.

Please click on this to enlarge it. Otherwise you can't see us at all.

This was later in his life, he was around 24 in this picture, and this was probably 6-8 months before he died.

Sadly Sheikh tripped one day in the pasture, at my parent's house, and broke his shoulder. He had to be put to sleep, but gratefully I was able to drive there to say goodbye! That was almost 4 years ago. I haven't had the money or the time since to get another horse. But luckily my parents have a few I can ride! I took lessons shortly before I got married, but I just couldn't afford the amount of riding I wanted to do. When I realised I would be living in Bakersfield CA the first thing I did was email Leslie Webb and ask if she taught dressage lessons. I didn't realise just how famous and accomplished she is as a horsewomen...if I had I don't think I would have just up and emailed her. To my surprise, even though she wasn't teaching lessons, she did invite Robert and me to a couple of really fun activities including her husband's 50th birthday party. I also got to work with her very talented horse Riddler. For the first three months I lived in Bakersfield I was working for another well known rider, Cici Younger at Banner Farms. She hasn't ridden or shown in a long time due to an injury. I have to admit she was not my favorite person in the world....quite the opposite. I was an exersize rider at her barn, and got to work with some very great horses, as well as fell in love with Miniature Horses.

I got to be the second person to touch one of the foals born (below) while I was there

and one of the first to touch the other foal that was born (below)

I took lessons for about a month in Bakersfield, and actually taught lessons for about a month while I was at Banner farms. Then we moved back to Utah and I have yet to find....or really look for....a place to ride.

Anyways there is the story of the horses in my life. Hopefully soon I can find a place to take lessons, and at least dull the ache for a horse.

Oh, and about the title of this post:

APRIL FOOLS!!!

Videos

I finally got the horse expo videos up on youtube so here they are!

Horse Expo

Today I went to the Utah Horse Expo with my mom and Hobbs ALL DAY! Actually we got there at 1:45 and stayed until 9:00. This is where I met the guide dog puppy 6 years ago, who finally convinced my mom to let me raise. I have gone just about every year after that.....well I think EVERY year after. It is always fun, and many years some of the demonstrations have been amazing as well as informative. Here are some pictures of the day we had! I have videos as well, but this laptop may not let me upload them.

A view of the arena floor

A view of the exhibitors' booths.....yes there were tons of people there!
And the demonstration arena.

A reigning demonstration

One of two vaulting horses (this one's name was Ferrari and he was having some issues)

A tower of people on this horse

A drill team of around 25 horses

One of the Fresians

Hobbs looks sooooo handsome and grown up in this one!

Hobbs' spot below the bleachers at the demonstration arena (he spent probably 4 of the 7 hours laying in the dirt)

Ok, I am going to post some more pictures and videos tomorrow from the faster computer.

So Disappointed! UPDATED:

UPDATE:
Ok, I went to the school's website and although the locations of the shows have changed, they are still there! So now I am going to just wait and see if anything is announced on their site.
This is something that I really wanted to go see this fall. I am so sad that they will not be coming to the US this year.
The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, the famous white Lipizzaner stallions rescued by Patton during World War II, has cancelled their 2008 US tour which was to have had performances in 5 west coast cities.
With the school on the verge of bankruptcy, Elisabeth Gürtler-Mauthner has been appointed managing director of the school, the first time a woman has been in charge of the school in its 430 year history which has an all male staff of riders and trainers. According to Austrian media sources, the school lost $1.7 million last year citing excessively high rider salaries of up to $17,000 per month when on tour as well as administrative expenses. The Austrian government no longer financially supports the school. They now depend on the public financial support.
The number of performances to be held in Vienna was almost doubled to 69 and the US tour scheduled for November and December 2008 was cancelled. The 2005 Spanish Riding School tour, the first US performances in 15 years, had disappointing numbers attend, performing to less than half full arenas.

Kind of a Disapointment :(

Why is it when you get super excited about something it ends up not being all you expected and that kind of ruins it for you?

Yeah my "lesson" wasn't that great. It wasn't that much of a lesson even. There were about 7-8 of us riding in the ring, and one at a time the instructor would have us work on the hunter course that was set up. On the other hand I did get to ride and had a pretty good time. I rode a horse named Cash who was very dark, almost black. Unfortunately I totally forgot my camera so I have no pictures. He was a nice horse. I am guessing kind of old because he seemed stiff and had lots of lumps and bumps on his legs. I got him moving relatively well, but it was a constant effort. The instructor basically told me that I wouldn't be jumping so I could just work on whatever during the lesson. Kinda boring but ok because I needed to just get used to being back on a horse.

One thing that made my lesson just not that fun is that fact that it, once again, reminded me of how much of my confidence I have lost. The thought of jumping next week scares the crap out of me! It used to be that I couldn't stand the flat stuff and now my heart is in my throat when I even ask for the canter! That one has an explanation.

The one and only time I have actually been bucked off was at Lochearn when I was schooling the horse Baroness. She was being kind of iffy and I didn't feel comfortable putting someone on her if she was going to be bad. I warmed her up and then asked her for the canter and she kinda scooted forward and then humped her back. So I swatted her and then asked again for the canter. That is when she blew up and did a rodeo horse buck. I remember asking for the canter and then I was about 2 1/2 feet in the air above my saddle and about one foot to the side. Then I somersaulted towards the ground landing on my hip/lower back. My head slammed into the ground and I apparently laid there for several seconds before I jumped up and started screaming a the horse. I thought I had just jumped up immediately. Turns out I got a slight concussion from the fall, and a permanent fear of asking a horse to canter. This fear was only compounded while I worked for Banner Farms this past spring. They have maybe two or three sane horses on their farm and I was not riding any of them. The ones I did ride all had a habit of humping their backs when asked to canter. Digger was the worst! He is a 17 hh (that means his back is 5' 6" tall!) Thoroughbred gelding, who would actually give a little buck every time he went into the canter. A buck on that big of a horse is terrifying!

So now I am making it worse for myself every time I ride because I tense up and clamp my legs on the horse so it jumps forward when asked to canter anyways! Maybe next time will be better. I just need a sane horse like the one I was on yesterday to rebuild my confidence......and no more falls!