Take Me Home Country Roads

So last Friday I had the day off from work. Yay for Spring Break! Which really worked out perfectly so we could take Little Cuddles and Buddy home to Maryland. Picked up Astrid about 5 and headed out to the barn. Started feeding the horses while we waited for Bonnie. By the time we got the trailer hooked up and the horses loaded we were on the road by 7. Not too bad for Bonnie time really. Pretty much the usual long, boring drive down to Maryland. We got to Sandy's about 1, got the ponies unloaded quickly and were back on the road in no time. We ended up calling Lee and meeting up with her in Monroeville for dinner. So we didn't get back to the barn until about 8. All in all not a bad trip. And Cuddles and Buddy are gone till next winter. Yippee!

Saturday morning I was at the barn early. Bonnie was going to ride Bugsy before the kids got there and I wanted to ride with her. So we fed early and then tacked up Kaye and Bugs. Of course we had just gotten on and hadn't moved past walking when Jim showed up to put hay in the barn. Kaye and Bugs went back into the barn so we could move hay bales. Took us about half an hour to do hay and then we could go back to the ponies. Bonnie had a good ride on Bugs. And Kaye wasn't too bad on the flat. Of course we had to spook at the Door Monsters that were hiding behind every door in the arena. After Bonnie finished with Bugs, she put him away and came back out to give me a jumping lesson.

Started over the single fence and then eventually added a second fence as a two stride. Jumped the two oxers. And then we jumped the first and second fence of the diagonal triple followed by the oxer, which actually rode very nicely. Then Bonnie raised all the fences a few holes and I jumped the in and out and the diagonal triple and then finally I jumped the two oxers. When we went back and measured everything, most of the fences were about 3'-3'3" and the one oxer and vertical were 3'6"! Woohoo! And I felt good jumping it all. I was a little nervous when Bonnie raised the fences but I jumped them all. I never said I couldn't do it. I never asked her to lower the fence. It was amazing!

Sunday morning I was back out for an early lesson. I had to leave early as I was going shopping with Aunt Sandy, Uncle Ralph and the girls. Tacked up Kaye for another jumping lesson. You should have seen her! She knew she would get to jump big fences and she was ready for it. None of the usual screwing around, she was all business. So we started out over the oxers first. and then Bonnie had us try an exercise where she placed a raised cavaletti in front of one of the verticals. The idea was to get Kaye to pick up her knees more. Well we failed miserably at that exercise. Kaye thought the raised cavaletti was a jump and so she just rode it as a bounce. Then we did the one stride in and out and then finished with the first fence of the in and out to each of the oxers. I had some problems with that. It's not a lot of room, only one stride and I was trying to wait until after landing to begin turning and there's just not enough room. Eventually we got it.

The best part about all this, I started thinking that if I'm jumping like this at home, it's really not fair to Kaye to go beginner novice at South Farm. So I think the first South Farm CT we will be going novice. And then training for the second one. I can't believe I'm seriously thinking of doing training level this summer, even at a combined test. I seriously never thought I'd actually be able to do it. It's really just amazing that I'm actually there. Can't wait to get to the barn tomorrow to ride again.

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Pics

Joni uploaded some of the pictures from our photo shoot two weeks ago. Love this first one. I just love it!






Normally I wouldn't publish a photo where I almost fall off. However I think this is just hilarious! The look on my face, Chloe in the background, the whole thing. Plus looking at the picture I'm pretty impressed with myself that I did stay on. In fact I picked up my stirrup and trotted around to jump the triple again.

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More Video

Just wanted to add my stadium round at Lost Hounds HT last June. Special K and I placed 4th in the Open Beginner Novice. Double clear on stadium and no jumping penalties on cross country. Optimum time had been waived for beginner novice after the morning of rain we had. Thanks to Astrid for the video.

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The Lightbulb Has Clicked!

Saturday morning at the barn was the usual craziness. Got there early and cleaned the Pony's stall first thing. The kids started to arrive so I tacked up Kaye and warmed her up for them. Walk, trot and canter, she never put a foot out of place. We worked through our laterals, and she was just really good for me. Ari got on her then for a lesson. I ended up riding Miss later in the afternoon with Astrid/Mickey and Katie/True. We warmed up on the flat and then started through some cavalettis. After a while Bonnie set up a small vertical for us. After we jumped that a few times She added a second fence to do a one stride in and out. Miss's first combination in almost a year! And then we did the first fence to the offset vertical. Go Baby Girl! So now I'm definitely thinking that Miss needs to go to South Farm in May.

And then off course I rode X-tra before I went home as well. Little snot was not to happy about standing around tacked up while I rode Miss. Of well, he needs to learn to deal with that. He wasn't too bad for me. Very fussy with his head though. Not really sure what that was all about.

Sunday morning I picked up Joni and she came out to do a photo shoot. She was using Kaye and I as models for her final project for class at the Pittsburgh Art Institute. Now Bonnie had set up some new fences in the arena on Saturday. Like so:


The fences down the center are all one stride apart and then one stride from the third fence to each of the offset fences. The diagonal triple going across the arena was set up to be one stride as well.

So we start out over just a single fence, do pretty well with that. Then Bonnie has me jump the in and out. Eventually we work up to the diagonal triple. Kaye got a little too excited going through the diagonal triple heading towards the front of the arena. And she almost jumped me out of the saddle. Absolutely hilarious photo. The look on my face is completely just 'Oh shit!'

So Monday I had taken the day off to go to Blair's grandma's funeral in the afternoon. Of course the morning meant a trip to the barn. I tacked Kaye up for an early lesson. And that's when the light bulb clicked! The day before Bonnie had been after me to pick my hands up over fences. I really focused on getting my hands up off Kaye's neck, and everything else just fell into place. I was sitting deeper in the saddle, my leg was much more secure. Overall I just felt much more secure. And the best part was that I wasn't scared as Bonnie put the fences up. I had control after the fence, I was able to make tight turns to jump the offset fences. It was pretty amazing. By the time we finished we had the verticals up to 2'8" and the two offset oxers were 2'11"

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Broadway ROCKS!

Well what can I say the weekend brought more snow! I am so sick of snow! Seriously can it not stop already? Anyway, Friday afternoon I left work early so I could get home in plenty of time to change for the Pittsburgh Pops Broadway Rocks concert with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Ralph. Well I later found out that it was only going to be Aunt Sandy and I as Uncle Ralph wasn't feeling too well. Of course it was snowing when we went to leave. Roads weren't terrible but they weren't the best either. Made it to Pittsburgh alright and into Heinz Hall. The concert was amazing. The soloists were incredible to listen to. The Symphony was fantastic as usual. And of course they did some of my favorite songs: Mama Mia/Dancing Queen from Mama Mia, You Can't Stop the Beat from Hairspray, The Wizard and I from Wicked, Oh What a Night from Jersey Boys, From This Moment from Jekyll and Hyde, On My Own from Les Mis, I am Telling You from Dreamgirls. And they finished the evening with Phantom of the Opera and Music of the Night. It was an incredible night and I'm so glad I got the chance to go.

No barn on Saturday as I had plans to go shopping with Mom and Dad since we had some coupons for New York & Company that were expiring. But Sunday morning I was back out to the barn early so I could ride with Taryn. We tacked up Bugs and Kaye and headed out to the arena for a jumping lesson. Kaye was feeling good, that's for sure. The evil Door Monster was hiding behind every door in the arena. And she just knew it was coming to get her. Or at least that was the excuse she used to try and spook at every single door. She actually only managed to get two spooks in, the rest I was able to talk her out of. Although I could feel she was just waiting for the chance. Every muscle in her body was trembling in anticipation. Getting to work helped to get rid of all that extra energy. Bonnie set up a one stride in and out for us. Then there was another fence set up to be taken as an offset two stride after the first part of the in and out. Unfortunately I let my nerves get the best of me. We watch Taryn go through it a few times and then Bonnie lowered the fences for me. After that we had a pretty decent lesson, I'm just mad at myself for letting me get to myself like that. I really was doing so well, and then that stupid surgery and time off really set me back.

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Random Videos

Just a quick posting of some videos of Miss from last winter/spring. The first two are from the jumper show we had at the farm last February. Miss and I ended up winning both classes over fences and we were the beginner novice champions.

This next one is from later in the spring last year, shortly before Miss started having her back problems. Schooling some bounces in the arena. Of course they really weren't high enough to keep her attention. Silly ADD mare!

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Stock Seat Dressage

Well this weekend brought two more great rides on the Pony. Friday night I stopped at the barn after work. I ended up spending about an hour with my horse child. Getting him all cleaned up and presentable. Well, at least as presentable as he gets in the winter. Dressed him all up in his slinky and blanket so he stayed clean overnight. I would have liked to clean his stall, but it was way too dark to dump manure out the back of the arena so it just had to wait.

Saturday morning, of course, was a bit on the hectic side with all the kids. Tammy came out to ride, and she brought her friend again. So she gave her a lesson on Kaye and I tacked up Miss. Miss is still looking really good, but she's back to not really eating. So we were hoping that a good ride would stimulate her appetite. I started her out on a lot of walking. Lots of circles and bending, getting her to work those back muscles. We did some trot work through the cavalettis and Bonnie put down the scary blue tarp. Eventually she put up a small vertical for us to jump. Took her over the fence about 10 times or so, and by then she was pretty tired. That's a lot of work for her, especially not being very fit right now. But she had fun, she loves being back in work. And she really loves when she gets to jump.

So Miss got put away and I brought the horse child out. X was just thrilled to have been blanketed all night, he really gets annoyed when he can't get dirty. Mainly because I think he likes being groomed so much. It's funny actually. When Miss first went to Dr. Morrow he gave us some exercises to do with her. Well one was to put pressure under her belly and get her to pick her back up. We could never get her to do it. Dr. Morrow could, none of us could though. We tried everywhere on her belly and nothing. Well I discovered that my horse does that one quite well. I was currying some of the gunk off him and I got to his belly. He just picked his whole back up and groaned. It was hilarious! Anyway, tacked him up in the western saddle again with draw reins and we headed out to the arena. Walked some circles, staying out of the kids' way. Finally we started to trot some and finally did a LOT of canter work. We did the canter into the wall, stop, change directions and canter the other direction. Lather, rinse and repeat. He really started to get back on his hindquarters and get collected at the canter. So yay!

I took my camera out with my Saturday and Ari was kind enough to film some short videos of us.

Saturday after we finished up in the barn, it was a quick trip home to get cleaned up and then out to the von Rintalin's for Maeve's going away party. Maeve was very surprised by the party. It was a good time all around. Good food, good company. If only Maeve wasn't moving away. I'm really going to miss that kid. She turning into a really good little rider. And she's such a help in the barn.

Sunday morning I was back at the barn. Bonnie and I cleaned stalls for a while. And then I tacked up the horse child again. Once again he went in the western saddle and draw reins. We had a really good ride. I took it pretty easy on him since we had done so much canter work the day before. But he was working in a nice frame. And he was on the bit and not resisting so much with his head. Yay! Still have that resistance when we go to stop. Which I know part of that is from me being to much on his mouth. But we're getting there. Slowly, but it's happening. So pleased with my little pony. And he's really starting to muscle up with only a little bit of work already. His neck is rock solid. And I can already see his shoulders and hindquarters starting to muscle up. He's turning into my little quarter horse impostor again. Bonnie said if the weather stays on the warmish side, she'll start doing a little riding. Including X. I know he'll just LOVE that. And now that Astrid is doing cyber school she's out at the barn several days during the week. I told Bonnie to feel free to use X for lunge lessons for her. It's a win-win situation for us both. X will get some additional riding time and he's a really good horse for the kids to lunge on. Once he settles in after half a dozen circles, he's very smooth and cadenced on the lunge. Easy to sit on and balance. So if I keep up working him twice on the weekends and he gets one or two extra rides during the week, he'll be conditioned and fitted up in no time. Plus, as soon as the weather breaks and it starts staying light a little later, I get back to going out and riding him one or two evenings through out the week. He was going so well when I was doing that before my little hospital stay. I really want to get back to that point.

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Snowpocalypse 2010

Well winter hit us again with a vengeance last weekend. But before I get there, I had an interview last Friday!!! Heritage Valley finally called me about the application I filled out. I took a half day from work and headed to Moon Township for my interview at 3. The interview went well I think. Only thing that might go against me is that I don't have any real employee relations experience. I mean I did things of that type at Borders, performance reviews, disciplinary actions, things like that. But I don't have the employee relations job title. So we'll see. They said they would be finishing up the first round of interviews the following week and I should hear if I'm called for a second interview in two weeks. So fingers crossed I get some good news soon!

Unfortunately while I was at my interview the blizzard started. At least it was still early yet and once I got off 60 at University Blvd the roads weren't too bad. Took my time getting home and I didn't really have any problems. However by the time I woke up Saturday we had about 2 feet of snow on the ground! It was insane. I was pretty much going stir crazy being stuck inside and not able to go out anywhere. Luckily for me Aunt Sandy and Uncle Ralph only live three blocks away. So when the show they had tickets to in Pittsburgh was canceled I walked down to their place and spent a couple hours there. Plus they fed me which was pretty nice too. By Sunday morning the snow had stopped but the roads still weren't real great. Dad came down with shovels and we dug my car out, plus shoveled a little path for me to the door. And then I ended up going out to the farm for a big. Jim had plowed out Bonnie's driveway for her, but I was still a little nervous about taking my car up Greenwood Road so I had her pick me up at Giant Eagle. As much as I don't like snow, I do have to admit the farm look very pretty. Chloe's new blanket had come in earlier in the week and so she finally got that. Chloe loved her blanket! She runs into the house and lays down before Bonnie can take it off of her. She's actually slept in it a few nights! So cute!

Anyway about 10 Sunday night I got word from Carol that Pitt was closed on Monday. Yippee! Seriously that just made my weekend. So Monday morning I ended up going out antiquing with Mom and Dad. We headed over to Ohio in the morning. Of course we had to start the day with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. And then we spent the day at the I-76 antique mall. Dad got a new meat press plus we picked up a couple of gifts. Good day though, I actually have a lot of fun going antiquing with Mom and Dad. Well then Tuesday we got another snow storm. About 8 more inches or so of the stuff was dumped on us. So Tuesday and Wednesday I was off from work as well. Tuesday I had to pick Mom up from work and run her out to the dentist. She was nice enough to take me out to dinner though afterwards. So that was a good time. Wednesday I pretty much did nothing. Which was actually pretty nice to not do anything for a day. I laid around and watched some JAG and Bones on DVD. Squalie-cat curled up on top of me in bed. All in all it was a good day. Sadly though I had to go back to work on Thursday. Luckily Dad was working 7-7:30 Thursday and Friday. So I rode into Sewickley with him and then caught the 16A into Pittsburgh. Glad I did that. Roads in Oakland were horrible. It was just snow covered and slush.

By Saturday I was desperate to get to the barn. I needed to ride my pony! The kids were all there and we were able to get a lot of work done. We got like 7 stalls clean and everyone rode. I got there early and spent about an hour grooming my little dirtball. I actually managed to get him relatively clean for once. And so I actually rode him! First time I've been on him in more than two months I think. I was cold though, and I didn't want to lose any of my layers, so I tacked him up in the western saddle and rode in that. I think he likes the western saddle now. Plus if he does anything stupid he has to work a lot harder to get me out of it. Not really worth the effort for him. I had a good ride on him Saturday. And then Sunday I rode him again. Two days in a row of good rides. I was really pleased with how he went. I think I'm going to get Ari to take video of him this weekend. Since I'm always on his back I really want to see how he looks under saddle.

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USEA Instructor Certification Program

This has sort of been a pet peeve of mine for a while and the news of the latest certified instructor just really annoyed me. Several years ago USEA started their Instructor Certification Program. In this program (for a large fee) instructors can take a three hour course and become certified by USEA. There are several different levels that you can be certified to teach the different levels of eventing.

• Level I / Novice - Instructors of riders through Novice
• Level I / Training - Instructors of riders through Training
• Level II - Instructors of riders through Preliminary, CIC*, Training Level Three-Day Event Test, CCI*
• Level III - Instructors of riders through Intermediate, CIC**, CCI**
• Level IV - Instructors of riders through Advanced, CIC***, CCI***
• Level V - Instructors of riders through CCI****

Now here's the thing I have knowledge of some of the people getting this certification and based upon their own riding they should not be certified to teach anyone! There is one who was recently certified as Level I/Training. Well looking back at this individual's competition record he's not qualified to compete let alone teach someone else.

• Beginner Novice-Eliminated on cross-country
• Preliminary-Eliminated in stadium
• Preliminary-Several rails and time penalties in stadium
• Preliminary-Rider fall in stadium
• Preliminary-Rails in stadium and time penalties on cross country
• CCI1*-Rails in stadium and a 66.4 dressage score
• Beginner Novice-80 penalty points on cross country
• Intermediate-20 penalty points in stadium
• Novice-Several rails in stadium and a refusal on cross country
• CIC2*-Eliminated on cross country
• Intermediate-Dressage score of 68.8, several rails in stadium and a refusal on cross country

Several eliminations and rider falls, he's lucky if he get a clean stadium round. And actually he doesn't just pull rails in stadium he crashes through fences and brings the whole thing down. That's the kind of riding that the USEA think should be teaching others?

Another ICP certified instructor from my area has a several prelim horses that she has been competing for years and she consistently has refusals on cross country. I have seen her on several occasions running horse that are lame. That's not the kind of instructor I want to be looking up to. And she's a level III instructor.

Another level IV instructor from my area. Her competition record is filled with cross country penalties, eliminations, and 2 rider falls with 2 months. Another level IV instructor has a record filled with eliminations, mandatory retirements, cross country penalties and rider falls. 3 rider falls within 6 months. Seriously people wonder why there are so many safety issues in eventing right now. Well look at the people who the governing board is certifying as good instructors! When they can't stay on horses they have been competing for years and you wonder why their students have so many falls. Wake up! This is what needs to be changed. Only the people that can afford to pay the fees can become certified. And quite frankly they are not the best examples of the instructors that are available out there. But the USEA is promoting them.

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Brief Winter Thaw

So we had a brief winter thaw, which was kinda nice. I at least was able to get some riding in. Gotta say going three weeks without riding just kills me! I started riding Miss a little bit again. She is just doing so well. Since Christmas really she has just improved dramatically. She's putting on weight (she should be considering that she's getting like 6 big cans of grain a day), her hips don't stick out so much anymore, her ribs are actually covered and she's starting to pick up those muscles across her back. And the biggest thing is she's Miss again. She's acting like herself, she's perked up and enjoying life again. We turn her out with Kaye and Naughtie and she just runs circles around them. I rode her again on Saturday. Jumped her a little bit and even tried to canter her. That part wasn't so great, but that was my fault. I've always had a hard time cantering Miss.

Rode Naughtie on Saturday as well. Tammy was going to ride her, and Bonnie had me get on first to warm her up while Tammy was working with her friend that came with her. Well Naughtie was feeling good. Had a nice little spook right off the bat where she tried to bolt and was doing some airs above the ground. She was getting very pissy with my leg, and not wanting to bend or flex. Tammy decided she was just going to ride Kaye, that she wasn't quite up to dealing with Naughtie's shenanigans. So I ended up jumping her a bit with Tammy. She was being a complete retard. Bolting after the fence and stupid stuff like that. Then Cosimo decided he wanted to be part of the jump. I yelled at him and of course he didn't move, so I just aimed her at the fence anyway. Well he got scared when we were in mid-air and took off. Spooked Naughtie and she landed bucking and tried to bolt. The good thing about all this is that I am getting a very secure seat. I even lost my stirrup when she did that, but I just sat up and didn't even let her bother me at all. My position never changed. Pretty cool.

After I finished with Naughtie I had to head home. The ICHA banquet was that night and I had to be at Nikki's a 4:20 so we could all ride together. Kelly was meeting us there also and we were all riding together in her Blazer, plus picking up Nikki's other friend Monique. Well of course nothing can ever be easy and we had some adventures just getting there. Nikki got confused about where we were picking up Monique. We ended up getting on 60 and had to do an illegal u-turn. It was fun adventures though. The banquet was fun. It was nice to see everyone. Nikki didn't end up doing enough Inter-County shows to really win anything this year. She did win the Adult Western Seat Equitation and was Reserve in the Arabian Western Pleasure. Looks like I'll be joining ICHA this year. Tom wants to see Dalal's name up there in High Point Awards.

Sunday of course I was back out to the barn. Rachel came out in the morning and I had a lesson on Miss with her and Kaye. I really am so pleased with how she's doing. Bonnie set up some cavalettis for us. They were too short for Miss! She even spread them out a bit and they were still too short. But because of Kaye we couldn't spread them anymore. We did the cavalettis for a bit and then Bonnie set up a cross-bar for us. Miss was really using herself over the fences, rounding through her back and using her head and neck. Finally the last fence Bonnie added a back rail to make it into an oxer. Miss just felt amazing over it! So proud of her!

Taryn came out later in the afternoon and we had a lesson on Bugs and Naughtie. Naughtie was much better than she had been the day before, not nearly so worked up. We did a bit of jumping. And I took her through two bounces for the first time. Pretty sure that was the first time she's ever done bounces. She wasn't real sure about it and she kept sneaking in a tiny extra stride, but she didn't hesitate and she jumped. So we were pretty pleased with her there.

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