once upon a dressage dream...

you know you're horsey when...

2010-06-14T02:20:00.001+09:30

...at last count, your collection of bandages consisted of:
-1 set of white polos
-1 set of (new!) white elastics
-5 sets of red polos
-1 set of baby pink polos
-1 new set of navy polos, because...wait, do I need a reason?!

I'll admit it, I have a problem...now where can I find a deep pink
set???

showjumping with a twist...or is that an extra leap???

2010-06-09T20:31:00.001+09:30

Apparently, this is what they do in Switzerland!!

quote of the day...

2010-06-09T18:18:00.001+09:30

"Light off the leg, soft in the hands;
Ride the horse and not the plan"

musing of the day...

2010-06-06T20:37:00.001+09:30

If horses could talk, what would they tell us? Would we change the way
we treated them and build better relationships based on a more equal
partnership? How often do we miss the subtle signs of communication they
use to try and express how they feel?
I would love to see inside my horses' heads, both out of curiosity and
the desire to make their lives more enjoyable. Horses don't have a voice
and they suffer for it - so how often do you make the effort to listen
to what they quietly try and tell us through their movements and
reactions? The fact is, they tell us more than we realise...the question
is whether we choose to listen.

you know you're horsey when...

2010-06-03T02:12:00.001+09:30

...you browse through catalogues and gaze into shoe shops and find that
the top of the range knee-high designer boots seen on the legs of
fashionistas everywhere are cheap and nasty...they having nothing on a
nice, shiny pair of Petries or Konigs!!

ziggy - watch this :)

2010-06-01T17:58:00.001+09:30

A collection of pictures of Ziggy over her first four months with me, to the beautiful music of Kaki King.

quote of the day...

2010-05-31T23:33:00.000+09:30

"After seeing the trailer for {Robin Hood}, DH said 'you'll watch THAT;
it has lots of horses.' He knows the horse to person ratio affects my
movie choices!" - planetlisa, COTH Dressage Forum.

ziggy - nearly 4 months on (condition comparison pics)

2010-05-31T19:52:00.003+09:30

Still a long way to go, but a far cry from her condition upon arrival. We'll get there :)

ziggy - nearly 4 months on (more photos)

2010-05-31T19:49:00.002+09:30

ziggy - nearly 4 months on

2010-05-31T19:34:00.003+09:30

Ziggy has now been around for nearly four months, and with her teeth done and a sunny Saturday forecast, I thought I'd have another ride and see what she was REALLY like!

My friend came along to meet her for the first time and give me a hand for safety, as we were going to be working her in the big paddock where it was least slippery. She was also wise enough to bring me her body protector to wear - just in case!

We saddle "the tart" up, put on the silly pink boots inherited when I bought Matty back last year, and I got her going on the lunge. "Ohhh no, not this torture!" protested Ziggy, determined to spin the other way whenever I asked her to keep trotting and even daring to show us her beautiful belly at one stage...but persistence paid off and after correcting every turn back to the direction I had asked for, she suddenly gave up and lunged beautifully! She'd tested the waters, realised I was serious and not about to be outwitted by a silly racehorse, and decided to play by my rules.

I hopped on after lunging out any jellybeans and making sure she was settled, and started to walk her around. She was a bit confused at first and wanted to turn or walk backwards, so my friend led us around for a minute or two. I then eased away from her and did plenty of turning, small and large circles in walk before asking for a trot.

"Trot? What's that?" Ziggy wondered at first, before cottoning on to the idea. After a few transitions she was very light to the aid and trotting nicely, but wanted to stop and come back to walk as we neared the turn to come back down the hill. More persistence and patience with instant rewards if she trotted on, and we were soon doing lovely laps of trot in both directions - Ziggy even started offering a soft contact some of the time!

One thing I noticed very quickly is that once she got used to the idea of my long legs, she was actually far more comfortable and happy if I kept a constant, soft "cuddling" contact with the whole length of my legs and used a more definite squeeze or nudge to ask for more speed.

At one point she sucked in her breath, over-arched her neck and tensed up like she was threatening to buck...but a gentle persuading squeeze from my legs and she breathed out, trotted off and didn't threaten again!

We attempted a canter, and it happened effortlessly! No drama in the transition, reasonably balanced for a green horse, and a very easy downwards transition back to trot and then halt!

I left it on a good note there, as I was over the moon with her great behaviour and the potential she'd shown as a future riding horse. Not only is she smart and reasonably chilled out (so far anyway!), her trot is as smooth as silk and her canter is really quite balanced - exactly what crippled-back-me needs in a riding horse!!

Anyway, here are the photos with a few more to come in the next two posts - I am very pleased with how her condition is looking too. She almost looks like a real horse instead of an anorexic rescue case - hooray!! :)

cheeky, bootcamp and medals!

2010-05-31T19:11:00.003+09:30

After Lou left, I was without a mount for the SAPES Games dressage and hacking day. With nothing else to ride, I got stuck into Cheeky with only 5 days to go until the competition! He'd been clipped just in case I needed him, so luckily he had a nice, short and shiny coat instead of his teddy bear suit on!
Cheeky has had long term problems with balance in canter - last year we cured the left lead issue, but there still wasn't much balance or quality most of the time. I worked really hard on his canter during the week and practised the dressage tests lightly, turned up on the day and hoped for the best!

Well, I couldn't have been more surprised. Cheeky was a bit brain and muscle sore after his ordeal of actual dressage horse work, using muscles he'd never used in his life....but we'd manage to find the REAL canter, and on the day he was balanced, uphill and adjustable. Just beautiful.

We got a fantastic 71% and 6th place in the Prelim (Training level) test, and 55% in the Novice (First level) test with a few errors but overall some reasonable work.

After lunch came the hacking classes, and it was our time to shine - in all of our four classes we either came in the silver or bronze medal position, in one class against nine other horses!
Cheeky did some beautiful workouts and we only lost the gold medal in my rider class as he'd well and truly had enough and was disobedient in the final canter transition. The judge gave us some very positive comments on our general work and appearance - she complimented my riding and told me I'd only lost the gold due to his disobedient transition, and commended us on our lovely workout in the show hunter class which earned us a bronze medal behind two horses truer to hunter type.

Even more proof an old horse can learn new tricks and be a superstar. I had a fantastic day on beautiful old Cheeky and some wonderful photos and medals to remember our successes by!

ziggy - the first ride!!

2010-05-31T19:03:00.003+09:30

I had my first ride on Ziggy at the end of March, just under two months after her arrival. She had improved a bit but was still in pretty poor condition - however I thought it wise to have a sit on her before she started feeling great again in case she decided to show her newfound health and energy under saddle!!

She was very hesitant and felt much more like a green breaker than an ex racehorse, but she was pretty down to earth about it all. She was very nervous when leaving the property to use a nearby enclosed arena but once I started lunging her she got down to the job and in fact was very quiet. A couple of little kickouts of confusion with my long legs dangling down, but otherwise no dramas! We did a few circles of trot under saddle with my sister flicking the lunge whip a few metres behind Ziggy when I needed the extra back-up as I rode without a whip, and called it a day. I was very proud of her and over the moon to finally sit on my darling!

my last lesson on lou

2010-05-31T19:00:00.002+09:30

I did manage to squeeze in one lesson with Lou before selling him - I did have trouble but he tried his heart out and behaved like an angel. Pretty quiet for an off-the-track-thoroughbred!!

ziggy - mid march 2010

2010-05-31T18:53:00.002+09:30

louis - the last photos under saddle

2010-05-31T18:27:00.002+09:30

These are the last photos I have of Lou and I together under saddle - I was struggling majorly but he was very forgiving of his useless rider. This horse has a wonderful temperament, I only wish I'd gotten to do more on him but that's the way life goes! I expect he and his new rider will be a very competitive combination in the showjumping world :)

Ziggy - a week or two after arrival

2010-05-31T18:23:00.003+09:30

overdue update time!!

2010-05-31T17:53:00.003+09:30

Well well well...life has been crazy, leaving virtually no time for updates!! I left you with an introduction to the new mare, "Brindisi Desire" a.k.a. miss Ziggy, and Lou had just come home. So what's happened since then? A LOT!

I kept riding Lou for a while but I was having a lot of difficulty because of my back pain - after not riding for a few months I'd lost a lot of core strength despite all the physio and pilates I'd been undergoing. He is not a naturally uphill horse and he's a big mover, and I just am not capable of riding a horse like that with any sort of comfort or success when it comes to dressage training.

I made the heartbreaking decision to advertise my dearest darling Lou, and after a few false starts trying to tee up a time, he was sold to an experienced showjumping family to be the new competition mount for a talented teenage boy. I miss him like crazy but it is a huge relief to not have to try and work him myself, and know he is adored by his new family :)

So, now having no mount for the upcoming SAPES Games, I borrowed dear old Cheeky from my sister for a week's worth of dressage (canter!!) boot camp in preparation for the weekend's competition. I expected nothing from him, but we had a very successful day and loads of fun! More on that when I put up the photos.

And now to Ziggy - since her arrival, I've been steadily feeding her up and covering the bases needed to contemplate putting her into work. Worming, treating that horrible, disgusting coat and letting the healthy new winter coat come through, rugging (it's freezing!), farrier, and having her teeth attended to by a professional equine dental technician.

I cannot stress the importance of regular dental care BY A TRAINED AND QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL - this doesn't mean a vet, it means a dentist. No power tools or farrier's rasps! Poor Ziggy's mouth was being torn to shreds from the inside out - she had large areas of scar tissues and fresh cuts inside her cheeks and was dropping most of her feed. There was instant improvement in her willingness to lead and ability to eat normally after having her teeth carefully filed by the wonderful Kim Cooper.

I had sat on her once prior (if I'd been able to have a feel inside her mouth before then I would have left her til after the dentist!) to her teeth being done - no dramas, a sensible if very green and hesitant girl...

...so with her teeth now being in good order, I took the opportunity of a sunny Saturday off to have a "proper" ride on my girl! A few posts worth of progress photos to come :)

For now, that's about it - in a few weeks time I'll be on holidays and finally have an opportunity to put Zigs in real work. Fingers crossed she'll take to it well and we'll see what she's really made of!

musing/quote of the day...

2010-05-09T17:55:00.000+09:30

"If you've got the shoulders, you've got the lot!"

Control and correct/desired placement of the horse's shoulders gives the
rider much more control over the rest of the horse's body. When you can
place the shoulders wherever you like, it makes life much easier trying
to control the placement and straightness of the rest of the body.

quote of the day...

2010-05-03T22:11:00.000+09:30

"Horses: if God made anything more beautiful, He kept it for Himself..."

quote of the day...

2010-04-27T19:54:00.001+09:30

My sister, on my browsing of dressage magazines: "How do they make those
magazines that long? There's only so many ways you can say 'INSIDE LEG
TO OUTSIDE REIN!!'" ;)

musing of the day...

2010-04-10T00:17:00.001+09:30

When teaching the long and low stretch, don't ride the neck backwards -
ride everything in front of the withers forward.

a happy pony...

2010-03-30T12:48:00.000+10:30

...is one with a hayroll all to himself! Spoilt brat :)

you know you're horsey (in australia!) when...

2010-03-30T12:40:00.001+10:30

...you're frothing at the mouth by the last Monday of the month, and hold the faint hope you might get a copy of your monthly Bible before the due date of Wednesday. Did I say Bible? I meant Horse Deals. Same thing really!

wonderhorsey!!!

2010-03-10T23:11:00.000+10:30

Can't say I have any good way to explain this one!

he's home!

2010-03-09T20:27:00.004+10:30

Remember that plan where I had to stop riding to help my back get better? Well it had the opposite effect. Consequently, after much discussion I was signed off for light riding, e.g. dressage/flatwork, low key pleasure rides, and so on. Hooray!! :)

This means that I've been able to bring Lou home earlier than planned and I'm having so much fun riding him again! His canter is much improved as are some other minor things like his halts. On the last day, Bec competed at a local dressage competition - some disappointing scores in the Prelim tests despite being very accurate, relaxed and supple, and some questionable judging - a 3 for a near perfect entry and halt?! But we all told Bec to go out and enjoy the last test as it was her last ride on him, and we knew they had it in the bag. And win it they did, with nearly 75% and a big grin on Bec's face!

I've been playing with some new tricks since Lou came home and he has been exceptionally well behaved - wide open spaces, gale force winds, sleeting rain....no negative effect on his attitude at all! My dear Mel jumped him on Sunday and he popped over 90cm spreads several times as if he'd never had time off jumping at all!

We have a lesson booked in for the weekend and will hopefully have some new videos up soon, but in the meantime, here are the pictures from dressage!