Marc Grandia Clinic: Speed and Accuracy

Saturday was the second clinic date with Marc, this time focusing on Speed and Accuracy. I had accidentally double booked myself for Aug 1 but then one of the events (a 30 mile endurance ride) got cancelled. Boo... but I didn't have to choose at least.

I splurged on myself and got some purple cross country Majyk Equipe boots for Gwyn

Happy ears

For this session, we started with just the gallop and being able to regulate the power, influence and balance by shifting our own body in our rider positions (gallop, balance, three point, two point and landing). Usually I consider myself relatively fit but THIS was kicking my butt, literally and figuratively! So I've dug out my Rider Fitness book and I'm gonna buckle down with that. Remembering that I was really riding on my toes last time, between the two clinics and at this clinic, I really pushed myself to sink into my heels when I was starting to feel insecure. It definitely helped. I did not have any of the tipping issues over jumps that I did last time! So progress there!

This face tho... (Bend your GD elbows...) PC: Stephani

The big thing that we focused on was using our body and seat to signal to the horse. So the lower you go, like a jockey, the more stretch and reach you want from your horse while they maintain the same rhythm with better efficiency but while covering more ground. So we practiced galloping around, with the image of our chest touching our pommel and then rising upright to shorten the stride and act as a signal to balance and focus on the line. It was very core intensive!

He talked about how you watch 2 and 3 star horses who don't seem to change their rhythm on the xcountry course, but you can see the stride change coming into and out of a jump. For a lot of this I was really recalling my time as a jump judge at WEG and it was pulling memories up confirming what Marc was describing. 

Her pointed nose of concentration... 😆  PC: Stephani

I have a conundrum with Gwyn. When she's fresh and ready to gallop, she doesn't offer a lot of steering control, especially if she's magnetized toward other horses or the trailers, etc. And we had a lot of runaway moments, always to the right, where I'd have her nose at my left knee and she was still moving sideways right in the canter. Damn Goober Mare is too flexible. And at one point, she had locked onto a bank complex instead of making a turn toward a steeplechase brush fence. Marc laughed at that and said "She's learning, but she still needs to listen to you." When she started to get tired she was much more willing to rate and steer at the canter. So now I need to figure out how to merge the stamina of fresh Gwyn to the control of tired Gwyn. 

Marc really insisted that in those moments I turn her the direction I intended, otherwise she's learning the wrong thing. Yeah, guilty. I'll accept that. Again, I think I need to go recreate those moments and see what I can do in the moment to fix things. I don't think I had all the tools I could have used ( I didn't carry a bat this time or spurs) but I do want to fix it. 

And I have to say, even with the corrections he demanded, I never felt bad, instead, I felt empowered. He's an amazing clinician and so supportive of the riders. He was fair and wanted you to ride correctly and improve. He was never mean or bullying. 

Again with the nose...  PC: Stephani

Once we'd strung together a couple lines, especially working on letting the horse take simpler questions out of a gallop stride where our position didn't change because we were already ready for the jump being in gallop position, we moved on to accuracy. 

 PC: Stephani

For this, Marc set up three jump blocks as a skinny jump. Something low but that had challenge in the narrowness of it. We went over it as three, then he removed it, we went over it as two and then down to one block. The goal was to teach the horse to lock on and treat any object you present as a jump, and he described how if you really drilled it, you could get your horse to jump a traffic cone. That's serious goals! 

We did well with the 3 and 2 set  PC: Stephani

If the horse didn't quite make it over the blocks, we had to immediately halt and back up to put the horse back on the line. No circling around. Back up. It was as much to teach the horse that, no, I want you to try again with a different answer. Gwyn was the most proficient at backing up of the three mares there 😂  And honestly... was straighter backing up than going forward, a fact that Marc joked about. 

... and even succeeded a few times with the single!  PC: Stephani

We eventually strung all three skinnies together in an S bending line. It was super challenging but SUPER fun and I want to recreate it at home! I think this is an exercise that could really help us. 

Simplified diagram by me

Marc used imagery like keeping the horse on a railroad line made from your legs. What I learned from this is that Gwyn is VERY wiggly between my legs. This was tough! 

She is SUPER intent on the game. PC: Stephani

There was a moment where we made it over the first and she turned and locked onto the second and then we turned again and locked onto the short barrel brush and sliced through it like a dream. It was like I was a teen in pony club again with Clyde where we were fearless and he took care of me over any jump I pointed him at. Everything felt perfect and EVERYONE cheered, even Marc. It was perfect and with all of our steering struggles, we nailed it. Just.... nailed it.  I am still riding that high today!

The final skinny was a short barrel top with brush. We sliced this one to avoid the harder one that was in a line right after   PC: Stephani

The resting period while we all tackled this gymnastics exercise was enough for Gwyn to recover from her long bouts of galloping and when we strung a longer course together with the gymnastics, her steering went wonky again (and Goober Mare was very much present and wanting to GO) 

I had half a mind to take her on some trails because we'd only been riding 90 minutes and only done 4.5 miles of work... she was fit to keep going. She keeps reminding me that she's more fit than I credit her for.  And by that, I mean, she took off on me in the moment between her bridle coming off and me getting her halter on. The Shadowood crew helped me catch her and since I still had my helmet on, I tied the leadrope back onto her halter and hopped back on to ride back to the trailers. Of course she was steerable in the halter and leadrope 😒 😆

She got a bath at the newly installed washracks by trailer parking and then I made her hydrate by dumping some timothy cubes in a bucket of water.

Mom, dis bag here has the good stuff. Imma bite it.

All in all, it was a fantastic clinic.

Quick notes for myself:

• Shorter stirrups for jumping, this also emphasized after a timely Denny Emerson post on similar topics. My lower leg swings back too much. So shorter stirrups it is
  
• Better fitness for myself to be able to hold an effective rider position in the canter/gallop
• Straightness straightness straightness!
• Correct in the moment and BACK UP if necessary to reset the horse on the line immediately
• Tiny jumps in all the ways to work on accuracy!
• Pre and post-electrolyting with powerade/gatorade before the clinic really helped this human. Use that strategy going forward for endurance rides and shows. I did not finish with a sun headache like last time

Marc Grandia Clinic: Ditches and Coffins

 I was really excited to talk about this. Especially because I actually have AMAZING media thanks to a friend. But then I woke up to a fucking comment about weight on my IG where they grossly overestimated what I weigh. I just deleted it rather than engage, but fuck. Way to ruin a good mood. I was in such a positive headspace with constructive things that I could work on and improve. 

So understand that I am sharing these in an absolutely wretched state of mind. I don't mind being picked apart for my equitation or form over fences. Those are things I can fucking change way more easily than my weight right now.  And I'm just... ugh. There's just a lot of self doubt and spiraling self hatred in my head about this. And there shouldn't be. There really fucking shouldn't be. 

Anyway.

I board 5 minutes down the road from Polestar, a local eventing facility owned by Meika Decher. It's so close and I've never been there and I really should have by now. You can trailer in and flat on the cross country course for a small fee and by notifying Meika. She also has trails on the property. To use the cross country course you need an instructor. 

For this, I signed up for 2 days of a 3 part clinic with Marc Grandia, who has a training facility a town or two over. The 3 sessions were spread out over 3 months, so June, July and August. I couldn't do June thanks to moving houses, but I snagged a spot for July and August.

We were in small groups and trailer parking was basically at the start of the cross country field so there was very limited clustering of people. I operated solely out of my trailer and even had my camping toilet with me to minimize contact. It felt very safe. 

I was in the third or fourth group of the day. In fact, I was arriving to grab Gwyn when the barn owner was returning from her clinic session with him. We started off with establishing a steady trot and canter in the field. Gwyn was AMPED up. She wanted to gallop. She knew it was something fun we were doing and was ready to just go hogwild. So our canter had some steering issues BUT I was able to implement the things I worked on in lessons to stop letting her blow through my right aids and for the most part was able to do broad left turns at the canter, lol. But if she got too strong in the beginning, I really only have control if I tightly turn her right. There's still work to be done.

We started over a small log and BOY, suddenly the game was on! The focus to the first jump was staying straight and steady. Then we added in a couple more to string together a small course. 

Because these were smaller jumps, and Gwyn was having some straightness issues, Marc had me focus on coming in in a nice trot and encouraging a forward canter on the other side. As Gwyn got a little tired (haha) and I got my sea legs back, so to speak, I built up the confidence to string some of the jumps together with cantering completely. 

I have a weird mental hangup where I don't fully trust Gwyn to jump out of a canter yet. I'm not sure what's going on with that, but I do know that we just need to keep doing it so that I can outweigh the hesitation in my brain with good experience and examples. Maybe once I feel like I have more steering control? And that will only come with more cantering time in an open field.

Once we'd finished stringing a few fences together and establishing steady pacing and straightness into and away from jumps, we added in the ditches and coffins. Specifically working with the natural elevation changes and maintaining good rhythm despite downhill or uphill striding. 

The baby ditches/coffins for my level were simple rectangles of landscape timbers with stapled landscape fabric on the bottom. There was no depth to ours to start, just the illusion of depth. Gwyn handled these fine. We had more troubles being straight to jumps than anything. I'm seeing my right size weakness magnified out on the cross country course, so I'm filing that away for things to work on at home.

I'm also a little bit ahead of the motion. I'm not sinking into my heels enough which would help me fold more. So that's also something I'm working on at home on the flat. Lots of two point and really redeveloping a better base to jump out of in shorter stirrups. This did lead to two falls for more, though thankfully both were a roll and I was on my feet. None were head impacts and I definitely appreciated my vest. 

Despite the falls, it was such a great time. Blazing hot and I could feel Gwyn losing some power over the jumps as we moved from more starter level heights to true BN as she got tired. She still had power on the flat and was not content to just stand and wait our turn, so I'm crediting our endurance conditioning for that. She can trot for hours, but I know that her conditioning won't fully convert to jumping condition, especially in the heat. I rode conservatively and we didn't do everything everyone else did, which Marc was on board with. My legs were getting to be jelly anyway. 

We ended on a really strong note, tying several fences together and cantering the course, far better than our start! And again, my confidence rose as the day progressed, even though we were both hot and tired. It was such an empowering clinic, I'm really excited for the August one, which will be on conditioning and pacing! 

In the meantime, I intend to return to Polestar specifically to use their fields for cantering work. Gwyn feels better balanced in the open like this where our turns can be wide and sweeping, rather than tight and controlled in an arena. I would like to get to a point where we can canter around the perimeter of the field and that's going to require more stamina from me. 

Really, this gave me more of a desire to push forward with my AEC goal in 2022. And these clinics are a good stepping stone on the way there. 

Hunters Run Derby Part 1: Dressage

Hoo boy.

Okay, figuring out where to start this will be a trick and a half.

We can start with the fact that I had just gotten over a stomach virus on Friday and was still weak. I didn't get as much done Saturday as I should have because I couldn't. I figured going to the show would pretty much wipe me out and I was right.

Of course, Saturday night I couldn't sleep. Y'all. I haven't been to a legit eventing class of show (Derby, 3 Day, etc) since I was a teenager. It's been about a decade and a half. However, I did make sure my tack was clean, I pulled out my nice bridle I've been saving for a show and switched the bit over. Expecting sun, I put the finishing touches on the customized fly bonnet I made for Gwyn. (There were no bugs...)

Those ears are rainbow sparkly.

And then I got into bed and realized I couldn't remember my dressage test and that I had no fucking idea where my medical armband got off to.

Fuck.

I couldn't fall asleep for about 2 hours. My stomach was starting to flip from nerves and it still hadn't fully settled from my bout of porcelain throne worship on Friday. Just... not ideal conditions.

Sunday morning I grabbed gas for the truck and began doing the finalized loading. Since I'm a craft supply hoarder, I also threw together a makeshift medical armband.

 My friend Casey came to take pictures for me and kept me calm and on track. She doesn't have any horse experience but she was great at being someone to talk at me and listen to me babble and freak out.

First error: I should have budgeted more arrival and prep time. We got there and there was no one in the show secretary hut for a good 20 minutes. WTF. I did try and make good use of the time by getting dressed and starting to groom Gwyn but it kind of set the tone. Thankfully I grabbed my number and rushed back to tack up.

Gwyn had picked up on the energy of the day and was dancing around. Then I found and pulled a tick off of her belly. UGH.

Second error: I didn't do a final review of my dressage test. LOL. I had been doing a lot of visualization in my head but didn't verify that my visualization was completely accurate. I should have done this. I meant to do it. I had a copy of the test in my truck.

I got up to the warm up and checked in with the ring steward and did a bit, but not nearly enough, of warm up. Gwyn was amped. She was on high alert and I swear she thought it was an endurance ride.

So we get to the ring, I greet the judge, judge blows the whistle and we enter. The first part goes okay. I can tell Gwyn is hollow and tense and then we get to the first canter circle at A.

Exiting stage right.

 I'm gritting my teeth but I turn around and go back in. Because this is fucking embarrassing. There's multiple layers here that I'm going to try and explain. As many of you are aware, riding, especially showing, is heavily appearance focused. The human appearance especially. You are pushed to be thin and perfect and coifed. So I already stand out because I'm fat. And let me tell you, I've lost 20 pounds since March. And I was feeling so much better about being in my body until I saw these pictures because getting up on the horse means I immediately look like a marshmallow and it fucking sucks next to every other rider who was there. Plus I don't have the full funds to acquire a show jacket right now. I'm trying to prioritize and the show explicitly stated that you could use your cross country attire in dressage but I was the only one I saw who did that. So standing out more. Then add in Gwyn's coloring and standing out EVEN more. And then we leave the dressage ring.

This is probably all mental, and it's only really hit me now that I've been percolating on it for hours and in the moment I was fine but I just hate it. And if I write any more about it I'm probably going to have to go into the bathroom at work and cry about it but there it is. Stupid stupid stuff.

And honestly, if I saw a rider unintentionally exit during their dressage I would have felt bad for them and assumed it was a green moment but nothing more? And most people probably think that about me but this judgement is a constant in the back of my head. Plus, I am losing weight. Slowly and steadily. I will get to a point where I won't stand out as much. It just hurts when I see myself until then and how I think I'm seen by others.

Anyway. I continue the test. The judge has me redo the cantering transition to trot to walk.

NO MOM. I'M DONE.

 And then on the free walk on the diagonal Gwyn totally blows my aid and just... steps over the fucking railing again. Now I'm ready to die inside and I just go around the outside, come back in and keep going.

The moment before. You can see her eyeing the poles going "Those look like Cavaletti and I am GOOD at stepping over them!"

Casey said she heard me go "SERIOUSLY?!?!' at Gwyn.

Cantering by the judge. We stayed in down here at least.

 And then I blew the final diagonal. Completely forgot about it. The judge seemed sympathetic, she was kind and it was a schooling show and the last time I did a dressage test with Gwyn was when we were in Washington. There's a lot of excuses. But the judge didn't have me redo it because we'd already been eliminated because of leaving the arena.

Leaving after final halt salute

Dear Gwyn: Please to be relaxed like this IN THE DAMN TEST

I'm not going to post each remark for each movement right now (mainly because it's at home and I'm at work). It can be summed up with: Tense. Hollow. Error.  We scored a 55%

The nicest thing the judge commented was that Gwyn was cute.

I'm hanging on to sanity by remembering:

1. This was a schooling show so in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal.
2. It highlighted things to focus on
3. I need to find an actual dressage trainer so we can school the issue of NOT LEAVING THE DAMN DRESSAGE COURT.  I am now 2 for 2 of this happening in a dressage test with cantering. I don't want it to become a habit.
4. Practice relaxation and working on the bit so it becomes more habit in a high energy show environment.

So there you are. Part 1.


Many thanks to Casey for the media. I wouldn't have had it without her.

RIDING LESSON ZOMG

Pardon me while we take a break from the regularly scheduled bloghop for my lesson run down and note review so I can remember what to work on!

My riding lesson was today and there's not much media of it, just selfies while I wallowed in self pity because the weather was slightly nasty.

This is my "I am not impressed, weather" face

"Ewwwww wintry mix! NOOOOO"

Okay, but seriously that's it. I should have set up the camera to record it all but didn't think about it. I was more concerned with dressing warmly.

I wore:

• thick wool socks that were compromised the moment I put on mesh, summer weight paddock boots and stepped outside
• Kerrits winter tight
• merino wool baselayer (I'm still wearing it, it's so soft and warm)
• fleece vest that I got from when I was a volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium (roomy yet warm with zipper pockets!)
• My columbia jacket, rated for super cold weather (I was sweating in the house)
• A balaclava I got from Meijer and wore for the first time today. 
• half chaps
• ariat maxtrax zip up boot (not happy so far with the fit but still breaking them in)

I was SO WARM!  :D :D :D :D :D

But seriously, I was warm enough I didn't need gloves.  The balaclava was perfect. I pulled it down off my head when I put my helmet on, but it kept my neck and ears protected from the wind. I'm a fan!

I think this is my new default for winter riding, barring the shoes, the wind goes right through em. I still need to work on gloves, but this is an amazing start.

It was rainsnowing when I left the house and I grumbled my way across to the barn. Gwyn saw me grab the halter and threw me the middle hoof and left. She knew. She knew. But it didn't take long for her to be amenable to capture (like a minute... haha) I curried the mud off, brushed where she was dry and started dolling her up. I wasn't sure what I'd be doing so I stuck polos on her front legs, partly because I was cold and partly because purple.

Trainer AML arrived as I started to get the saddle. I signed her liability release and we got to know each other. She watched me tack Gwyn up and was pretty much getting the feel for Gwyn's personality and how we worked together.

I hopped on and started warming up. I talked about what my goals were (eventually eventing, but for now solidifying the basics) and what issues I knew we had (dropping the shoulder, bending, feeling very dead to left leg, working on the bit).

Right away we started to tackle the shoulder/bending/working on the bit/straightness stuff.

Good stuff:

• My seat is excellent (FUCK YEAH!), I am well balanced and sit up
• I look where I'm going instead of at my horse
• My hands are soft with caveats**

Basically, I want Gwyn to have self carriage, and that can be taught. I want Gwyn to know that when pressure is released, we relax. To that end, she's having me do some weird stuff to get the feel and overexaggerate the movement.  We started with just the concept of giving to pressure. She had me hold my hands out, palms down and WAY up high and immediately release when Gwyn dropped her head and took a step back. This became the foundation for back up. And by the end me just sitting up and raising my hands was all it took for Gwyn to step. But she's wiggly.

So then we worked on me feeling the connection between the rein and her hind leg. So my right rein should be cuing her right hind leg to step in and under herself. There's a certain swoop feeling when she truly steps in and across, versus sidestepping. The goal there was cue with the rein until I feel the swoop. Then get more and more together.

Again, and I've heard this from so MANY sources, control the feet, control the horse. So there were some deer moving through the woods during the lesson and Trainer AML got to see some of Gwyn's spook scooting and we used those same basic principles to get her focused and get her back and straight and listening to me as the herd leader. I have a habit of pushing or pulling Gwyn where I want her to be, and that just sets me up in a battle of wills with a part appy mare.

Then we did the 90 degree exercise. Basically instead of doing circles, I make very geometric movements around the arena and steer like I have a steering wheel. This is all to give me the feel and I have the suspicion that this will eventually be very subtle but I have to retrain old habits.

Let me tell you, doing this exercise, picking random 90 degree turns to take, all of a sudden I felt Gwyn start to carry herself, she was in a rough frame and we were straight in the contact before and after turns. She wasn't falling in or bulging out. I swear it was like magic and the horse and rider I knew we could be was starting to emerge.

A lot of the stepping under exercises I can do on the ground as well as in the saddle, so this gives me a lot to work on and practice until my next lesson (scheduled for december!)

All in all, I really liked the lady. She was tough but praised when you got it right. Just what I like. 

Amusing Anecdote: Saffron was NOT happy about the new lady and tried to run her down. Trainer AML just used her equid knowledge and sent Saffron off. I have never seen the donkey like that, but I think it's because Saffron knows where she is herdwise with us, and she was trying to suss out the new person, who firmly said "Nope, I'm also higher than you"   Saffron sulked in a corner of the arena for the rest of the lesson. LOL Then, by the end, came over to play nice.

October 14, 2015 Video Blog 3

This video was all about ground driving!

I'm over a month late at this point, I know, I know. But eh. Things didn't work as well as I hoped, but I also didn't have as much time as I wanted to work with Gwyn. We have all winter though, so I did try and not rush myself or expect too much.

I'm researching an economical harness so we can make use of the new snow that is gracing the farm and I can teach Gwyn to pull something.  Because sitting in a sled behind her would TOTALLY still count for the distance derby. :D :D :D 

New Goals

My riding plans for the rest of this year and the first third of next year have been curtailed. Due to being on blood thinners now for the duration of my pregnancy, I am forbidden from riding Gwyn. This may or may  not work, I expect a bareback ride here or there on property, but my trail riding days are at an end until the baby arrives.

I don't want Gwyn to languish for the next 30 weeks, however, so I want to have a plan in place to work toward so I keep her engaged and keep her skills present and sharp. I see no reason why I can't ground drive her. The big danger is me falling and bleeding internally. If Gwyn is an idiot, I can release the lines and let her get over herself while I stay safe.

Things I want to work on through the winter with Gwyn:

• Going on walks
• I think I'm going to try handwalking her on the pollyann trail. That way we're still getting off property. 
• Being tied on a high line
• For camping purposes
• Ground driving
• Maybe this will work out some of our steer issues that we have, or at least allow continuous work
• I've purchased driving lines and I already have a surcingle, so as soon as those arrive we can get started
• Pulling small loads around
• Earn her keep using the arena drag, dragging pastures too
• Obvious snow fun on skis or sleds (for the following winter.... >.>) 
• work up to driving training
• Tricks - Useful or Fun
• lay down 
• smile 
• bow
• line up with a mounting block
• pick things up
• ground tie
• pick feet up with a point
• lower head on cue
• Painting

3.25 miles!

Today was a good ride. No pictures, but the weather was great. The insects, however, were nasty. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes. ICK.  And the horse flies, oi! Unlike yesterday, there were people at the barn, so I was more bold in my riding. My goal for today was to do a lot of trotting and just stay in forward motion to build up my endurance.

I had lunged Gwyn first because she was really up after watching all her buddies get turned out to pasture for the day while she stayed in as I groomed her. She was NOT dirty today, and her coat was super soft! Lunging was good, I pulled out the cavaletti and lunged her over that, then pulled out the barrels for jumps when she started getting lazy with the highest height of the pole. She was really good!

I hopped on and set out into the fields. She started out with a nice, loose rein trot, it was FANTASTIC. I decided to try and be more upright while posting since I think I lean too far forward. As soon as I set my shoulders back, I noticed my elbows naturally bent. Oooo!! Light bulb moment! My leg also swung forward a smudge, but I think it's okay. Now I want to get this on video/picture to see if it did what I think it did. I did more for me on this ride, then for Gwyn, until we had our sticky moments with steering away from the barn.

We had no spooky moments by our spook point, which was good, but I gave it decent berth just in case. We also walked for a short time on the road and had a car drive past us, slowly, thankfully, and Gwyn didn't lose her mind. Hurray!

All in all, a good time. And our average pace was up since we did so much trotting. I put her fly sheet back on and sprayed exposed Goober Pony and went on my way. Such a nice morning.

Easy hack today, 1.61 miles

I kept this ride simple because there was no one at the barn. I was going to ride in the outdoor arena but it was a soppy mess thanks to the rain (see next photo) and then thought about the indoor but my GPS doesn't track well inside.... soooooo outside I went. I kept it at a walk since I rode bareback today and just focused on having a positive ride, and I had a great ride!! There were sticky steering moments but we worked through them.

I didn't get to ride yesterday because my truck wouldn't start after I dropped Kaylee off at preschool. WOMP WOMP. I drove it to the dealership instead and got a courtesy car. Turns out the car battery was a dud and it actually explains other issues I had. Truck is fixed, I picked it up this afternoon! YAY

Gwyn was DIIIIIRTY.  She apparently made use of Sunday and Monday mud. I had expected it to be hot and had worn my Kerrits outfit with my icefil tights and super light kerrits shirt, which is white. Figures Gwyn finally rolls in mud the day I need to groom her and I'm wearing a brand new white shirt.

The hay is up above my feet when I'm riding Gwyn. But it's been too wet to cut. Curse you weather!

It was a beautiful day, low 70s, much drier. Not nearly the amount of humidity we've had the past few days. It was very pleasant weather.

Green lipstick!

A post office truck drove up looking for someone that I didn't know. Captivated mare!

The horse flies were NASTY. So Gwyn got to try her fly sheet for the first time.