A HUGE influence on the fact that Mystic moved with me out to Inavale was the fact that our dressage trainer from our previous barn already had been teaching monthly clinics out at Inavale. The only down side is that she is only out once a month. I am not used to being able to lesson once a week but I was getting onto the every other week plan and I was really enjoying it. Before this morning I hadn't seen her for 6 weeks and our debut at 3rd level is in 3 months...
Walking the trails as a warm up. It's so gorgeous out there!
We had a great lesson working on our changes and half pass. Changes have been hard for me to practice because I can't feel if they are clean or not and before moving I was riding alone 99% of the time so for the most part I wasn't practicing them. Mystic is such an honest horse and the changes don't upset him at all so he either changes clean or changes 1/2 of a stride late. The 1/2 stride late is so hard for me to tell because it still feels so easy and nothing about him changes. No bucking, no head tossing, no tail swishing, no nothing. We got a super hard exercise to work on that will spotlight any tiny bit of your horse not being on the aids. Not only was it super hard to begin with but she made me do it with no stirrups! I started out by crossing my stirrups over my saddle. At F (tracking left) we picked up the counter canter, B we did a 1/4 of a 20 meter circle, once reaching the middle we had to do a full 10 meter circle tracking right (so now on the correct lead), we then took that back into the counter canter (once closing the circle) on to the quarter line (we are now on the quarter line right by E), once straight on quarter line we were ready for a change! We started thinking about the change in 3 strides which really helped me. The first stride is used to push the horse forward, the second stride you change your legs, and the third stride you shift your weight and give the aid for the change. We did this exercise going both directions and I got off barely being able to walk! Super hard, but also super fun!
We finished off our lesson with some half pass which is easily one of my favorite things to do! She had 2 cones set up down the centerline and we had to half pass off the wall and all the way through the cones and then immediately leg yield back to the wall. This really helps make sure that Mystic is not just dropping his shoulder in the half pass and is truly off of my leg. I have really been working on this exercise for the last couple weeks and he has improved so much. His half pass right has always been decent, but lacking enough bend sometimes, but going left has been very difficult. This morning we got them both ways super nice. It felt amazing! A big take away, and one that I already knew, is that I need to be less restrictive in my reins and use even more inside leg. She said we are still on the right track and will be ready for Heart of the Valley in May!
The perfect fill in lesson horse for the 7 year olds
I also just bought Mystic a Total Saddle Fit dressage girth and used it for the first time today. When I was just walking him to warm up I could already feel a difference. During my lesson I didn't even think about it but I also didn't feel the need to adjust my saddle ever. Normally my saddle slips from side to side and just moves around in general. Now that I know it works well I am going to invest in the sheepskin cover and maybe even one for Mylo!
This is easily the most excited I have been going into show season! That is saying a lot because I always get super excited for it but this year really seems like it could be our best year yet. We have so many more options as to what we can make it to and as long as I can financially swing it all I am all for it. My new work schedule is pretty crazy and I don't have a life outside of work (thats why us horse people only have horse related friends, right?) it will all be worth it to be able to afford all of these shows.
Totally unrelated but amazing beach pictures 😉
First, lets start with our goals for the year.
-Our biggest goal this year, or to date, is to get ourbronze medal. Has this time already arrived?! I have been dreaming about getting this forever and never thought it was in my future. My little black and white pony amazes me!
-Attend at least 2 recognized dressage shows
-Attend at least 2 recognized events
-Score a 65% at 3rd level (any of the tests)
-Begin some 4th level work
Schedule wise I am being optimistic while writing it down but keeping the ones that are most likely to happen in the back of my mind. If more then that actually happen then it is an added bonus! Im just going to list more of the bigger shows not the little schooling/league shows we may hit along the way also.
Heart of the Valley 1 & 2 Recognized Dressage Show:
I love having 2 shows in one weekend. I could theoretically get my bronze in one weekend! I thought about letting the kid show Mylo here too but I'm not sure I want to justify the cost for a 3 year old to start his show career at an expensive recognized show.
Inavale one day event:
If all goes as planned both Mystic will go BN and Mylo will go Intro
Aspen Farms 3 day:
Mystic/I will go BN
Inavale Farms 3 day:
Mystic/I will go BN and Mylo/his kid will go Intro (as long as we can get him out XC before hand)
Dressage at DevonWood:
Mystic/I at 3rd level
Young Rider 3 day:
Mystic/I at BN
Dressage at Lake Oswego:
Mystic/I at 3rd
Aspen Farms 3 day:
Mystic/I at BN
ODS Championships at DevonWood:
Mystic/I at 2nd if we can get to enough shows to get out bronze so we can also get 2nd scores to qualify. Problems of riding a fat pony that can only do one hard test a day!
The last month of my life has been insanely crazy and at the same time life changing. Im thinking 2016 is going to be a blast, and I'm going to try to document some of it here for safe keeping! First let me back up to the last few months. November 1st Mylo moved to a friends barn and since he was lightly started under saddle their 12 year old daughter, who also is a dynamite event rider, started riding him. With about 30 rides on him this is what he looks like:
It doesn't get much cuter! They are a super cute pair and they will make their intro eventing debut this year should all go well. He was supposed to be for sale... supposed to be being the key words ;) He is no longer on the market as of now.
Mid November I got a call from Tolos owner. Needless to say I once again have 3 horses. His brain is pretty fried, just from a non educated rider not from poor care, so he is on a vacation. I went to put him right to work but quickly determined he needed a nice break. Once a stall opens up he will move to the barn and go back to work. Nothing like putting your 12 year old horse back on the lunge line and long lining. Hopefully he comes back well and I can find a lease for him.
December rolls around and I get a message from a local trainer asking if I would like a job. I have always like this person, even taken some jump lessons from her, and knew the facility well so I decided to go in and have a talk with both her and the owner of the barn. On January 1st Mystic and I packed up our bags and moved into Inavale Farms where I am the new assistant instructor! Inavale also happens to hold the only recognized 3day in Oregon and has full XC course, trails, and hosts many shows each year. Basically I get to teach little kids on to stay on their horses and I love it! Mystic settled in wonderfully (like he always does) and he is going better then ever which is a good sign considering this could be our big year.
We are continuing to prepare to go out and get our 3rd level scores for our bronze medal this spring and he is coming along really nicely. I was getting frustrated with bad rides before moving but its amazing how things can change when situations change. Since I am now at a barn that has a strong competitive team that travels a lot we will also get to show a ton more. They are a super fun group and are willing to haul Pony. Its a win, win! I HATE not being mobile and I have seriously been grateful to everyone in our past who has helped us get places. This will make it way easier for us to get out and about. Along with earning our bronze I hope to get out and event more too. I will do a post on everything we hope to attend this year later so I can keep track!
A short recap of what we have done the last few months, which isn't much, show wise. We went to the adult team show with the NDF crew where our team won 1st place overall and Pony got Champion 2nd level with an average of over 67% on 2 tests.
We also went to an eventing derby in September where we finished in our dressage score of a 25 and was 1 of only 2 double clear BN rounds.
We may not have done much in 2015 but he sure is consistent 😊
Last weekend Pony and I competed at Inavales recognized 3 day. It was HOT (over 100 Thurs-Sat), it was exhausting, and I want to do it again tomorrow! In true Mystic fashion he was amazing and I could not have asked more from him... except for maybe that pulled rail ;)
Dressage was on Friday smack dab in the heat of the day. I got on 10 minutes before my test, walked for 5, the trotted and cantered as little as possible before heading into the ring. The worst part about this event is the footing in the dressage area. It is all out on grass and it is pretty lumpy and bumpy. He felt very unsure and cautious on it and we actually had quite a difficult ride but luckily for us we can own the "fake it till you make it" statement and ended dressage with a 28.4.
All pictures credited to Alanna!
Saturday was show jumping and although we rode about an hour earlier then on Friday it was still super hot by the time we went. The biggest thing I hate about show jumping is there is no ride time which makes it hard to judge what time you need to get on when you have a horse that you only need to pop over 5 fences before going in. It was a hurry up and wait game and I had him out much longer then I needed but we sat and watched for most of it while his adoring fans came by and said hi to him. I knew after popping him over the first warm up fence that he was on his game and he did not disappoint. I think he actually surprised a lot of people watching! He definitely was much more backed off to the fences but overall had a great round. Sadly I celebrated a little too early and we pulled the very last rail! It was a huge bummer but I was so pleased with how he rode over those dressed up fences.
Sunday morning I woke up to 55 degree weather instead of 70 (at 5 in the morning!) and prayed it would stay that way. You know you live in Oregon when you can go from riding in 100 degree heat to riding in the rain within 24 hours. It could not have been more perfect weather for us to do XC in! I got to warm up and my friend alerted me when I had 15 minutes left. The warm up lady then mentioned that they were running early so I could go sooner. We trotted a lap, cantered a lap, popped over a cross rail twice, then popped over a log twice and headed for the start box. He came up to the first 3 fences really backed off which is totally normal for him but he was willing to go still. Unlike normal he never really got 'unstuck' and would have loved to have stopped at several fences had I not been really riding him to them. After fence 6 and having pretty much the same ride to every fence I realized it probably wasn't going to change and I just had to really ride him to everything. It wasn't the most flowing and gorgeous round but we got it done, didn't get lost, and made time! I know his stickiness is purely lack of experience and will get better but I was very pleased that even know I knew he was thinking "Lady you are straight up crazy" he still went even if it wasn't very pretty.
Another thing I loved was that he recovered quite nicely! By the time we walked back to the trailer (granted, it is a little walk) he was breathing normally and by the time he was untacked and I had half changed he was pretty much dry. Not that he couldn't be in even better shape but I was happy with it for BN.
It doesn't hurt to come home with some loot either :) We ended up finishing third on a 32.4. Along with this gorgeous ribbon we won a dressage saddle pad that I seriously wanted, a set of polos, and some Vetrycin. We are still chasing our blue ribbon as I have messed it up for us twice now. Had we not dropped that rail we would have won (in a field of 21)! I came home with a happy and healthy pony and we cannot wait to hit another one! Pony Power!
I have totally given up on posting, mostly due to time, the fact that we haven't really done much, and I haven't been super motivated due to some bad rides, but I really wanted to get these thoughts down from our weekend so I could look back on them!
Since my last post we went to a one day dressage show where we cleaned up some areas and totally botched others including getting our first 4 ever... Overall we still got a 64 % but I was definitely feeling frustrated with where we were at. Then I had a lesson scheduled in hopes of our trainer talking me off the edge but had to cancel due to crazy insane busy week I had trying to get Mylo moved home.
I was looking forward to this weekends clinic with Jessica Wisdom but I was also slightly worried that we would show up and make fools of ourselves at our own barn. In usual Pony fashion he came to play and we had an amazing weekend. It definitely inspired me to keep going and showed me that we have the potential to keep moving up. Day 1 we spent getting to know each other and really tuning Pony up to my aids. She really emphasized that I cannot be nagging him every step and that he needs to be held accountable for staying in front of my leg once I ask him. We did lots and lots of transitions from collected trot to extended trot and back to collected trot which kept him on my aids and waiting for his next que. We also did exercises like taking him from shoulder in to renver and overall just getting him more supple and easier to move off my leg. Sadly, I did not get video of this day so I have already started forgetting smaller details but I do know that I left that lesson feeling very good and already looking forward to the next day. I felt like we got some of the best trot work we have had and got some good insight on what I need to do to maximize our scores and some changes I need to make in every day riding.
Day 2 ended up being better then I could have ever asked for! We were all well acquainted with each other from the day before so we went right to work. She started off by asking us to do a walk pirouette, you know those things we have never done before! Although we have done half turn on the haunches we haven't solidified them yet so naturally our first attempt was quite large and she had a nice laugh at me before telling me to ride my horse better ;) Each attempt got better and our last one ended with some great last steps. Luckily I did get some phone video this day so I could watch it! She spent some time really emphasizing how much we need to improve our walk. I tend to push him more forward into a bigger walk when I really need to get him more in a quicker more engaged walk. She actually stuck us on the wall and came out with a lunge whip to tap his hind legs which really helped, obviously, and we got the most amazing canter transition I have ever gotten from him coming directly out of it. She also mentioned that she thinks teaching him half steps will really help improve his walk. We added some half pass that she thought were definitely useable! She had us start the long side in shoulder in, turn that into renver about half way down the wall and then take the renver down the centerline into half pass. One thing I really need to be careful about is making sure his shoulders are leading. Half pass? Check. What next? Now she has us pick up the canter and do a 6 loop serpentine from the wall to the center line down the long side of the arena. After under riding the first 2 loops I got him regrouped and we ended with a great last few. Definitely not something I would have thought we could pull out but it will for sure be a new item on the "what to master next" list!
Now we are at the end of our lesson and she was checking in on how Pony was feeling and if I thought he had more gas in his tank and if so what did I want to end on. Honestly, I had no idea! We had already been doing stuff that we had never done before with success and I was very happy with all of it. I would have been happy stopping there! As I said I didn't know what else I wanted to work on she casually threw out the "has he been started on changes?" question. Yes he has but we haven't really worked much on them because although he gets what the question is I haven't been able to figure out how to ride them well enough to get clean ones in lessons so they have strictly been a 'lesson only' topic for the last while and we haven't worked on them much. She had us start counter cantering on a circle, another new for us, and worked on establishing a shoulder in while in the counter canter and really getting him off my inside leg since he just wanted to fall in the circle instead of maintaining his balance. Tracking left (he is on the right lead) was pretty hard for us and involved him swapping leads every few strides on his own before we got some good solid counter canter circles and called it on that before even asking for a change. Tracking right (on the left lead) was much easier pretty much from the get go. We worked on improving his counter canter on that circle until I could really feel that a good change was possible. All the sudden I felt him really want to change but from a really nice canter and two strides later we had done a 100% clean change! What a perfect stopping point, huh? Jessica even said that it was the perfect way to end the clinic weekend.
JW had some really encouraging things to say about Mystic which is always very nice to hear. She teaches some Gypsys at home and said that he had surprisingly good movement for one and made sure to remind me (not that I needed it) that I have one super nice horse. She thinks that he has the ability to go much further in dressage then I could ever imagine but also noted that her final parting words to me was that I really needed to work on his fitness. She told me some of what she does with Cardi which was helpful. Im really looking forward to her coming back and can't wait to show her all of our progress!
I am looking forward to riding him better and continuing to improve our new tricks! Hopefully we will have a lesson with our regular trainer here in the next few weeks and can keep this good roll going :) Now if you have survived this long post here is a crummy cell phone video from parts of Sunday!
"Baby" Mylo is not only the cutest thing ever but is truely the best baby I could have ever imagined! Obviously he has his less than stellar moments but holy cow he amazes me!
Earlier in the week I took him ground driving outside for only his 2nd time and his first time in a bridle, that he had worn like 4 times, and he was foot perfect. Stopped, walked, trotted and backed with zero issues. The biggest problem we had was him wanting to eat the grass while walking!
Ground driving down the road
Keep in mind that he "works" about 2 days a week for about 15 minutes. I have to keep in mind that he is still not even 3 (will be in June) because he picks up on everything instantly. He is definitely the personality that doesn't need to be drilled doing one thing over and over but instead needs diversity in what he does so I try to change it up on him a lot.
He is always smiling
Flash forward to today and I figured I would just try long lining him. I mean, why not?! Wouldn't you know the little man went around walk, trot, canter, and stopped. Pretty sure he was born broke! I won't do too much of it in the next two months but it is clear that he won't need much! If he wasn't still so young I would totally feel great throwing a rider on him. He is going to be the singles cutest kids pony around!
Mystic has had a few days off this past week. He came out just a tad funny on Tuesday and I am not sure if it was just because I had ridden a different horse just before or what but I didn't want to push it. It wasn't awful he just felt different switching directions which is not usually the case. He was happy to walk down the road so I did that and called it a day. Since then I have been house sitting about 40 minutes away from the barn so I haven't even seen him since Wednesday. On top of that one of the dogs I am house sitting is old and on his last leg so I basically could get there to find him dead. That is not something I would enjoy (from previous experience) so I try to get there at a reasonable time just in case. Thankfully I have him eating good and he seems happy and well considering! Sunday I will head out and see how Mystic feels. When I lunged him I couldn't see anything so I think it just may have been my imagination but better its always better to be safe than sorry.
As long as all is well we can get back to work for the next week and a half before I leave for spring break family vacation! All of us kids were told that we were going to Vegas which had us super excited and ready to get out of town for a week. Well it turns out that we are not going to Vegas... we are going on a cruise to Mexico! It was supposed to be a surprise but someone leaked so we all found out :) The next 2 weeks cannot go by fast enough! This also means that Pony will most likely have a week off which is not ideal. I told one of my friends that she can ride him but she also has her horse so I am not sure if she will have time or not. I was hoping to hit a league show on the 5th of April but I'm not sure I should swing it if he won't be in work for over a week just before.
Mylo got some new big boy 'toys'
Is that not the cutest thing you have seen?! I am starting to think about where to send him late summer to get started. I have a few ideas, we will just see how it all pans out. I keep telling him if he just decided to sprout up all our problems would go away!
