Prepping for Woodside

I have to say, I have been very pleased with our work since we've been back from Twin. We definitely had some solid issues there and although we got away with them mostly, we have to really nip them in the bud before we can even think about moving up.

Last weekend we took the horses to Woodside to school and it went really well. I'm starting to realize that XC really is not an issue for us and I need to stop riding like it is. This horse LOVES XC!! I just need to focus and let him do his job. We jumped most of the Training course and I can honestly say I'm not too worried. He did stop once at the log into the first water but I think as long as I am prepared it will be OK. It is pretty early on in the course and it's hard to say whether or not he'll be in his groove yet but if I ride strongly I think he'll go. We also got to jump the first two Prelim fences!!!! Neither are that big, I mean, they're the first fences, but it was still pretty exciting.

Tuesday we had a jumping lesson with Alexis and we decided to work on getting Gatsby to jump rounder, something we had noticed as an issue at Woodside. At this level, it really doesn't matter that much but, it will definitely effect us moving up. So, we put some draw reins on (Alexis also recommended that I ride in these more often to teach him how to carry himself). I was under the impression that these would magically change my horse and get him nice and round and I could just sit there and focus on me...NOPE! At least, not on my horse. I still worked my tush off even with the draw reins! We kept the fences fairly small, probably slightly lower than Training height and tried a variety of courses. When we finally felt that he had learned the lesson we took them off and just worked on a line, vertical to oxer. The line rode in about 4 strides I think but Alexis told me not to worry about distance. Gatsby jumped really well!! We kept putting the oxer up until the end when it was big, wide and scary with a pole across the top and he didn't even care! Love this horse.

Yesterday I had a short but sweet dressage ride. I worked the walk a lot before moving on to anything else and I think that helped him get down to business. He did feel slightly stiff from the day before though so I didn't do anything too crazy:) Just a little work with lengthenings and then lots of transitions towards the end. He almost always resists through the downward transitions so I decided to make him to some more difficult ones to really get his attention - canter-walk-canter-halt-canter and so on. By then end, he was really focused, relaxed, and attentive to what I was asking for:)

Today he will get the day off and the I will probably do another light dressage school before heading home for the weekend. Although I do want to keep him in steady work I don't want to push him too much as he tends to get burnt out and then blows me off when it really matters (at the show).

Twin Stadium & XC

I know I am SUPER last posting this but real life has gotten in the way of blog posting lately. I do still want to get this down so I have something to look back to though.

Stadium
The schedule at Twin has the lower levels riding stadium on Saturday and XC on Sunday. We walked our course on Friday after dressage and I was feeling pretty confident as we were walking around. The course was super twisty which is exactly what I like for Gatsby, lots of turns to make him think and help get him back to me. My only real concern was that most of the turns were to the left and he just loooooves to pop that right shoulder, I knew though that as long as I paid attention and really used my outside aides we would be fine. The course was as follows: Oxer, rollback to a vertical, bending line to a wall vertical, right turn to another vertical, rollback to an oxer, left turn to a looky vertical, right turn to another vertical, bending line to a square oxer, left turn to what I thought would be reset to an in and out. Oh no, I was wrong, as we approached the end of our course walk Alexis commented that he was "surprised they would put a triple combo on the Training course." WTF?!?!? At this point, I was scared out of my pants but hoping that they would at least lower the first fence of the triple, a huge oxer. Again, oh no.I practically had a mental breakdown in warm up on Saturday and Alexis commented on my round that he was surprised I was able to hold it together so well in the ring. Ugh. The first 8 fences were beautiful, according to Alexis it looked like a hunter round, despite the fact that I almost threw up before fence 5 LOL. And then, as we approached fence 8 I started to realize what a great round we had and that we were almost done. It only took about 3 seconds for me to realize that my nemesis, the triple (oxer-1 stride-vertical-1 stride-vertical) was all that stood between us and a double clear round. Unfortunately this was going through my head during the time where I actually should have been kicking him on and setting him up for the line. Oops.

We kind of crashed through the first fence and Gatsby legitimately did not have enough room for a stride before the vertical so he stopped. The rang the bell, I regrouped, told myself I had better ride it perfectly this time and not let it become an issue, and started through again. The second time was great, he did hit the middle rail but I am chalking that up to him being a bit shaken up from our first go through. Those 12 penalties would ultimately cost us the 8th place ribbon. Definitely a disappointment but at least I know what I need to fix for next time.
This is where I started to feel sick...

Cross-Country

I was surprisingly not nervous at all in XC warm up on Sunday. I was super excited to get out there and just hoped that Gatsby felt the same. He warmed up great and before I knew it we were heading over to the start box. We took it slow to the first few fences, fence 2 was super looky and I really didn't want a stop early one. After fence 3 my first minute marker went off a bit early and I kicked him forward into a gallop, there was no turning back after that. I got a little nervous to the u-log on the hill (our previous nemesis) but I rode it just like Alexis told me to, picked his nose up and away we went. At this point, I was remembering that this horse really does LOVE cross-country. My half-halts were pretty much ignored and I had no option but to really trust Gatsby that he could gallop this fences without killing me.

Clearly having the time of his life

I could tell he was really enjoying himself and everyone said afterwards that he looked amazing. And despite the fact that he was mostly ignoring my attempts to slow down (he took the angled houses in 2 strides where everyone else was doing 3 or 4), he did come back to me when he knew it was necessary. The drop into water sharp turn to the corner, down banks to the skinny house, coffin, and twisty turns through the second water were non-issues for him. I'm pretty sure I galloped through the finish flags with a GIGANTIC smile on my face. I could not be more proud of my horse.
Don't think Training height will be an issue for him:)

Prepping for Twin

I have really gotten down to business this week prepping for Twin. Actually, I only got in 3 rides but I feel like we had some big successes in all 3 so I am happy with that and feel that we are on the right track.

Tuesday I rode dressage. Gatsby started out in a butt-headish mood and was back to all his old ways, spooking at nothing, running from my leg, avoiding the contact, sucking back...ughhhh. At this point I was thinking that somewhere in the last month something obviously went the wrong direction and I have NO CLUE how to fix it and how the heck am I going to make it through our dressage test at Twin without crying out of frustration. But, I tried really hard not to let him get to me and to just stay focused and ride through it and cross my fingers that he would respond. Well, eventually he did. He didn't end up nearly as nice as I had hoped and I had to work WAY harder than I should have BUT at least it was progress and I did have to be happy with that. Plus we did have some pretty nice lengthenings. I actually had a friend walk by during our ride and I mentioned that he was being a jerk and then about 5 minutes later she walked by again and commented that "he doesn't look like a jerk, he looks really good!" So, I guess that's all that will really matter when it comes down to it...at least short-term.

Wednesday we had a jumping lesson with Alexis and I was really happy with how it went. I am constantly having to remind myself that my horse does actually listen to my half-halts now and I really don't have to fight with him like I used to. However, I also am having to remind myself that even though he does listen, he gets so excited and focused on course that I really need to make sure my aides are getting through to him. If I give a strong half-halt he really does respond but if I just whisper "woah" he will think about it...and then decide to do things his own way.

We worked a lot on the same things as last week, tight turns and bending lines. We had one line that was a long 4 and I was really proud of myself for actually putting my leg on and getting the 4 instead of chipping the 5 like we normally do. There as also a XC jump in the area, just a little wall with some scary chevrons painted on it. We presented it to him and I figured he would jump it really big and probably squirm all the way to it. This horse continues to surprise me; he cantered up to it nice and relaxed and didn't over jump it at all! I was really happy with him especially considering this will be our last jump school before Twin.

To finish up the week we had another dressage school, this one much more successful than Tuesday. I was going back and forth about whether to do a dressage school or a conditioning ride but I am really happy I decided on dressage because it was the perfect way to head into the weekend, SUCH A CONFIDENCE BUILDER! I don't even know what to say, he was just fabulous. I can really tell how much his gates have improved since January, his canter is much more connected and his trot is much more free and flowing, it's really wonderful to ride. I'm so glad we seem to have overcome whatever we were going through. We will have a dressage lesson with Alexis next week and then hopefully we will be all set for Twin!

Twin Recap

This is going to be short and sweet because my lunch break is almost over:(

Gatsby was fabulous at Twin last weekend. We ended up only schooling on Saturday because the weather was so crummy, the footing wouldn't have been good by Sunday. Unfortunately one of the horses in my group coliced and needed emergency surgery(I believe he is recovering well) so it was just me and Gatsby and another lady who is just starting eventing and kept us company:)

As I said, the weather was crummy and Gatsby was very fresh. We also hadn't schooled XC in about a year and I was super nervous. When I get nervous I generally stop riding well and let me bad habits get the better of me...I could tell we were headed this way, which usually results in disaster:( Thank goodness Alexis reminded me that I actually CAN ride my horse and everything ended up alright:)

We jumped through both water complexes, the coffin, and pretty much everything else on the course. We even got over the U-log on the hill that got us eliminated! On the first try! We also jumped the corner and the ditch and wall, both of which I remember being nervous about before our first Training. The best part? Nothing looked big or intimidating to be at all! Suffice to say, we got the double thumbs up to enter Training for next month:)

He had Sunday off and when I rode on Monday I had a mild heart attack. Gatsby was not behaving up to my standards and maybe I was just getting frustrated and not handling it well but it was one of our worst rides since moving to DK. Also, he felt off on his left hind. It wasn't major, it just didn't feel like he was tracking up evenly. I decided to give him Tuesday off and let Alexis assess in our lesson yesterday.

I got to the bard yesterday and had another mild heart attack when I found a HUGE bite taken out of my horse's neck!!! (Shoulda taken a picture!). We were already running late so I scrubbed with betadine and spayed with furazol and hoped he would be fine, which he was, thank god! Our lesson was pretty much fabulous. He started off just like he had on Monday and it was extremely helpful to have Alexis there to help me work through it. Once he settled, he was fantastic. We even got some really good trot lengthenings! We also worked on his resistance in downward transitions. Every time he would brace against me in the transition I would make him rein back until he rounded up, then we would continue forward. This helped tremendously! We definitely have a ton more work to do in that area but I am glad to have a tool I know works. We also had some canter issues, similar to Monday, but I think those stemmed from a combination of his resistance and my frustration as we eventually did get some nice work.

Tonight I am off to NYC (in lieu of Japan). Alexis will ride Gatsby on Saturday and Tuesday and he will get a little break before we get down to business preparing for Twin.

We're still here...

Everything has been kind of hectic lately and I just haven't felt like updating. Last week I was only able to get out to ride once which sucks but at least I had a really nice ride! Also, due the the traumatic events that have recently occured in Japan, my trip is postponed indefinitely. It's sad but honestly I am just SO thankful we weren't there! All of my love goes out to those effected by this devastating situation.

On Monday I had a really nice dressage ride. I have been starting my rides with 10-15 min of lateral work at the walk and this helps SOOOOO much!!! When I ask for the trot Gatsby is already in a working mindset and it is much less of a fight. We did a few extensions and some more side pass work which he is slowly but surely starting to get. I also have been working on haunches in, he always stiffens up a lot when I ask for this so that is something we will have to work through:-/.

Tuesday we had another fantastic jump lesson; we kept it short and low since we will be schooling at Twin this weekend. Alexis set up some XC-like questions, reeeeaaallly tough bending lines and some offset verticals. I was horrified everytime he told me a new course! But, true to form, Gatsby jumped like a champ and I am very confident heading in to this weekend. Ever since my bad fall in Feb of 2009 I have been wimpy on XC but I am starting to feel that turn around!

I also talked to Alexis a little about what level I should enter for Twin. We both agreed that I should wait to decide until after schooling but Alexis said he was 99% confident I would be going Training! This is SUPER exciting news for us. Looking back, I know we weren't ready to move up when we did and I regret it now because those outings caused most of my insecurities and therefore more problems for us. I do feel like we are ready now though; Gatsby is much more attentive, responsive, and ride-able, aaaand our dressage has gotten heaps better! So, I will wait to send my entry until Monday but I have T checked for now;)

Jumping Around

We had yet another AMAZING lesson last night! I am floored by how quickly Gatsby and I have progressed recently. When we came to DK early last month we had both had about a month off but even before that we hadn't really been in full-on training mode. In our first lesson with Alexis we worked over little baby jumps and Gats and I were both pretty rusty and all over the place. Since then we have spent all of our lessons and rides working on keeping Gatsby calm and focused and it has really paid off!!

Yesterday we started out working on a circle to get Gatsby relaxed and straight. We also did some spiral-in/spiral-out to really get him to use he haunches on that smaller circle. We then moved on to a gymnastic exercise which started out as a small cross-rail, one stride to some poles, one stride to some more poles. This quickly built up and eventually we had a cross-rail, one stride to a 3'3 vertical, one stride to a 3'6 oxer. Once Gatsby had mastered this, which he did very quickly, we incorporated the gymnastic into a course. We would go through the grid, bending line to a bounce in the corner, around to a big vertical out of the other corner, 6 strides to a big square oxer, roll back to a vertical and another bending line to a vertical. We did this a few times and I was just astounded by how amazing my horse felt.

The only thing we had a slight issue with was the 6 stride line from vertical to square oxer. Coming off the corner to the vertical I had to really focus on keeping him straight as he really likes to pop that right shoulder. I also used to time on the small side of the arena to really ride him into the canter that I wanted. We got a couple messy lines, a 7 and a couple of 5's. I did afterwards find out that the line WAS set for 5 but we just wanted him to do it in 6. We never ended up with that perfect 6 strides but we did get a nice 6 with a long take-off which I was very happy about because he will normally chip in the extra 7th stride.

I was also extremely pleased after our lesson when I remembered that I had switched him back to a full-cheek snaffle from the kimberwicke and I hadn't even noticed it the lesson!

I am super excited to get out to Twin next month to school cross-country and I am even more excited to start out the season!