Heather Blitz and Arabella

I was reading the article, "Heather's Toolbox" by Sandra Adair Daugirda, in my magazine "Dressage Today" and here are a few things I want to remember from it so I can incorporate them into my training.

"Consider the balance, coordination, muscle tone, energy and symmetry of the rider and the horse. Add how they read and react to each other, and it becomes clear why dressage is not just a sport but an art."



(Here Blitz rides Arabella, a Danish Warmblood mare by Rambo that she trained from the beginning to Grand Prix. They were a reserve pair for the 2006 World Equestrian Games.)

"Blitz is an elegant rider. At six feet tall, she had "plugged-in" seat bones, a "vertically stacked" torso and rotated thighs that are well-connected to the saddle. In the saddle, she constantly works to lower her center of gravity and access her core strength. To help riders find this same stability, Blitz gives us a peek into her biomechanical toolbox...

• Be Aware
• Create an Authoritative Bumprint
• Train the Horse to React
• Find the Neutral State
• Visualize a Heavy Ball
• Imagine a Thought Bubble
• Be Clear
• Add Isometrics
• Stay True to Yourself

I'll expand more later...

Lame or Not Lame? That is the Question!

On Saturday when I came over to ride Ben, he was acting very strange. While I was brushing the mud off his blanket he started to lift his right hind leg and hold it in the air. After I removed his blanket, I felt him all over his back leg and didn't find any areas of heat or swelling. However, when I touched him around his stifle and the inside of his thigh he would again lift his leg out to the side and shake a little as he held it. This really worried me and I almost wished I had found a wound that I could pin point it to.

I decided to try lungeing him to see if his gait at the trot and canter were affected it was hard to tell. The ground in his pasture isn't level and he was full of energy so he was really jumpy. But at least he didn't seem to be favoring it much while moving.

I'm thinking it may have been caused on Wednesday when I free lunged him after my ride. There was a lot of tractor work going on at Barnabee and they were fixing their retention pond and Ben didn't like all of the noise, so he was a little nervous. Had I not had such a solid seat I probably would have fallen off at least 4 times since he was so jumpy, especially at the canter. Anyhow, after riding for a 1/2 hour I decided I would get off and let him run around the arena. He had a great time doing this and at times was in a full gallop before he had to break and turn a sharp corner.

So he could have strained a muscle then, or possibly it was on Thursday morning when my Dad saw some coyotes near the pasture. The horses were pretty nervous and running around snorting, so he could have easily slipped and stained it then as well. Either way, something wasn't right. Since I didn't have any bute I just gave him the day off and hoped that it would heal with time.

Lucikly it did and when I came to ride him today, he showed no signs of soreness. We had a great ride today! At first I lunged him a just to make sure he was 100% sound. After 10 minutes I got on and we worked on suppling him through the serpentine and getting him to establish the correct bend and be balanced as he changed directions without lifting his head. Then we worked on his canter on a figure 8, changing leads in the middle and also leg yielding down the quarter line at the canter. He did really well during both of these exercises. In the past he has had some issues with leg yielding at the canter to the right and would break out and bolt, which lead me to thinking that something must be pinching him or hurting him, but today he showed no signs of this and was very willing. We also worked on swing turns at the trot and that really helped him to collect more and engage his inside hind leg. All and all it was a great ride!

Old McDonald had a Horse?

For those of you who think that a horse was one of the animals living on Old McDonald's farm, think again. Obviously you have not met my horse. Ben has to be one of the strangest horses I've met. He is chicken when it comes to chickens, thinks a cow laying in a field chewing it's cud is going to attack him and believes that a sheep's sole purpose is to give him nightmares. I wish I knew more about Ben's history. In the past 15 months that I've owned him, I've discovered that he must have only ever lived on a equine farm where the only other animal present besides horses are dogs and cats. Luckily, I'm not a fan of any of Old McDonald's other farm animals, so some day when I'm able to build a house on my property it'll be horses only for me.

These paintings by Kim McElroy remind me of what Ben looks like when he is in the presence of said farm animals. Keep in mind that every time I ride him I have to hand walk him 1.5 miles down the road to the indoor arena at Barnabee. Everyday we pass chickens, cows and sheep. You'd think that over the past year he would have gotten used to them. Ha! Even when he can't see them he expects them to pop out of the bushes and scare him. It's as if he is looking to be scared. Such a funny horse!

New Blog

I've had this idea for quite a while to start a blog about my riding adventures. I'm not sure how many of my followers will really be interested in reading this, but it's mostly for me anyway. I hope to have it serve a a place where I can journal about my rides and the process I'm going through in training my horse. That way I can look back and see our successes and also what exercises we've worked on and how effective they were. So here it goes! Enjoy!

My Little Cowboy!

Today we went over to Bainbridge for Hyrum's last pony ride before school starts tomorrow. After tomorrow he will only be coming over to the island with me on Mondays so he won't get as much riding time in unless occasionally come over on the weekends as well. I'm still going to try and come over every Wednesday and Friday with Jonah while Hyrum is in school. So we'll see how that works out since we'll have to depend lots on Daddy and local friends to help out with his drop off and pick up.

To celebrate school starting tomorrow, I thought I'd take Hyrum on an extra long trail ride today to Gazzam Lake Park. There are trails and country roads from my parents house that connect us up with the lake so it's a nice peaceful ride. I rode there a lot as a teenager and used to take Ben there as well, but he's gone a bit trail sour and I don't feel comfortable out there alone anymore. Jena on the other hand is a "Star Pony!" She was such a great little investment! I'm so glad we purchased her for the kids. She is very calm around the kids and in new surroundings she isn't worried or nervous at all. Ben is just the opposite since he will freak out at any new branch that has fallen, shy at any odd noise and won't even enter an area where it just plain smells funny. This is the reason he's not a jumper! Even though it would have been fun to jump again, there's no way I'd risk it.

It's been really fun to teach Hyrum how to ride. When in the saddle he is such a little cowboy. He has no fear, is totally relaxed and truly enjoys it. He especially had fun today as he was able to observe a little wildlife along the way. We saw a spotted owl, chipmunks and ducks. When we got to the lake we sat for a while on the bench and Jena was so cute she walked right up over to Hyrum, nuzzled into his chest and just stood there wanting to be loved. She's like a big puppy dog! Such a sweetie! I didn't dare take a photo though since she is camera shy. This is her one fault. She hates the flash and even the beep the camera makes when I turn it on. So I'm always lucky to get some good shots of her.

Here are a few photos I took before we left. I couldn't decide which I likes best so I'm posting them all! Enjoy!

I love how happy Hyrum is when he's riding! He giggles almost the whole time, especially when Jena is trotting.

Here we were trying to get her to stand still for the camera, but she kept walking off toward me. Notice the blue hydrangea on top of her head. That's Hyrum's little way of decorating "My Little Pony Princess Jena."

Finally she stood still for us! Thanks Jena, you're a good sport!

Gerd Heuschmann Clinic

This weekend I rode in the Gerd Heuschmann clinic located at Wacky Nut Farm on BainbridgeIsland. It was like a mini vacation since I was able to spend 4 solid days riding my horse and mingling with equestrian professionals; top riders, veterinarians, saddle makers, massage therapists, instructors, judges and amateurs like myself.

It was a privilege to ride with a trainer of such high caliber. I was one of 8 riders in the clinic.

On Thursday from 5-9pm he gave a lecture which covered the topics in his book Tug of War - Classical vs. "Modern" Dressage. Then from 9am - 6pm Friday through Sunday he worked with the riders to demonstrate the techniques he talked about in the lecture. At first Gerd would watch us warm up our horse to see the way we rode how the horse moved. Then he would get on our horse and train them for about 20-30 minutes and demonstrate how to improve the horse's gaits by having them engage their hind ends more which resulted in a raised back and a neck position that was relaxed. He was able to change horses from leg movers to back movers.

The first day of riding I was very nervous especially since I was riding in front of 50+ other equestrian professionals who were auditing the clinic. But what I gained from the experience was definitely worth the hundreds of dollars I invested to be there. I learned how to better connect with my horse by not using my hands as much but rather to concentrate on my seat. Old habits are hard to break, so it was difficult for me to relax and let go with my hands and carry the horse more with my legs and seat. When I did though, it felt so amazing! My horse felt like he was floating and free beneath me. I could truly feel his back raised higher beneath me after Gerd rode him and his hind legs reaching and stretching more underneath himself.

I'm still trying to sort out some of the things that I learned over the course of this clinic as not everything he said was positive or jelled with my personal riding philosophy. But at least I have the 4 hour lecture video from Thursday night and a 2.5 hour video of me riding on Friday and Sunday to refer to.

The week after the clinic I gave Ben two days off to recover from all the hard work he put forth. But I guess that wasn't enough because when I showed up to ride him on Wednesday he had hurt the bulb of his heel pretty bad by over-reaching so I had to give him the rest of the week off as well. During that week of no riding I must have watched the videos 4 times each, trying to let everything that Gerd said sink in. There were many negative things he said to me about my style of riding which at first really hurt me and crushed my confidence as a rider. After reviewing them and applying what he taught me has lead to a whole new level of self-discovery and is allowing me to be in better tune with my body and my horse's body as I ride. So I've decided criticism can be a good thing, if we make it a learning process and try to honestly correct our mistakes and try out other's suggestions. If we are forever stuck in our old ways, we'll never be able to learn and progress. If it doesn't hurt, then we aren't trying hard enough! Why not try something new out and if you see positive results, then great! It's always worth a try! Remember to be teachable we must be truly humble first!

"I ride it!"

Today when I came home from riding Ben, Jonah saw us coming up the driveway and came running towards us saying, "I ride it! I ride it!" He was so excited when I lifted him way up high into the saddle. Ben was a good sport especially since there was plenty of green grass to keep him occupied. I'm so happy that both of my boys love horses and aren't afraid of them. It's so fun to see them excited about riding, brushing or just feeding the horses sugar cubes.

Anika's Pony Ride

Today Hyrum's little friend Anika from his Preschool class came over for a pony ride. She was a great little rider, very calm and relaxed.

Thanks for visiting us Anika! We hope you had as much fun as we did!

Hyrum was very sweet and let Anika ride for almost all of the time. He rode a little at first just to show her what to do and the rest of the time he followed behind on the trails with his favorite cousin Jillian. Thanks Jillian for helping to entertain the boys today! You were a huge help!