Heath Ryan Clinic Day 1

In Which Maat & Nikita Compete at Intermediare I: April 10, 2011

Nikita and I did our first show together at Intermediare I this weekend. I got no sleep the night before, and had been up for over 24 hours when we competed. We got 2nd place.

I'm glad I got so many comments back from the judges, and they gave us good pointers on how to get higher scores in the future. Considering I'm navigating FEI by myself, and had no help putting the test together, the feedback is good to have. Hopefully we'll do even better next time.

She was very "up", which meant The Laziest Dressage Rider Ever just had to sit and manage the energy. I like Show Nikita.

Unfortunately, there was no photographer, just a videographer, so I didn't get any photos.

Oh, and we got 7s and 8s on our pirouettes.

Piaffe 3/26/2011

Canter Pirouettes 3/16/2011

In Which Maat & Nikita Apologize to the World: March 12, 2011

I'm getting really tired of people who can't ride - and I don't mean people who are crappy riders, but people who are physically are incapable of doing FEI dressage - picking apart my riding. How many times have I heard that Nikita isn't sitting enough in the pirouettes - only to watch international dressage on FEITV.org or USEFnetwork.com and see the exact same quality pirouettes. The self-doubt leaves once I see world-class riders struggling with the same problems. It's not that we shouldn't strive for perfection; but cut us a break already. The unwelcome commentary is frustrating and diminishing.

Let me apologize to the world: I'm sorry I don't ride world-class dressage after 2 years on the FEI circuit. I'll try harder.

January 31, 2011

What possible splendors await behind the door?

Damn, it's just the farrier...

January 27, 2011

Storm in the backyard.



And at the fountain.

In Which Nic Wears My Fur Hat: December 11, 2010

For a horse that's a lunatic under saddle, I can sure put anything on her head without her blinking. Now, to get Nikita to sit more in pirouettes...

The Laziest Dressage Rider Ever Part IV: October 25, 2010

I have a sore on the inside of my knee. Why?

Because I didn't move that extra piece of the stirrup leather that had scrunched up between my knee and the saddle. You know that extra piece of which I speak. Not during tempis. Not during collected-medium-collected transitions. Not even during canter pirouettes. I was just too lazy to move it. And now I have a sore.

Procrastination has paid off again. Oh yes, procrastination has paid off again.

October 13, 2010

Things I focus on every day with Nikita:

Sitting more in the pirouettes and not travelling

Straightness in and out of pirouettes

Elasticity in the transition from medium trot to collected trot or passage

Straightness and rhythm in the half passes

Most of the trot tour in the I-1 test, making sure she stays elastic and powerful

Staying straight in the 4, 3, and 2 tempis

I have a tendancy in the trot to want to make it too short, almost too much like passage. I just realized watching the video of half passes below that doing such causes the trot to totally lose power.

October 11, 2010

Video of half passes from the Grand Prix test.

October 5, 2010

Fucking one tempis.

New Trot Video 10-2-2010

Nikita and I seem to have overcome the first hurdle in our trot work. It's getting stronger every day, and every day she starts to use her haunches more and more to create a very powerful FEI-level trot.

We've started on the half passes in the Grand Prix. The angle isn't as hard as I'd imagined, and we've had general success in keeping our tempo regular throughout the half pass. This stuff isn't easy for the horse, though, and I don't like asking for it more than I really have to. We had started a little passage work, but I noticed the quality of our collected trot diminished, so I've stopped working on it. The passage and piaffe are there, and will still be there when the time seems better to work on them.

September 30, 2010

Note to self: Stick to your knitting. If you can produce a good product, you're almost there. Alexander didn't become Alexander the Great because he had a good PR guy.

High-level dressage is 90% about the product. It's tempting to take the easy way and attempt to prove yourself through positive PR about yourself or through negative PR about other trainers. This is false bravado and the effect is momentary. The concrete ability to train is most of the battle and ensures longevity. The rest is just smoke and mirrors.

Horses on Vacation: September 4, 2010

Nikita has been on vacation the past 3 days off this week thanks to the heat. Sometimes she feels great and is very fresh, and then she suddenly feels tired and perhaps a little burnt out. What we're doing is hard on a horse, I suppose, so those feelings are normal and expected. So, she's had her mini-vacation, and yesterday seemed all the better for it.

Yesterday we picked up our work on 1 tempis again, which we hadn't done in a while. I've been sleeping through 2 tempis for a while, and decided yesterday that I'm for a new challenge. So, we came, we saw, and we conquored those 1 tempis, and I hope we can do more soon. I'm not confident in them yet, and yesterday Nikita seemed a little fried after, so we're sticking to doing 2 consecutive 1 tempis until I sleep through that exercise. Then we'll start adding more 1 tempis as I become more confident.

I noticed in my last video that my canter pirouettes weren't really in one place, so we've focused on making them smaller. In Harry Boldt's book, Das Dressur Pferd, he states that if the pirouettes are too large, it's because the horse hasn't been set up correctly by the rider. Thus, I've made sure Nikita is very straight and very collected before I attempt a pirouette. And they've been smaller since. I've achieved straightness by looking at whatever letter I'm heading towards, and then looking at the horse once the pirouette has started. Yay for Harry Boldt!

Nicole, on the other hand, in on vaction because she lost a shoe, and super-farrier Mike isn't coming out until Tuesday. No loss, since Nicole does better with periods of downtime anyway.

Canter Pirouettes and Canter Half Pass

Canter pirouette sequence from the Grand Prix:



Canter half pass from Prix St. George and Intermediare I:

The Dark Times: August 28, 2010

Dressage is this delicate balance between doing too much or too little. Too much leg, and you risk overwhelming the horse. Too little leg, and you're asking for trouble. In my case, too little work on the canter means I have to retrace steps to fix what's been lagging.

As is par for the course, because I've focused on improving my trot with Nikita, the canter work has gone downhill faster than a fat man in a sled. Ok, that's hyperbole, but I've spent the past 2 days correcting a certain lack-of-throughness in our canter pirouettes, which up until now were one of our best movements. This is entirely my fault, as I assumed the pirouettes would stay just as perfect as they were. This just tells me that you can't focus on only the bad, rather, you have to make sure the good stuff stays good. There's a lot of plates in the air there, folks. At the same time, we're still able to get through the pirouette-change-pirouette movement in the Grand Prix, although it's not as smooth as it was before.

Now, I can remember a time when I could barely canter this horse, and it's memories like that which console me in these dark times. Yet it's still frustrating when just as one aspect of training is on track, another goes awry. One can only hope the overall level of the training rises anyway.

The Laziest Dressage Rider Ever, Part III: August 9, 2010

Finally, this trot with Nikita is getting to a point where all I have to do is manage the trot, rather than having to create it. Being the laziest dressage rider ever, I much prefer management over actual labor. Yesterday she was very light in the bridle, pushing correctly into the bit, and malleable (which is my litmus test). If I can't get her into a shoulder-in or half pass very easily, then the trot just isn't what I want. We worked on the Prix St. George trot tour, and it was probably the best we've done yet. She's now much more uphill.

Here's some video of our trot:

Extended and Extended to Collected Trot:


Collected Trot:

The thing I've learned about FEI dressage is that you have to ride the horse on the edge of control to get the most out their gaits. This is actually a very comfortable place for me, since Nicole, with her explosive personality, is usually on the edge of control, so when Nikita goes to the same place, I'm ok. Both horses are relaxed, but also ready to explode because of the amount of energy coming out of them.

Nicole is much more in the bridle now than she's ever been. For the past 7 months, she's been living mostly outside, and it agrees with her. She's more relaxed and loose in her body, and not quite as tense. She's able to stay more collected for longer periods, and willingly pushes her energy into the bridle. This has allowed me to build up her strength to improve her self-carriage.

People, It's Hot: August 5, 2010

Bottom line people: it's freakin' hot. So hot that neither horse seems to remember they have 4 feet, and 2 of those feet are meant to actually be under themselves. So hot that "work" seems to be this dirty 4 letter word that neither horse wishes to utter. So hot that even the carrots are rotting.

We're still chugging along, albeit slowly since the air is too thick to allow for much. Nicole had a classic 2 year old fit the other day, and Nikita seems to think putting 100lbs of weight in the reins will actually get her out of having to push from behind. Here's the thing I've learned about horses: Sometimes they will, and sometimes they won't, but either way, the work has to get done.

Nikita and I have started on canter zigzag, which is sort of a joke right now since I don't have the timing down yet. The switch-the-bend-ask-for-the-change-go-on-to-the-next-half-pass part of the zigzag isn't coming yet, although today was the first day we actually tried this exercise.

Our canter work is light years ahead of our trot work, and we're still working on the trot tour from Prix St. George. The issue with the trot is I tend to block with my right elbow going to the right. I also think Nikita is still building muscle to keep pushing into the trot, but the big issue is my right elbow. Everyone has their Achilles heel, that thing they have to work on as a rider, and mine is my right rein. I'm trying to work on using my shoulder more to bend her inside when she comes against the bit, but old habits die hard. Blocking with my elbow is causing not major but definitely causes issues to the right, especially when the heat and humidity makes both of us languid and cranky.

July 31, 2010

Alright, I have a confession to make: Right on the heels of Nicole's Popeye of Death, I made a big blunder and gave Nikita too many electrolytes. Now, this week has been the worst in a while, with losing my electricity for several days thanks to a little bitty thunderstorm that apparently blew away the electric company, since they took forever to respond. To add insult to injury, I got really, really sick during said blackout, so, I've been somewhat distracted.

Back to my confession. I gave Nikita too many electrolytes, as evidenced by her inability to pee and her newly featured leg oedema. Have you ever seen a mare who can't pee? They lift their skirts, make a valiant attempt, and get the same face I'm certain an old man with an enlarged prostate exhibits. Luckily, I witnessed this sight only 2 days into the new electrolyte regime, and she's fine, although it's taken the better part of a week to clear the oedema. The old man face was gone the next day. It won't be missed. Nothing like putting your Grand Prix horse into renal failure to cement your career, right?

We've started putting together pieces of the various FEI tests, since I think going round and round gives a false sense of security. The tests are there for a reason, and built to test skill. So, why not put them to good use, and actually see what this horse and I are made of?

Today we focused on the trot tour in the Prix St. George test. I did better than I thought - I seriously thought I was going to poop out half way through, but we made it through passably, and the medium and extended trots were easier to get and collect than I thought. Nikita likes to fall on her forehand as we go into the 8m volte out of the shoulder in, so I've spent time making sure she remains uphill and under herself in the volte. It's easy to lose the energy "out the backdoor," as we say, and I suppose vigilance is the better part of valor when it comes to recycling the energy in the horse. It's encouraging that at this time we can respectably put together parts of the Prix St. George test, since I plan to really work on the test this winter for next year's competition season, and it's the trot work that has me concerned. I do more difficult canter work every day than appears in the Prix St. George test, and I'm stronger with the canter tour anyway. It seems we're a few months ahead of schedule.