As promised, I ordered some prints from our recent competition outing — Loch Moy’s final recognized horse trial of the year. From which, as you may remember, I opted to call it a day after a less-than-stellar dressage test paired with increasingly poor ground conditions in the chilly rain.
a picture of a picture of us trotting in the rain <3
Everything might have been fine if we’d decided to continue. It’s not like the bad dressage is unusual for us LOL, not like we haven’t carried on from last place in basically every other show. But eh, with the recent whoopsie it felt a little unnecessary to push in decidedly not ideal circumstances. So, we didn’t.
bolting in the rain too!! lolz…..
The pictures aren’t half bad (for us) tho! Like Doozy is obvi running away with me in the canter pic haha… And trust me, she was indeed. But as far as our standard fare presentation goes… I’m not sad to have the photos!
oh doozy dear, you are indeed the fastest at dressage tests!
I still had a good long talk about it with trainer C at our most recent dressage lesson, tho. Bc our scoring really is consistently just so bad. Like, “outside the normal distribution” bad. Consistently, with every judge. And it’s not just like we get the low end of any given judge’s marks. No no no, we are generally well into the “You probably shouldn’t be here” marks.
in case you wanted a graphical + annotated representation of what it means to be “objectively bad,” here we are well outside the ‘standard deviations’ of our last show’s dressage score distribution
Case in point is the handy little histogram I made of all 18 horses in our class at the show. It’s all to scale, one percentage point per tick across the horizontal axis. With 17 horses all clustered around the average score, and then a loonnnnnnnng tail of nothingness until us.
she’s 100% objectively cute tho <3 <3 <3
I maintain that I honestly do not care about winning. In fact, I don’t necessarily even care about specifically losing. I care more about how it feels while we’re doing it. Like, Charlie would still strut like a champion after putting in a severely mediocre test. Bc as far as he was concerned, he Did. The. Thing. and was a Good. Boy.
Doozy, on the other hand, sometimes almost feels like she thinks she might actually die.
i only went out to blanket her, but she wasn’t having it, didn’t think i should be able to leave without her <3
Well ok. That’s a little dramatic. But she definitely feels like she thinks Something Bad might happen at any time.
Which, I should note, this is the point at which most people love to tell me that I just need to “keep getting out there” and “give it time” and “keep exposing her.” Which is a strange thing for me to hear bc 1) what exactly do the people saying this to me think I’m doing??? and 2) we’re legit ‘getting out there’ far more frequently and with more regularity than most people I know, and definitely more than the people who like to give me this advice. So ya know, spare me LOL.
happy out hacking!
But eh. Y’all know how it is. Folks love to offer solutions to everybody else’s problems. And it’s pretty clear that Doozy and I have a Big Dressage Problem. Doozy’s tension is obviously still there in the other phases, but the feeling is completely different. Still at times chaotic, but a whole lot less “IMPENDING DOOM.” The dressage, tho. Oof. You’d think I was asking her to do a 20m circle right around the precipice of an actual literal black hole.
reasons to be grateful: two horses who spent a fair bit of time this year laid up on stall rest, reunited back out on the hills!
Sometimes I have to actually stop myself and appreciate how far she’s come in so much of our day to day life together — how she is in the barn, out on trails, going to lessons and clinics, all the various things we regularly do. Doozy is truly a lovely horse to be around, to spend time with, and to ride in all the various activities I love to do. In company, alone, whatever.
sweet silly mare
So yea, it bugs me that this one specific activity — riding the dressage test at a show — is so specifically unpleasant and un-fun. Especially when you consider how much we enjoy our dressage lessons lol… Make it make sense!
might not be everybody’s favorite view point lol but we have fun :)
Trainer C was feeling equally boggled by the whole thing. She only sees us in lessons so from her perspective, Doozy has long since moved on from her earliest chaotic tendencies. And it’s obvi hard to explain just how much the horse changes, turns completely inside out, when we actually enter for our test.
All the same, tho, she was adamant that we keep trying to experiment a bit. Keep trying different approaches, and, yes, still keep giving the horse time and exposure. Bc the horse truly can make a lovely test when she’s feeling secure and game. Plus obvi we still wanna do cross country! And the path to the start box goes through the dressage court.
We had another clinic lesson with 5* eventer Matt Brown this weekend, our third such lesson with him. It’s honestly kinda hilarious bc it feels like these three lessons fully encapsulate my three years with Doozy so far…
ready for action!
The first clinic was back in August, when Doozy was still only very recently coming back into “regular” work, and we’d cantered maybe once so far in the rehab. And she was more or less unhinged in that lesson — we were either walking or exploding into porpoise mode. And Matt not-so-subtly suggested we might need a little more ground work in our lives.
doozy was very mature about the trot poles — even tho they were cow print!
Then in mid-July we were starting to get back on track, and were able to have a fairly productive flat lesson focusing on lateral yielding and transitions, with only a couple little (and not-so-little) explosions along the way.
jumping her itsy bitsy grids like a pro
Finally, tho, this go-round we showed up ready to jump! And with full confidence that we’d be able to present to him a more or less representative picture of our fullest level of training. Which is honestly a really good feeling at this point.
got better on the landing balance as we went
You know how it is with horses and horse people tho… How people describe themselves — what they know, their experience level, etc… is, er, occasionally NOT entirely tethered to reality. Especially in a clinic setting, any good pro has to take whatever somebody says with a BIG grain of salt, and let context clues (like how the horse looks and goes) fill in the gaps.
I always felt really good about letting Charlie kinda ‘represent’ me in that regard. Like, “Here is my horse: he is relaxed, nicely muscled, obedient, and nonchalant. We are ready for this lesson!” Doozy, on the other hand… Well. To be perfectly honest I just assume that most people get a pretty fundamentally questionable first impression of us.
and another little X!
And ya know, c’est la vie LOL! But finally, for whatever reason, Doozy is fully present in Princess Land now. She’s calm and confident again in the work, and game for whatever! And kudos to Matt for more or less treating us accordingly — matching the flat work expectations to the horse in front of him.
slightly more enthusiastic about landing going this direction lol
Which, for our purposes in this ride, meant continuing to work on that lateral flexion and suppleness — especially in transitions.
It’s so funny bc I swear I don’t show up and run down the full list of every single little thing we’ve been working on, but each lesson it’s like he magically kinda picks up right where we are. Last time it was introducing the transitions, and this time it was pushing the expectations on lateral suppleness and frame control.
easy peasy over the swedish oxer of planks
He encouraged me to ask for more, even to exaggerate if needed to help the horse understand. Starting with long reins at the walk to get the mare stretching down, and then gathering in the contact while retaining the lateral suppling as she’s ready. Then picking up into trot but continuing the same feeling — helping the mare find her balance in a comfortable rhythm by releasing through her back and top line.
finishing with another bebe grid
Same story with the transitions — slowly, gently, clearly but firmly: maintain the same degree of bend in up and down transitions, where Doozy is most likely to stiffen and tighten.
And basically, this was our flatwork throughout the entire lesson — even as we started introducing ground poles and little jumps, the focus stayed on exactly this detail: clear soft inside bend, especially in transitions, before and after every jump or exercise.
doozy says it’s #tooeasy lol
And go figure, Doozy caught on quickly. She’s naturally a very balanced horse, and naturally wants to be balanced and comfortable. I think in the past when I’ve tried to do some of this flexion and frame work, I’ve been a little too restrictive and tight — which is what probably creates and intensifies Doozy’s tension and resistance.
Perhaps the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and I’m being a little too lax at times right now. But that’s kinda the way the training and practice goes, right? Regardless, Doozy understood the posture and was legit perfect almost every time thru the trot poles, good girl!
apparently unclear on how to buck under saddle LOL
Then we sorta just started piecing little jumps together. One at a time, then with each repetition adding on another jump to the little mini course. All kinda long sweeping turns to singles, nothing related (other than the grid), and circling in between to establish rhythm as needed.
“just kidding, i’m fancy little snake” — doozy
And Doozy was super! Consistently establishing the soft bend at the outset helped her right away create a nice balance to take off for each jump. Tho for my own notes, I need to definitely remember to keep the forward feeling in this work too, always with the forward!
Our landings from the jumps were often a fair bit less organized lol, but even there Matt encouraged me to raise my expectations a bit — ask a little more clearly, a little sooner, and a little more firmly. He noted that she wasn’t arguing or fussing at all, wasn’t getting inverted or anything like that, so I didn’t need to be so worried about being delicate with her.
quick video from our last run thru
And, somewhat unusually for us, the more we repeated, the better it got. One of the host-barn’s boarders captured video from our last little trip around the course and it honestly looks decently well balanced all the way around. All the jumps came up super nicely — compared to some of the more skittery efforts we had at Thornridge for example.
And the landings got mostly organized reasonably quickly. Tho, for whatever reason we kept landing the wrong lead and I was opting for simple changes to continue reinforcing the balance, and Doozy was wanting to get a little stuck and annoyed by that. Just something for me to be mindful of, and maybe practice staying forward even in those transitions.
the goodest girl, being #nosy about the parking lot
Overall, it felt like a super productive session and exactly what Doozy and I needed right now to reinforce the right feelings to practice.
Sure, the jumps were all pretty small… which can be tricky for me bc I *know* that some of my bad habits only really crop up when the jumps are bigger… But Doozy doesn’t seem to care one way or another, and it’s honestly probably good for her to feel like it’s ho hum and easy — it doesn’t always need to be exciting LOL.
Happy Friday, folks! Things are quieting down a little bit around here after what felt like a sudden onslaught of activities all at once haha. Funny how the calendar works sometimes…
first trot of the lesson!
I actually wasn’t even originally planning on going to the Thornridge show, and certainly didn’t initially think jumping a round would be in the cards… But other plans moved around, and then Doozy was immediately such a princess about jumping again that, ya know, why not, let’s do it!
little ms sensible <3
But we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming now, which, in this case, means another dressage lesson with trainer C! Natch, accompanied by my new favorite toy, the pivo!
Which I set up in the corner this time since it occasionally lost us in the corners when it was set at C in our last lesson. Unfortunately I chose the corner by the in-gate, so we missed a chunk of work at the end when the next horse joined the ring. Nbd but next time I’ll try the opposite corner.
warming up with leg yields!
Anyway, obvi I love using these lessons to prepare for events and all that, but it’s also equally nice to show up and be able to tell trainer C to “have your way with us!”
change directions, rinse, repeat!
Which, in this case, meant trainer C wanted us to play around with first level stuff, eventually putting together the pieces of 1-2. Exciting!!
In her view, when Doozy is relaxed and engaged in the work, she basically already has all the requirements for the level, and is maybe similar to how Isabel was in that the harder and more demanding the tests get, the more interested Doozy becomes.
learning to find power in balance
Tho, realistically, that’s also probably a function of that Brett Parbery quote I shared last week, about how “exercises are for people, aids are for horses.” Meaning, perhaps, that as the tests get more demanding **for me,** then subsequently **I** do a better job of being clear crisp and correct in my aids to Doozy, who then naturally goes better and better.
started playing with lengthening the trot, v exciting for dooz!
Obvi it’s useful to understand the mechanics of why a good ride is good lol, bc understanding that makes it reproducible, right? But… more fundamentally, it’s also just plain fun to have good rides where everything feels connected and flowing.
leg yielding from center line
And Doozy seems like a total junkie for that feeling too — she loves being a good girl, loves getting the answers right. And it seems like the more good rides we stack on top of each other, the happier and more relaxed and more confident she gets in the work.
lots of canter this lesson!
So anyway the whole video is included below with all the main exercises we did and obvi all trainer C’s coaching through each movement. Probably mostly just interesting to me, but there’s some generally universal stuff in there for anybody looking for nuggets of wisdom.
my 15m canter circle geometry was shockingly pitiful lol
We warmed up right away with leg yields from the quarter line, and trainer C wanted me to be clear and consistent from the word ‘go’ about correct inside bend. Which, at times for Doozy, can almost look a little like shoulder fore, with her nose a bit to the inside of her chest center.
princess was so good i kept being wayyy too early for our canter-trot transitions over X
Lots of alternating between circles and leg yields, always looking to solidify and confirm the correct bend through the movements (ie, using the pattern to get Emma to deliver more consistent aids to the horse). And, this was **finally** the day when trainer C had us start pushing the trot out more on our diagonal changes of direction!!
we repeated both directions of the canter work but alas, pivo got distracted when a handsome gray pony joined the ring
We hadn’t really gone there yet with Doozy bc it’s been such a journey to get her to balance and contain herself in a working trot, vs sorta unspooling out the front end… But something tells me Doozy’s gonna eventually love her lengthening and extensions LOL.
actual visual representation of pivo being truly torn
Anyway, the canter pattern in the 1-2 test was pretty good for us too. It’s a fair amount of canter, with long sides and 15m circles, and cantering across the diagonal to trot at X, then immediately pick the canter back up again in the next corner on the new lead.
in the end, tho, it stuck with us <3
All of that wanted me to be a LOT more clear and prepared in my seat and aids. The 15m circles, for example, went best when I really concentrated on pushing into my seat bones, while also feeling both legs long, pushing the balls of my feet in each stirrup.
The canter transitions… Honestly that was maybe the most interesting feeling. For so long, Doozy’s aid to canter was almost the *absence* of an aid. Like, you just stopped holding her and off she went! Now that she’s actually like, steady and on the aids and relaxing in the work, I actually have to be a little more proactive in preparing her for the transition.
basically the full lesson, trimmed of walk (and pivo) breaks
We never quite nailed the feeling in this lesson, my up transitions were always late and a bit shuffle-y. But now that I understand the pattern better, I think it’ll be a good one for us to practice to help me refine my own positioning. So long as I keep riding forward into it, tho, Doozy seems happy to go — compared to that little phase we went thru last year when I got too backwards and she was kicking out into her transitions.
sweet doozy, best of biscuits
So yea, a good lesson for a lot of reasons. Super gratifying and honestly legitimately exciting to have trainer C tell us she thought we should be doing more first level stuff too.
I’d like to find more opportunities to get out to just do dressage tests at shows, mostly bc the repetition seems to helpful for Doozy, and not having impending jumping phases helps me focus and be more intentional… But we’ll see what the calendar holds.
Fall is my favorite season for riding and activities, and I’m so relieved and grateful to have Doozy coming back into action for it!
This week we had “take your pivo to school” day for our dressage lesson with Trainer C!! Much excitement!
ready for a bunch more pivo pics????
It’s especially exciting bc it means I don’t have to try to remember all the stuff we did in the lesson, or any of the coaching tips and feedback trainer C provided, bc it’s all here in video form!!
video from basically the whole lesson, including our run thru novice A at the end
if you just want to see the test, it’s broken into its own video below
Tho obvi I still gotta write something, right? Even if it’s just to help me remember and internalize the details (and not just spam you with a zillion nearly-identical pics of my mare being a perfect princess LOL).
doozy was the happiest clam in this lesson <3 <3
So for starters, there’s the stuff not captured in the video — the catch-up and context I shared with trainer C before we got started, since it’s been a month since our last lesson (I was in Minnesota two weeks ago instead), and obvi before that Doozy was still too early in the rehab for lessons.
pretty sure the footing has magic fairy dust in it or something, vibes were so good!
Basically, tho, if you’ve already been following along, you already know the gist of where things currently are in our work: My big focus lately is prioritizing riding forward in front of the leg first and foremost, even if that means we’re occasionally a little over pace or slightly running.
good vibes == no shortage of nice moments to screenshot!
The most interesting thing to me, tho, watching the video, is that we don’t look over pace at all. Like, not even a little bit. No signs of running either.
for real tho, sorry not sorry but there are a zillion shots exactly like this
Now, in the interest of honesty, Doozy just sorta happened to be in a fantastic mood. Serene, sweet, happy. She was already in a good mood before we even left home for the lesson. And trainer C’s barn has always had the most amazing vibes, horses are always so comfortable and confident there. Who knows why, but it was certainly very enjoyable!
still planning to upgrade my phone sooner rather than later tho bc we need this in higher resolution pls!
And Doozy likewise seemed to just settle in and enjoy the work herself. Trainer C was on board with my “riding forward” approach, and if you watch the video you’ll hear her contextualizing some of her coaching within that framework — specifically relating to continuing to work on bringing the contact and frame together without sacrificing that forward feel.
legit the goodest biscuit <3
Working on the lateral suppleness is always a feature with trainer C, and played a big role in creating that organized and ‘together’ feel in this lesson too. Particularly to the right, our tougher side by far.
she’s an expert at halt transitions now!
You can see the difference as the video goes on tho, from us starting out nicely forward but a bit braced and above the bit… To working the lateral bending and suppleness persistently and consistently enough (still with a forward v backward feel tho!) that Doozy was able to really soften into a nicer balance.
~~princess mode activated~~
Especially after transitions, or shifting between figures like three loop serpentines or leg yields, trainer C wanted to see me be quicker to actually ask Doozy for the bend and contact. She made the point that if I don’t ask, and Doozy therefore doesn’t do it, Doozy ain’t exactly wrong.
holy crap i can almost kinda sorta sit the canter when she’s this soft!
Which is kinda a “duh” statement, but also something I need to hear fairly often! Especially when Doozy is this soft and responsive and pleasant, it becomes really REALLY obvious how accustomed I’ve become to that more reactive style of ride, vs more proactive preparation.
the other way too!
If you’re only every used to the horse kinda just whipping around turns, falling in or out or whatever, then yea maybe you might get caught flat footed or unprepared for actually riding a neat and tidy center line turn.
an expert at trotting after cantering now too
Like, seriously, no joke, twice in a row, trainer C had us practicing center line turns and each time as I was literally halfway thru the turn thinking to myself, “wow ya know I *should* have half halted like six strides ago bc now we’re just kinda drifting along!”
she’s always been a free walk super star tho
At which point, like clockwork, she was like, “Uhh yea go do that again but maybe actually set Doozy up this time?” Which I then did, and Doozy went forth and nailed some perfectly crisp 10m half turns like a seasoned veteran, natch.
here’s just our run thru novice A
It was also super apparent why the bending and softening is so important for Doozy, bc when she’s more relaxed and soft through her back the difference is literally insane — especially in canter.
geometry was a little whack bc i was just guestimating my boundaries for riding a short court test in a big ring. nbd tho!
So it was a lot of good work in establishing that feeling of pushing the mare up into a contact, but not sacrificing the forward feeling and not getting stuck into trying to micromanage her pace or slow her down. And also a lot of good moments of me needing to be reminded to be more proactive about all that.
pivo missed our canter transitions in the close corners, but this test suited us!
We finished the lesson with a run through the Novice A test, which I’m hoping to ride at an upcoming schooling show mostly for shits and giggles. The current eventing tests are a little tricky for us — they seem to be designed to be completed as quickly as possible, presumably so event organizers can squeeze as many tests as possible into each ring.
free walk is best walk <3
But it means some of the tests end up riding a bit choppy and hectic, with a lot of transitions stacked on top of each other. The Novice A test, however, seems like it might actually suit Doozy reasonably well — with actually quite a bit of soft changes in bend at trot, up and down the full court in both directions to start.
you’d be forgiven for thinking this was another walking pic but it’s actually my red hot firecracker looking like a soft little lamb in her stretchy trot <3 <3 <3
The canters seem well placed for us too, tho the pivo had the most trouble with the corners closest to it so it missed the transitions, sigh, and the test does all the trotting and cantering etc up front before finishing with a free walk then stretchy trot circle. And guys, Doozy loves her stretchy trot apparently! I’m so sad the first half of the circle was missed on the video but the whole thing was so nice!
she knows she’s a champ
Overall, tho, the test rode pretty well for us — and would have been even better if I had been even more proactive and consistent in asking Doozy for bend and connection.
Realistically it’s unlikely we’ll get anything even anywhere close to that level of execution at an actual show at this point, but it’s just so exciting to me to Doozy really start to shine in the work. She’s a mercurial critter and the relaxation puzzle has proved tough to solve but it’s clear that her confidence IS increasing, as is her overall level of schooling. Baby steps, y’all!
