As usual, I had all these good intentions of “getting on a schedule” with all my various favorite local pros this spring… But winter had other ideas. Fortunately, tho, spring is finally making itself felt, slowly but surely. And we were able to make it out to ride with Sally again at her most recent clinic day in Annapolis!
invisible mare camouflages with the “greenery”
And given our recent uptick in “normal work,” I had a couple key goals from this ride. Namely, to make all the steps in between the jumps — before, during, after, etc — count just as much, if not more than the jumps themselves.
It’s so easy to fall into nasty little ‘survival mode’ habits with Doozy, ya know? She’s so good at the jumps, and so… er, tricky, about everything else, that I often kinda just do the bare minimum before getting on with it.
all the way in the back corner with her boyfriends, trying to manifest the mud into grass
And that worked well enough at our last couple lessons with Sally, which were both focused exclusively on gymnastics work. Gymnastics are demanding, intense workouts in and of themselves, tho they start gently and progressively. So it’s not the craziest thing in the world to do only a light-ish warm up before getting into it.
But ya know. We have to address the trickiness eventually, right? And for Doozy to really understand her job, I have to be consistent in my expectations. Which, anybody who has been reading will know is a key theme in our recent lessons with Dan.
fast forward and we’ve arrived at Cheshire!
I’ve also been working on staying consistent with my expectations even when Doozy would rather be distracted. Like by other horses in the ring, ahem, cough cough. Our last couple rides at home were perfect for working on that too — as we often had a couple other horses in the ring with us, but usually Doozy’s favorite friends (like her Friesian friend and bebe Morgan field mate!) and their skilled, predictable riders.
The ring at Cheshire is gorgeous but FULL of distractions — as every window opens out to lovely vistas where as likely as not, other activities are happening. Horses galloping in turn out, riders schooling in the outdoor, and naturally just the normal foot traffic of people and horses going hither and yon.
Doozy was a good girl, tho! Tense, distracted, but contained within herself and (mostly) on the aids throughout our warm up, trotting and cantering around with our lesson mates. Good girl, a nice reversion to “normal” ahead of show season and it’s associated warm up ring chaos.
I was hoping the lesson would be more course work, but we actually ended up starting with a little gymnastic grid first. Started as a single X, grew to a ~28’ two stride (obvi set quite short but rode fine on a waiting stride), finished with a bounce in to the two stride. After that, tho, we started picking up some singles off sweeping lines.
I had hoped for more course work bc frankly the transitions are part of the trickiness to riding Doozy. The starting and stopping then starting again is harder for staying connected on the aids than just cruising around, ya know? Tho, uh, if you’re silently thinking in your head that, ‘well isn’t that the whole point of lessons tho, to work on the challenging stuff?,’ then… yea, you right LOL.
So it was good practice. Doozy was definitely a bit of a handful throughout in these upward transitions — especially into the grid. Just like last time, she had a tendency to get almost a little stuck and up and down and sideways, vs traveling fluidly forward. I found it very helpful, tho, to stay laser focused on the steadiness of my position, tempo of my posting trot (at least for the grid, that we trotted into), and steady unmoving rein contact. Just repeating to myself, keep it simple, don’t overthink it.
oooooh that face is strangely familiar!!
It got a little easier when we started picking up singles off sweeping lines. Mostly bc we could canter, and because the ring is big enough that most things could be approached from either direction if you really needed that flexibility. Doozy has a tendency to lean on her right shoulder, which can be tricky when tracking right and trying to establish that inside bend.
She was also getting a little stuck in her rhythm upon being presented to the fences — with little disruptions a couple steps out that would sometimes take us off our distance or line.
Tho our last exercise of the ride was maybe a bit better, because we strung together a second jump. So landed from the first — and it should be noted, Doozy actually landed nicely (for us) from everything all day long, vs spooling off into a bolt — organized, and turned to approach a second jump. She still made a bit of a rhythm-disrupting move ahead of that final jump, but it was overall more fluid than just the singles alone.
of course, it’s two Big Brown fillies!!! so stinkin cute, amirite?
I’ll also point out that, without exception, Doozy’s efforts over the jumps themselves were all quite nice. Her technique thru the grid was good, and each individual jump was handled easily and comfortably despite the occasional disruptions. And no knocked rails, good girl!
For my own personal confidence, I would have liked to do more course work… string more things together, more related lines etc… But then again, for the purposes of the horse’s education and advancement, I think the starting and stopping and repetition of “not overthinking it” into our upward transitions probably has more long term value. We know she can jump. It’s just… all the other stuff LOL.
One thing at a time, I suppose haha — and decent rideability through a lot of transitions in an unusual and super distracting ring is a worthy enough “thing.” Especially when you consider her last jumping session was an xc school!
I’ve been a member of the Delaware Valley Combined Training Association for a few years now, but this was the first year I managed to fulfill the volunteer requirements needed for year end award eligibility!
handsome doozy, looking quite at ease with all her accoutrements!
Honestly, it’s a great club just in general and I’ve been proud to be a member regardless. And naturally I’m slightly evangelical about encouraging literally anybody I meet to join their local riding clubs and associations. For me, that’s the MCTA and DVCTA and perhaps I’ll rejoin the MDA this year too.
“please refer to me by my proper title, Empress of the Universe, Knower of Everything” — Doozy, 100%
But. To be perfectly honest, a big part of why I joined DVCTA in the first place is bc literally everyone I knew who had a membership straight up RAVED about the quality of their year end awards program.
let’s see that from another angle pls, bc obvi we had a full press bay for these glamour shots <3 (also, no, your eyes do not deceive you — she is in fact absolutely caked in mud lol)
So finally I made it my business this year to log the needed volunteer hours at qualifying events and shows. And holy smokes, guys, it was so worth it!
if we look like we’re straight up cheesin for the camera lol… well…
I’ve never seen a year end submissions process quite like theirs… So many different categories, so many different ways to earn points…
lol @ my face haha
First of all, literally everything counts in one way or another. Recognized events, schooling events, CTs, all jump heights (including poles on the ground)… Everything. PLUS. Points were awarded for final placings, obvi, but also just for like… doing the thing.
check out this sweet swag too! friggin plates omg - including a nameplate! forgot to include the lovely DVCTA mug in this pic bc i was drinking tea from it while writing this post LOL
Did you show up to the event? Good job, here’s a point! Did you finish the event? Even better, here’s another point! Clear jumping? Inside the time? Yep - you guessed it, more points!!
never in my life have i gotten a ribbon with a tassel on it omg obvi hung some of that satin up on Doozy’s stall wall for a couple days <3
That, combined with the club membership base being predominantly dressage riders, meant Doozy and I made nearly clean sweeps of our jumping categories!!
Which… is fairly insane if you consider, uh, our actual record LOL. We aren’t exactly what you’d consider a ‘competitive’ bunch. But ya know. That’s not gonna stop me from being tickled beyond belief by this incredible swag, omg.
nbd, just sittin on my champion mare <3
Talk about indulgent year end awards, omg… Like, sure sure, we can all pretty much appreciate that Doozy and I might not necessarily be destined for topping the leaderboards at any prestigious events or anything like that…
But if you go by the maxim, ‘90% of Life is Showing Up,’ then yea. We do that haha! Still gotta participate to get that trophy, amirite?
With all the customization and ‘personalization’ of literally everything on the internet these days, I never really know if I’m seeing the same “news” as everybody else… To be honest, sometimes I think my google news feed is just like, “wow you check your weather app a lot, seems like you are into weather, let’s fill your ENTIRE FEED with headlines about weather!”
i spy three horse butts, none of them red. doozy, where are you??
Which. Like. No, google news feed. No, that’s literally what the app is for. I check the weather app to see what I need to see about weather, I’m not just generally curious about it LOL… But here we are, in a brave new era of the stupid internet.
ooooh, there you are! Lil Ms Mafiosa likes to always face the entry way LOL, and it’s no coincidence that all the rest of the horses are crowded onto the opposite side of the hay ring haha
Or maybe I’m wrong, maybe everybody is in the same boat. Which means that even if you weren’t in the path of this last weekend’s most recent storm, perhaps you heard about it anyway.
outdoor ring almost entirely clear of snow on saturday, the day we went to loch moy!!
Fortunately, while areas north of Maryland — particularly up thru New York and into New England — got slammed by the recent nor’easter, we just got a respectable new snow layer that was quickly and easily cleared from the roads. No state of emergency, and no unending weeks of arctic blasts. Just normal snow. Fine!
then….. monday, blargh
After last month’s extravaganza, this barely merited a shrug haha! Well… except from the horses, who need no special invitation to be a little extra lol… I swear they know when a big system is blowing in, bc basically the whole farm was up in a tizzy! Gotta love it!
storm blew in with a lot of rain to start, and the horses were all a bit cray cray. here’s doozy just breakin dem’ boys hearts!
Anyway, tho, the storm hit overnight Sunday, was mostly cleared up by midday Monday, and by Tuesday we were off again to our now bi-weekly lessons** with dressage trainer C!!
(**At least that’s the plan haha, y’all know how it goes… But we actually have a standing day + time now for the first time ever, so maybe it’ll stick!)
nonchalantly trying to act like the whole lot of them *didn’t* just bolt up the hill behind me haha i’m calling shenanigans!
And I tried to remember to take a lot of pictures in order to force myself to write about it… since the writing helps really cement the experience into my memories, but the photos are what really drive the writing. You know how it is.
anyway. onto the lesson!
This winter has probably been the most consistent era for seeing trainer C in years. Even so, tho, it’s still been a bit inconsistent just bc of the weather. Like, we missed a lesson last month bc of the big storm, and honestly with all the ups and downs anyway it’s always even odds whether Doozy has been working regularly leading up to the lesson. Which means it’s a bit of a gamble what horse shows up haha!
i always feel a little unworthy of being the first to leave tracks in this incredible ring…
We’ve been super productive the last couple weeks tho, so Doozy showed up ready to shine this week, yay! Well. Ok haha, let’s temper that a little bit. Bc she still is who she is. There’s often another horse schooling in the ring at the same time as my lesson, which is totally fine, tho naturally Doozy is often distracted.
random unrelated shot of us from home, only related in that — hey, it’s me on a horse!
Plus, this week we also had the manure spreader out in the cornfield above the ring doing its thing. Except, with the ~23*F temps, “doing its thing” happened to also involve putting off so much steam from the warm manure that you’d have thought the whole thing was on fire. Which, naturally, Doozy did think LOL.
back at the dressage barn again… doozy thinks she’d rather just move in and live there rather than go back into the cold wind
Much like our lesson with Dan last week, it was therefore a persistent issue throughout the ride of trying to keep Doozy’s attention, to keep backing her off the ledge of wanting to lose her shit.
handsome mare <3 i’m always trying to recreate one of my favorite shots of charlie thru these doorways
And I’m proud to say that we were successful! Like, sure, she had a couple moments here and there — especially the first time the steaming spreader passed close to the windows just as we turned our back to it. She had a fairly big spook into canter at that moment… But like, fine, right? Seems to me like a reasonably normal thing to spook at. What mattered is that she recovered, and then kept a lid on it (tho also kept an eye on that spreader) afterward. We’ll take it!
ugh. mare. c’mon, open your eyes!!
A really big difference maker in this ride, I think, was remembering what Dan said about my tendency to really move around a lot in the saddle, to kinda swing side to side with the movement of Doozy’s stride. He was adamant that I sit still and firm in *one* spot, to let Doozy come to me. And go figure, he was right.
look at the camera!! doozy!!
It really made a difference helping Doozy stay with me when she felt distracted or worried, but it also made a HUGE difference when we practiced our leg yields, which trainer C had us doing almost the whole ride. She started us off in walking leg yields, quarter line to rail, and then right away had us doing them in trot too.
sigh. the original, there can only be one <3
She set us off on a nice little pattern, too. Riding leg yield quarter line to rail, then immediately onto a 15m circle, which naturally lands you back on the quarter line to repeat again. And she also had us leg yielding from rail to quarter line, and again with the 15m circle to immediately rinse repeat again. For all of Doozy’s hemming and hawing, she was shockingly good for this!
you’ll do, tho, sweet biscuit <3
We did a similar pattern in canter, too — cantering a 15m circle, turn up the quarter line, transition to trot, leg yield to wall. Rinse repeat, or change directions etc. A very pleasant little exercise that I think we’ll adopt as it’s just enough to keep Doozy occupied and busy, while still requiring we be connected and on the aids quickly — but not quite so intense an exercise as to get the horse feeling stressed or anticipatory.
grateful to have this silly critter in my life!
And maybe a nice addition to the next edition of the Brit Bot, assuming that gets resurrected once we’re back to riding out in more open spaces again. (And Kat I promise I haven’t forgotten about your tests either!!)
So overall a nicely productive session — mainly in that it was yet another ride rife with #distractions and #feelings but yet we persisted and got on with it and (eventually) overcame haha. The real trick will be making that happen in the chaos of a warm up ring when I may or may not have step by step instruction… But that eventuality is still a ways off, so for now we’re satisfied enough!
I’m currently reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s seminal work, Flow, and it’s adding a deeper layer of understanding to the whole idea of “process” vs “outcome” goals that I’ve been exploring the last few years.
Csikszentmihalyi was a pioneer of positive psychology, and is often referenced in books on everything from mindfulness to behavioral economics to business leadership. His research is all about the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to optimal experience.
step 1 toward going out on fun adventures: wake princess from her midday slumber! and behold! the snow is almost all gone!
In particular, he explains that this flow state is a function of the proportional intersection between ‘challenge’ and ‘skill’ levels. And that imbalances, whether they be from an activity that’s too easy for one’s skill level, or too challenging, make it harder to get completely into the moment.
And he defines a new word (for me, at least): the ‘autotelic’ experience. He observes that so much of what we do, we do because we feel like we have to or should, for various extrinsic reasons. Autotelic is about the intrinsic value — doing something for its own sake vs any future reward. A “freely chosen discipline” rather than a restraint.
“will rise for cookies!!!”
I think this is part of what makes horses so special — what draws so many people to horsey experiences, that they lend themselves in some important and meaningful way to finding that flow state. To just getting into the moment, letting everything else melt away and disappear.
And this is also probably why we see so much variety in the nature and contour of those experiences across the horsey spectrum. There are infinite ways to get fulfillment from our interactions with horses.
fast forward a couple hours and we’ve arrived at Loch Moy’s derby course!! Ms Thing is a water feature expert now, even when it’s dotted with icebergs lol
Like with anything, tho, we’re still susceptible to external pressures. Perhaps especially if we are pursuing experiences that involve sport and competition, which by definition have clear rules and guidelines and metrics for success.
And at least for me, sometimes it’s been hard to separate my attention from what may come as a result of my effort, vs focusing on the effort itself, if that makes sense.
getting right to business with a bebe coop
For a time with Charlie, I had significant personal and emotional investment in some outcome-specific goals that ultimately we did not succeed in achieving. In retrospect, it’s easy to see that all along the way, I did not fully appreciate or took for granted some very special experiences bc I was too caught up in what they meant for our hoped-for future achievements.
And since then, there’s been a bit of a ‘hangover’ effect on my ability to get back into competing without still being influenced by those same external pressures.
tiny telephone pole bc nothing is a big deal <3
So basically from the first with Doozy, I’ve really tried to wipe the board clean. To focus on enjoying the journey, the process of our growth and development together. To prioritize expanding our education and skills, while also accepting that where we are in any given moment is good enough. We’re doing the things for the sake of doing the things, and that’s enough!
loch moy has such an amazing collection of roll tops at basically all sizes
Obvi let’s be real, tho — I’m not saying that to act like we’ve actually mastered that intention LOL. No. Absolutely not.
It’s an empowering frame of mind, tho, and is probably directly responsible for me waking up in the middle of the night and going, “ooooooh I should go to Loch Moy tomorrow!” lol… As one does, apparently.
A week’s worth of warm weather finally cleared out most of the snow, and actually Loch Moy was all set up to host a derby this weekend (at which I was slated to volunteer), but another snowstorm forecast for yesterday cancelled those plans. Saturday was still gorgeous, tho, and everything was all set — so obvi we should take advantage, and build on the momentum from our recent lesson with Dan!
just me and my Fire Horse, all the time in the world and the whole place to ourselves!
Granted, the downside of these sorts of impulsive plans is that not everybody is on the same electrical jolt LOL. So I wasn’t able to twist anybody else’s arm into joining us. C’est la vie tho!
Honestly I often prefer schooling on my own anyway if it isn’t a lesson. I like doing things on my own timing, and moving from spot to spot across the facility fluidly depending on what feels right, vs the ‘stop-and-go’ of waiting for folks or taking turns, etc. Tho obvi I wasn’t totally alone — naturally it’s a schooling facility with a steward and emergency protocols, rest assured.
Anyway, tho, it ended up being perfect. Perfect weather, perfect footing, paid for with a volunteer pass, AND we had the whole place to ourselves! It had apparently been a mad house earlier in the day, but by the time we arrived at 3:30, there was only one other rider still expected on the schedule. Perfect!!
We got ready at an unhurried pace, tho realistically Doozy is already so used to shipping out for lessons, that still ends up being about 20min between arriving and swinging a leg over. Then we moseyed thru the enormous derby rings and got on with our warm up.
just did one pass up the banks on this day
I also opted to turn on my interval timer app, which I don’t always do for xc trips like this, but use almost every ride at home. And it was useful too! Mostly for the warm up — The first 5 minutes definitely dinged sooner than I expected. Sometimes I think my tendency is to get a bit bogged down in the preliminaries of a ride, vs kinda just getting on with the actual riding, so that was a useful observation.
then into the next ring — and more fantastically chunky inviting roll tops!
Obvi I tried to do Dan justice with our warm up too. Trying to recreate the same level of “on the aids” that he demanded, and also establishing my own solid steady posture and form. I won’t try to claim that we achieved ANY of that to a level that would have satisfied him (lol), but things felt good enough to me. Doozy was a touch explosive in the warm up, but only just a touch.
And everything clicked right into gear when I started pointing her at itty bitty fences. Realistically, it’ll probably be easier for me to achieve what Dan is trying to establish for us within the jumping, vs just the warm up alone. Doozy is such a unique creature — she’s fairly insecure despite her bravery, and is always anticipating.
So when I’m just trying to trot around, her mind is already eight steps ahead, thinking about cantering and jumping and what have you. But once we start jumping, it’s like she just settles in. Like, ‘ahh, yes, here we are.’
we’ve jumped all these fences before, and everything felt comfortable and easy <3
So once we actually got going, I was able to continue some of that transition practice — like interspersing walk transitions from trot, or almost walk transitions. And trot transitions from canter, or almost trot transitions. Ms Thing is learning her half halts, guys! So exciting lol…
And also practiced stopping straight after fences, or almost stopping but then proceeding.
catching yet another lovely roll top cruisin’ around the course
And she was honestly perfect. We weren’t always super straight bc, real talk, I mostly decided where to go next on the fly, so my turns and lines weren’t always perfect. Doozy didn’t care, tho.
She jumped whatever was in front of her, from trot or canter, perfectly. What a mare!
oooh and a sliiiightly taller brushed up coop to finish!
Of particular note — she kept her shape the whole entire time we were jumping. Like, ok, perhaps a step here or there on the landing side of fences when I wanted to bring her back. But exactly zero moments of losing shape on the approach to fences. Which you may recall was a big part of our hardships at both St Augustine and schooling at Shawan last year.
To me, that is an enormous win, and hugely encouraging. Bc when she’s not turning herself inside out, inverting and deer leaping, I swear she’s literally the world’s easiest horse to jump!
extremely pleased with this mare, she just has the most incredible feeling to the jumps!
And because she felt so easy, patient, balanced and steady, we could string nice little courses together, catching all the chunky BN roll tops Loch Moy has to offer! We mostly did long sweeping turns across the full arena, one jump at a time, prioritizing steady rhythm and tempo.
No muss, no fuss, just connected and cruisin <3
video here! didn’t trim the clips quite as aggressively as i often do,
but it’s a nice representation of how we approached the jumping
And I was especially proud of myself bc after one little mini course, we were about 20min into the ride which… Realistically when I’m not in a lesson and things are going well, my rides are really only ever 20-25min… And I thought about being finished.
Except, I spied a nice brushed up BN coop that honestly looked a *smidge* intimidating to me, even tho objectively I knew we could do it. I also objectively know that I often finish a ride a little early, preferring to “wish we’d done more,” vs the alternative… But here was our chance to just do one last little course!
paused for a cookie at the judge’s booth, maybe an investment in future good juju LOL
It was good practice too, bc Doozy is used to my habit of the “short ‘n sweet” ride too. But picking up and proceeding is as much a skill unto itself as anything else is.
So we picked back up with intention, established our connection on the aids again (hilariously you can sorta hear Doozy grunting in the video but then she just settles right in again). And then went and jumped our final little loop as easy as pie!
Even tho the brush jump rode straight toward the parking lot, where the day’s last trailer had arrived and was unloading. Even tho there was spooky noisy stuff. Nbd. Just went and did it, good mare!
warm enough to get sweaty after only about a half hour ride!!
So obvi we finished on that note, and headed back out to the parking lot to chat with the last rider (whom I know from volunteering) before feeding Doozy her dinner at the trailer, packing up and going home.
dinner at the trailer is always a nice finishing touch LOL
It’s always so funny afterward, when I edit the video and take screen-grabs, there’s always this temptation to feel like, “oh I should have jumped this jump or that jump too, or why didn’t I try the ditch, or or or…” As if there’s some pre-defined metric for “making the most” of a ride.
But. Eh. Maybe instead of thinking in terms of ‘maximizing,’ I’ll try instead to integrate Csikszentmihalyi’s concepts with an old motto from my grandfather, that it’s better to ‘optimize’ vs ‘maximize’ — that enjoying the activity for itself is the reward. And we’ll just grow from here!
