December 19, 2010

My Riding Journal- December 19, 2010

     Such a great day today. Almost 50 degrees in the middle of December and mostly cloudy turned into very sunny and beautiful. Opie was excited to come out and play. A little fuzzy and I had to add a few holes to his girth...LOL. We both were overdressed for the weather... He in his fuzzies and me in my silkies and a sweatshirt. Didn't take long for both of us to work up a sweat.
     Things went as planned with the exception of the neighbor's target shooting but I was successful in keeping Opie busy and paying attention to my requests. A little reassuring him that we were doing well and he relaxed.
     First thing on the agenda was to work through the warm-up pattern we're designing for riding school. Worked well for one horse--- we will see how well it will work with six horses in the pattern. Enter on the large track- come in at C and track left to your assigned letter. I used M. Turn right at  your letter and halt on the centerline. Opie was a little distracted at the centerline and kept looking back over his shoulder--but otherwise straight. I think he was more worried about the cackling birds in the trees behind us and the gunshot sounds. After a 4 second halt at centerline, the horses ride on at the previous gait and track left and come all the way around to their letter again. Making a left at their letter and halting at the centerline completes the first warm-up segment. The instructor at this point can request the ride to walk-on or trot-on to the track and track right, repeating the pattern as many times as necessary to warm-up properly while correcting as necessary to get everyone in the proper balanced seat and to help with the transition to halt at the centerline practicing straightness. Today I practice the pattern several times with a mix of walk-trot and practicing the halt on the centerline.
     Then we moved on to the exercise I wanted to practice from The Right Track. "Learning the feeling of the half-halt." Opie was little confused during the exercise and it would have been helpful to have some eyes on the ground to help out. The exercise commenced with posting the trot on the track and asking for a walk for 5 steps at A, E, C and B and then returning to the posting trot. The plan was to continue reducing the steps from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 until I could just ask for the walk, act like I changed my mind, and then ask for the trot. Well, we did get to the point where I could actually count 5 steps but Opie was a little frustrated and seemed confused at what I wanted from him. A couple times I think we actually were doing piaffes!! That was kind of cool but we sure didn't plan to.
  I practiced the first 3/4's of the Intro C pattern at the walk and rising trot. Could not remember the end and did not have a reader. Also practiced the canter depart on both leads. The left lead went very well and we practiced some 20 meter circles at the canter. However, had trouble getting the canter depart on the right lead. So we did a few serpentines at the rising trot and called it a day.
   It was a very pleasant ride. NOTE TO SELF: no more graining inside the paddock with four horses. So I'll plan to stop by the farm store and pick up a few more hanging buckets for the paddock. Just to keep things a little safer for my fragile human bones. Berry fights for his bucket or two with a powerful hind kick and that is just too close for comfort.
   Jazz was putting a lot more weight on her left foot. I think the bute is also giving her a little more empowerment to fight for top dog. However when all is said and done-- she is a pretty solid third.
   Anyway, it was awesome to have this window of opportunity for a spring weather ride in the middle of December. Another Great Winter Ride!!
   GOALS for NEXT RIDE:

1. Hopefuly will get a chance to ride the warm up with more than one horse so that we can get a feel for how that works.
2. Need to memorize the rest of the Intro tests so that I can practice without a reader.
3. The trot to walk and halt transitions are coming a long great. Still need some work on posting with balance and correct seat. I can see why some dressage arenas have the big mirrors. Definitely would have been of value today to ride by and check my seat.
4. Get with my riding school partner to practice some of the schooling exercises together so we can present them to the classes in the spring.

   Thank you Connor for coming and being my safety spotter while I rode. I think Opie felt safer with you on post, too!

My Riding Journal- November 28, 2010

     With temperatures dipping to below 30 degrees last week, it was a pleasant surprise to have a sunny 60 degree day after church to ride in. The wind was a little vicious in the corral tacking up but amazingly enough not so bad on the top tier riding in the arena. Had plan to take a try at Training Level with Opie. Training Level introduces the canter into the test and hey, we had a great canter depart and a canter on a 20 m circle last time.
     Warm up went swell, lots of posting and working on the downward transtions to the med. walk. Still need work. Did a little canter work, great departs but not so much going straight in a direction I chose. It was a little difficult to work with all the riders in the arena that the nice break in winter weather brought out to the ranch today. Although other than one near head on collision and one fall, all went well and everyone had a great time. Some may be sore tomorrow but if they are, they need to ride more often.
     Due to the inability to get direction at the canter and the crowded arena, I decided to opt out of starting training level today. Did some modifiied work on the introductory tests. The final Introductory A went well with an exception of riding down the rail from M-F. For some reason, Opie wanted to keep his head turned into the center of the arena when and to trail off the rail toward the center. At the canter that was exaggerated and we did a sort of sideways canter down the diagonal.
     All in all it was a great ride. I don't know if I had any great insights this ride but I did get some work done. Worked on keeping my legs under me and not over-exaggerating my post. I worked on the downward transitions, picking up the pace at the trot, and slowing down the canter without losing it.
     Next ride I need to work on the downward transition to the walk, staying at the pace of the working trot, the canter take off on the right lead and staying straight.
      I was so happy being able to get this ride in; not just cause it's winter but also because we have a long to do list that needed our attention. But at the end of this day I feel blessed to have squeezed so much in. Cleaned the house before church; enjoyed a great worship and teaching, picked up the hay rings, took the youngest to a play date, packed my boarding bag, visited my daughter, put out hay bales, had a post-turkey dinner, and spent a few hours in the saddle! What a sweet, sweet, sweet day at the ranch.

My Riding Journal- November 8, 2010

     Dodging rain and mud and a new chill in the air, I managed to work in a wonderful ride. Practice on the intro A tests went well and though I did not get Opie down to a med walk on command, I did eventually get him to walk from C-M where we picked up the working trot on command. Med walk went fairly well but asking for a free-walk on the diagonal always resulted in anticipation of a trot. After riding the test several times, I practiced the canter depart using the transition outlined in the Schooling Text:

•   jingle the inside lead to gain balance and attention,
•   ask for the canter depart with center pressure on the inside girth.

     The first attempts failed as I do what I always do, as the horse departs I pull back on the reins and restrict the take off. FAIL. I did realize this right off and was able to correct my balance on takeoff. Determine a start point of C for a successful depart, jingle inside lead to set up, pressure on inside girth to ask for inside lead, as Opie lept forward I followed that motion with both wrists forward and let him take that step out into the canter. He lept into a well-balanced canter and I was able to maintain it with control asking for a circle at A. Although our circle was a little larger than  20m as planned, it was just icing on the cake of a great canter depart. I was able to repeat the canter depart on cue and the correct lead on command.
            Was also able to get a recording of part of our ride. The video gave me some insight into my ride especially the fact that I was riding with my legs too far forward. I plan to shorten my stirrups slightly and concentrate on a more forward seat. Also want to try a little less height on posting and more practice on what lead and change reins while posting.

My Riding Journal

Changes

    Jazz's injury changed my whole mindset on riding. I guess it just gave me a lot of time to think about what I really wanted to do and what I would do without her! I was already planning to take her down the Dressage journey but I have to say my mind really opened up to it when I realized I probably wouldn't be riding her. When God closes one door, he opens another and I have been blessed to spend some time riding with my neice. She has graciously offered to let me ride her horse and not that others have not offered their equines for me, she actually has this horsey caught, tacked up, and knocks on my door and invites me out to ride with her. What a blessing this has been!

   We have been discovering the joys of Dressage: a classical development and training of the horse and rider. I have found Opie to be very responsive and willing and at the same time able to point out  the mistakes that I make on every horse I ride. He responds to both my direct and indirect requests and as such teaches me the cues I give when I don't mean to. The patterns help me ride with purpose and encourage me not to give up on a gait when I get tired and often just let the horse stop.

  Yesterday, we rode warm-ups and apparently he realized I was tired and just stopped and I would say, "fine, go ahead and stop." When we started doing patterns I knew exactly when we wanted to stop, so I pushed myself to keep going, as well as, asked Opie to keep going. Another benefit of using exact patterns for training is you know exactly what you are suppose to be doing and for how long. So you also know when you aren't doing it.

    The first day Opie kept surprising me. We'd be on a circle at the working trot and all the sudden we were walking. So I asked him back up into the trot and he responded fine. The problem was our working trot circle was a trot-walk circle. The next time we worked on that pattern I began to sense when Opie thought about stopping, I asked him back up into the trot. I thought, "I felt that-- you thought about walking didn't you?-- keep on trotting." What a major breakthrough! We actually made some pretty nice working trot circles. I actually felt the horse--- it was like "Ha...I can read your mind." What a boost in our partnership!

     Well, when I am not riding. I am studying the patterns and movements in classical dressage training in anticipation of putting my new found knowledges to the test. This is pretty exciting stuff!!

   

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Please join us at http://www.r4c-ridersforchrist.com/ for Christian fellowship and discipleship training.

Riders For Christ's purpose is to follow the one called "Faithful and True."
as inspired by Rev 19:11 "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True." and Rev 19:14 "The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean." Because Christ purifies us, it is our desire to be called to follow our leader riding white horses,dressed in fine linen. Where fine linen is defined in Rev 19:8 as the righteous acts of the saints; we want to be riders that are dressed in fine linens; Riders For Christ, ready to ride when Christ returns.

You can't do what you're not doing: According to Connor

"I don't know why you keep asking me to do things I am not doing. If I start doing things I am not doing I would not be able to do anything because I'd be doing things I am not doing."

Tips for Portion Control

1. If you eat in front of the TV or on the go, only take with you the portion you intend to eat. Put one serving of chips on a plate, don't take the whole bag with you to your chair.

2. If you enjoy going back for seconds, only take a 1/2 portion on the first serving. Then enjoy going back for seconds, taking only another 1/2 portion.

3. When eating for one, make and put your servings on your plate then put the food and ingredients away before you sit down to eat.

4. Read the labels. A good snack serving is 100-140 calories. Take less of your snack if necessary. Begin replacing higher calorie snacks that only let you get a taste of them with lower calorie snacks that allow you to enjoy more.

5. Begin replacing less nutritious snacks with those that pack more nutrition in them per calorie. Alternate your favorite less desireable snacks with more nutritious alternatives and make a note about how you feel afterwards. A few bites of chocolate cake for 10 baby carrots. Which one makes you feel more energized?