Jean Thornton Clinic!

We had a clinic at the stable today with Jean Thornton, one of the area's biggest dressage trainers and a USDF gold medalist. You can see her page here:http://www.palominowarmbloods.com/index.html

I wasn't originally planning on riding in it because of the cost, but one of the other riders was sick and the barn manager Karen offered to pay for me to ride. (That was so nice of her!) Because Sammie was still sore, we had a ground lesson and worked on longeing, free jumping, and working in hand. She complemented his jumping.. yay! Longeing, not so much. We have a few kinks to work out. He was really good in hand- we worked on bending him while moving forward and basic flexion.

She will be having clinics at the barn monthly, so next time I'll definitely ride.

Ground work, oh, and more cantering and jumping

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've just been too lazy to update lately. Samster is out of commission for a few days because he managed to tear an 18 square inch section of skin and hair off his back right under the saddle area when he was playing the other day. *headdesk* Before that, though, we had been cantering regularly and working on low verticals and x-rails. I also discovered I could post without stirrups, which was a kind of pathetic milestone for me, but still.

Anyways, he and I had a come to Jesus moment Thursday when he decided he didn't want to longe. He reared at me. I thought I was going to kill him. I scared the bejeezus out of him with a manly "HEY!," went after his butt and made him canter laps until he started behaving himself. Grr.

Today, Robin came out to help me with him. She introduced me to the wonders of rope halters (I mean, I've heard of them and whatnot, but never used them.) and further exercises in personal space. I was suprised at how well he did, and by this afternoon, he was minding his manners much better. We gave him a break and free longed him over some low jumps- two feet and under. He was unimpressed at the canter, but he'd spring over them at the trot. So strange.

And for your viewing enjoyment.. Sammie and Al being retards in the pasture. No wonder he always has new boo boos. It drives me crazy.

Lesson

Heh. Today at the start of the lesson, I told Robin I wanted to start schooling at the canter in two weeks. Of course, no sooner had I said that, Sammie started pulling out every method of evasion possible. Robin was like, "And you want to canter THAT??" It was really quite ironic. He is so, so good for me one day and then a beast the next. I'm going to pin it down to greenness and the cold weather.

On the plus side, we got a byootiful bend when we were working on circles. And, Sammie finally stopped pushing his butt out through the corners! It's nice to see progress, even if it's kind of overshadowed by being naughty. I sat his trot for once today too, and felt surprisingly comfortable doing it. He's still running through my halt aids, though, which is part of the reason we're doing such a ridiculous amount of circles. Typically he'll stop off my seat, but some days it's like trying to ask a freight train.

Once he was working well, we went to the dressage ring to practice serpentines. Our jumping arena is full of, (surprise!) jumps, so we kind of had no choice. Again, I was caught off guard by Sam's good behavior. We walked the serpentines a few times, and then trotted them. It took a little while, but eventually we got a good bend both ways. We turn a bit too sharply for it to be test-worthy, but in his defense, I think it was the first time he'd ever tried a serpentine.

Sorry for rambling- I'm kind of just writing down whatever pops into my head. Hah ha.

What a smart boy!

Now, maybe I'm just being the typical "proud parent," but I swear, Sammie is some sort of prodigy. He just learned to leg yield, and he's already doing it both ways with ease- just a slight bend away from the direction of travel, a squeeze behind the girth, and he's acting like a pro. Same thing with turn on the haunches, which we'd only practiced once before today. He's rounding up by himself too- I have to post a video of this. We're not all-out collected and he only does it for few strides at a time, but it's good to feel him offering some collection. I'm not drilling it into him, either- I don't believe in micromanaging a greenie, and the last thing I want to do is fry my horse.

Today, he had his first introduction to the dressage arena. I was with Maddie on her TB schoolmaster, Jackson, who also happens to be one of Sam's pasture buddies. I was really surprised at how well-behaved Sammie was. He tried to hop over the fence once, but a tap on the outside shoulder fixed that. I was very proud of my boy.

It was fifty degrees here today, and it's going to freeze tonight. Sammie was hyperactive and we got to do loads of circles before we had any brakes. After that, he behaved very well, but I'm kind of worried about my lesson tomorrow. I want to make a decent impression on the new trainer, and Sammie careening around because it's cold and he's feeling his oats. Oh well- what can you do?

Bad ride.

Today was a regular mess. We started off in the roundpen working on turns on the haunches from the ground. Everything went fairly well until the other horses got put out to pasture, at which point Sammie went ballistic. After I longed him in a few circles and got him thinking again, we went out for a walk on the road in search of things to densensitize him to. We found some old purple flowers and a plastic bag. Neither fazed him too much.

After our walk, we went to the arena to school. He would NOT stand still for mounting *headdesk*. I checked his tack and made sure that everything was all right. Nope, he was just being a pest. A few expletives later, I was up and we were off. It was windy today, so we started off slow with a nice walk and worked on flexion and some circles. I asked for a trot, and it was like he had the hounds of hell at his heels. His little brain had shut off and all he could do was go,go,go. And toss his head, of course. Circles, circles,circles. Twenty minutes of them...ergh. We got a lovely bend to the left, but it was like trying to flex a brick wall on his right.

Eventually, he relaxed, so we went back to the rail and worked on walk-trot transitions. He was good for those, but every time we went around one of the corners, he'd cut into the corner and try to scrape me on the wall. That didn't fly. I tried leg-yielding aaway from the wall, staying on the inside track, popping his shoulder, walking him into the fence- no results whatsoever. How can he be so good one day and such a monster the next? Truly the mysteries of the green horse are manifold. (Ha ha. It's fun trying to sound smart :P) We finished off doing this little ground pole "grid," and one last leg yield through the corner. It took us ten minutes for him toyeild. It was painful. I used all the aids I normally use and really tried to scoot him over with my inside leg, but it took us a while to get it. Once he did, he got numerous wither-scratchies and a good boy.

I feel like I may have been a little too rough with him today. I got a bit frustrated with his trying to rub me into the wall and probably used a little more force than was necessary. I shouldn't have ridden, considering the way the day started, but I did, so what can I say? Next time will be better, hopefully, and if it isn't, it's time for me to examine my riding habits.

Lesson and Lateral Movements

The other day, I had a lesson with the new trainer, Robin. Sammie has picked up this annoying habit of tossing his head, regardless of the amount of contact I use, and his teeth look all right, so I'm thinking it's just a new foible. Robin recommends using a german martingale for a little while and more work in sidereins, so it looks like we might make a visit to the saddlery sometime soon. I'm not a big fan of auxiliary reins and gadgets, but I'd rather use a tie down than have my nose broken.

Other than that, our lesson went very well. She helped me refine our turns on the forehand and helped me start him on turns on the haunches. We even leg yielded some zigzags! Yay!! (You know your horse is green when you get excited over leg yields haha.) I was very proud of my boy.

As far as my equitation goes, Robin told me to practice "squashing bugs" in my stirrups when I get tense. Otherwise, the heels pop right up. She said my leg looked good the majority of the time, which is a relief because I've had to really work on it the past few weeks. I have to work on my posting too- I get lazy and post off my stirrups instead of my whole leg. Just a bunch of fairly little things to work on, I guess.

Fun day.

Here are some pictures from our "Relaxing Day." Claire (on her horse) and I rode about a mile and a half down the dirt road right near the stable. There is little traffic on that road, and most of the people who use it are horsey anyways, so it's a fairly safe ride. I forgot to bring the camera along, but you can kind of see the road in this shot of the barn driveway.



Claire trying to take a cute picture with Sammie. (Note: He was cooled down before I stalled him. He just still has sweaty marks in the picture.)


A roll in the grass:



He rolled TWICE, right in front of me. The goober!



Anyways, that's all I have.

***Argh. Photobucket is being gay. I'll resize the pictures later, but right now, I have to clean house.