Week 43: Growing Up

                The last couple of weeks have really been crazy! I made a trip to look at colleges, competed in a dressage schooling show and went to another event. One common theme through all of it is growing up. As I look at colleges all over the east coast I am beginning to realize that my time as a high school student is dwindling. Not only that, but Finn is growing up too!

            

                Yesterday Finn competed in his 2^nd BN event. Although we go eliminated at the water, we had the most fun horse and rider are capable of having. Finn is a hot horse. He came to me as a calm three year old that had little to no interested in running away with me or being playful under tack, suddenly though, all that is changing. In the barn I ride at we frequently talk about horses going through their 5 year old stage; the point in a thoroughbreds life when they truly decide that they are alive. As Finn progresses through his 4 year old year I am beginning to see little glimmers of what may be this stage. Finn is fun to ride overall but he is becoming a bit of a handful to jump. He doesn’t buck or stop or do anything silly like that he just won’t slow down.

                In order to work on this we have been setting up some new exercises. The first one is a trot jump with a sharp turn right after. The point of this exercise is to get Finn focusing on the turn after the jump instead of his urge to accelerate. The exercise also has an added bonus: front-end quickness. By adding a turn right after the fence, the horse has to focus a lot more to ensure a clean jump. The second exercise is one that Megan and Sally swear by: cantering the pole. I am pretty sure that if you took any of Sally or Megan’s horses and attempted to ride them by a pole without going over it they would be very very confused. Not only does this get the horse thinking about pace or striding, it also gets the rider thinking about jumping in a more relaxed way. The more confident I become in my ability to find a distance, the more confident I will get about my jumping.

                Finn is usually a pretty good boy in the dressage however, this weekend he was a bit different. I felt that he wasn’t listening to me and he really just wanted to trot around with his head in the air. I tried to relax my hands and body but thinking back I am still having a hard time figuring out what I was doing to causing that behavior. I am a fairly green rider, at least in terms of OTTB experience so when things go wrong the fairest explanation is that I am flailing around up there. However, it seems that this time, Finn might have has his own problems as well.

                This last couple of weeks was a whirlwind, Finn pulled two shoes and I was once again paranoid about lameness and my ability to ride him. Growing up is scary. Thinking about putting Finn in a trailer a year from now with all of my personal belonging is scary. Most of all, leaving the people who stand ringside at events and clap for me when I finish my round is going to be scary. Even when the event doesn’t go as planned like yesterday, I still know that I have a ton of people behind me and my dreams. Tomorrow is a new day; a new day of challenges, mistakes and exciting new adventures.

                Look for another update midweek! I have some big plans for Teens for TB’s. 

Week 39: Bending is a Part of Breaking

                The last two weeks have been nice and quiet. After competing every other weekend for the last two months, a nice break is coming as a great surprise. I use the word break casually, as Finn and I have continued to work hard. The last two weeks Finn and I have spent a ton of time hacking out and working in the dressage ring. From day one Finn has been a little weaker behind on his right side and up until now, the movements that we have been doing have been more focused on straightness and pace than anything else. This last week we decided to push the issue.

                Before I delve into the deep and endless world of dressage lingo I thought I would take some time to talk about Finn’s jump lesson with Sally Cousins. We decided on Wednesday that Sally would get on Finn and jump him around a bit and we are glad that we did. Sally got on and warmed Finn up; asking him to move forward and come back. After jumping him over some single jumps she started weaving around and adding things together. Sally’s soft hand and good eye for distances made it all look so easy. Finn jumped the jumps out of stride and got all of his lead changes when asked. Watching Sally ride has pushed me to pursue a fitness routine that focuses on balance and core strength. If I expect great movement from my horse, he should expect great riding from me.

                 I tacked up Finn like usual and took him into the indoor on day one of his “Dressage Boot Camp” with a dressage whip in hand. Before mounting I stood in front of Finn and asked him to yield his hind quarters out. I repeated this a few times before deciding that he understood the concept and was ready to try some of it under saddle.When I got on him, the first thing that I did was turn him to the right and put my reins on the buckle. I used Finn to speed up, slow down, turn and stop using only my legs. I really like this exercise because not only does it get the horse thinking about leg aids, it also gets our human legs moving! I strongly believe that our legs work as an extension of our horses legs. When we want to move the hind end, lateral or forward, it is necessary that the rider use their leg and seat and not depend on their hands to “create” a frame. Finn responded well at this exercise at the walk and the trot so I decided to pick up the reins a bit. His first instinct was to lean on my inside leg and move off quickly. Although I respect his desire to go forward, I made a move to slow his tempo with my seat and hold the tip of my dressage whip against his hindquarters. I then turned him down the quarter line and had him leg yield over. I must confess, these were no leg yields of grace and beauty, but they were Finn moving his hind end away from the inside leg and the whip aid. For the rest of the ride I worked Finn on a menagerie of rein lengths; asking him for the same frame and the same willingness to yield the hindquarters at all lengths of rein.

                In my next ride I worked on the same exercises, adding canter work. Finn has an amazing canter. Yes I am bragging but it IS true. Finn easily picked up the exercises at the canter and he began to use his back and hind end fairly nicely. In my lesson the next day my trainer worked me through a bunch of circles and changes of direction to get him really focusing on me and relaxing. He was AMAZING. His walk was fluid, the trot was balanced and the canter was soft and comfortable.

                For those of you that have followed this blog from the beginning, you probably know by now that I am a goals oriented person. I have decided that next year Finn and I will be aiming for the American Eventing Championships as well as Dressage at Devon. These two shows have been in my dreams since I was 11 years old and I firmly believe that Finn can take me the distance.