The teachers at my yoga studio start each practice with a short reading or verse to help students set intentions. This one really resonated with me:
I used to think joy was something I’d feel later — after the goals, after the growth. But it turns out, joy was the sun on my face this morning, and I almost missed it.
doozy, standing patiently in the warm sun, waiting for me to arrange my gadgets
To me, that verse manages to capture in just a few short lines the essence of all the work on mindset and mentality that I’ve been trying to accomplish for basically years at this point.
warm up walkies
And I don’t know that the work ever really, ends, ya know? This whole thing with horses is a lifelong pursuit in so many different ways and dimensions… And obviously any time you throw competition into the mix, there’s going to be a constant push and pull between pressure, challenge, fulfillment, etc.
just trottin around!
Maybe in a weird way, tho, our consistently poor results make it somehow easier to be a bit philosophical about the whole thing. Like, I’m clearly not doing this for the glory or accolades or, god forbid, prize money (LOL). So there’s gotta be something else to it, right?
just canterin around too, like a sweetheart!
Something about doing it just for the sake of doing it, bc we strive for the challenge, bc it’s fun and rewarding and exciting. Bc we like the feeling of the warm sun on our face.
and the other way!
One of my primary objectives in getting Doozy was to get back to a place where I felt like I was learning and developing and growing as a rider and horse person. And honestly, she’s one hell of a teacher LOL. A very VERY different type from Charlie.
It really does feel like she’s coming into her own this year tho. Obvi putting aside her summertime injury hiatus… But even before that, it honestly felt like we were seeing more and more promising signs of the type of horse she wants to be when she grows up.
our efforts got slightly less tidy with repetition, which is perhaps a useful finding in and of itself
That was pre-Pivo, tho, so actual evidence or footage was rare. Tho I recently went back and reviewed all the videos from earlier this year anyway bc I was looking for jumping footage to submit to another one of those video coaching sessions, this time with Peter Wylde (who you might remember ran the show jumping clinics at Windurra Camp).
lots of cantering, building back that fitness!
I ended up submitting the video from this jumping school back in April, bc basically… That’s a great example of Doozy being her best self — being exactly the type of jumping horse I want.
And ya know, it’s also a nice example of me being occasionally caught slightly flat footed and behind the 8-ball when she’s being so pleasant and rideable. Turns out… The whole thing with having a rideable horse is that.. ya know, now you have to **ride** it.
convenient singles on the diagonal for changing direction as needed
So it was good to get that feedback from Peter on what he saw in the video, and how I can keep working to meet Doozy where she is and help her be her best. Specific takeaways include doing fewer lines of ground poles at canter (he is not a fan, says they can too easily promote the wrong body habits in the horse); being more clear and disciplined in my corners after jumps, and working toward more related distances that I can practice adding / removing strides in.
last pass thru the bounces was a bit of a miss lol, but i couldn’t be bothered to dismount and reset
So I had some of that in mind when I set up this week’s jump school. Instead of canter ground poles, I made a line of little bounces. Had a couple singles that could all be ridden each way. And also built up the two-stride combination we keep seeing at shows — oxer to vertical. Peter had recommended a shorter distance — 33’ with generous ground lines — to help the horse gain confidence and draw thru the line.
doozy recovered her composure promptly, however, and jumped this beautifully
And my warm up was basically all about moving forward, covering ground, and staying in front of the leg — esp since this was our first time jumping since the little oopsie at Loch Moy. So we did a fair bit more canter than I might normally do in a warm up… Tho honestly Doozy felt great basically from the word go so we just got right into it.
finally set up the oxer-vert 2 stride we keep seeing (and biffing) at shows. i wanted this to be a confidence building exercise so the oxer is plenty wide but slightly ascending, only 33’ to the vertical, with generous ground lines everywhere
Jumped a single first just to get Doozy thinking about jumping, then went right to circling around the bounces off each lead. An interesting finding for me was that each repetition honestly got slightly less good. Probably bc I wasn’t proactive enough in reestablishing the good canter balance, and naturally Doozy was inclined to build as we went.
It wasn’t a problem or bad or whatever. Just something worth thinking about — especially whenever I integrate this or similar exercises into rides.
it rode exactly right both times <3
The rest of the jumps were really honestly great, tho. We knocked one single after getting just a little too close (I ran out of poles so it didn’t have ground lines either). And a couple times we definitely landed a bit stronger than is ideal. But other than that it felt like Doozy was actually jumping really nicely.
good girl barely broke a sweat
And she was a superstar for the in and out! I’m really glad I set it up tho — it’s worth practicing, probably again too if it’s still around next time I jump. I felt like Doozy had just the briefest feeling of “Hmmmm” when we turned the corner to present to the grid, perhaps bc that’s where we got a bit sticky at Loch Moy last week.
But she carried on and jumped it great. Tho I opted to do one more trip just to sorta prove to both of us that we’re not just getting lucky getting through it — we’ve got it, it’s reproducible. And it was!
video of just our jumping efforts
It was interesting that Doozy was looking a bit improved in some places with her leads — either landing the lead or able to execute a balanced auto change before the turn. She’s naturally a pretty good-leaded horse, and tends to be good about managing her own changes. My hope is that as we continue to prioritize good balance, it’ll only get easier for her.
“oh nooooo!!!” — silliest mare, had apparently been holding onto that carrot for a minute
Overall, tho, it was honestly just a nice simple straightforward jump school. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing crazy. Just a couple good BN sized fences, and Doozy handled it all very nicely and pleasantly.
nbd, there’s always more where that came from!
What more could I want? It seems like we might be in for a week of rain with the nor’easter that’s about to blow in, so who knows when the outdoor will be open again (tho I remain hopeful that we just get the edge of the storm vs a direct hit!).
So for now it’s good enough to just enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the good vibes, and appreciate that Doozy was happy to jump around like a professional despite our little blip last weekend.
It’s honestly a little hard for me to know how best to spend the last few days leading up to a horse show. Over the years, I’ve taken just about every possible approach — from trying to school each phase in the last few days, to prioritizing jumping, galloping, dressage, hacking, or even taking a couple days off.
this silly mare and her floppy ploppy muzzle
There are pros and cons to everything, ya know? And sometimes I’m weighing my options based on what I think *I* need, vs what I think might most benefit the horse.
it was so dusty just a week ago!! it’s been raining ever since tho
Real talk, tho. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not really entirely clear whether it makes much of a difference haha. At least, not for me and Mondeuse, and not from a “results” perspective.
From a “feelings” perspective, tho? Actually I’m coming to believe that at least the day before, and realistically probably even the last 2-3 days before a show, should be fairly intentional and disciplined flat schools. Maybe a couple jumps too on one of the days if needed, but mostly focusing on the flat work.
Doozy has this interesting sort of quality about her that, whatever she was yesterday, she’s a little bit more that way today.
So if yesterday she had off or just hacked, today she might be… more inclined toward expressing a preference for liberty and freedom. But by tomorrow she might be coming around to the idea of civility, and the day after that she could be a perfect prim little princess.
we did a LOT of walking tho, much of it actually nicely on the aids
This seems to be true too regarding how relaxed she can be in the acceptance of the aids. It always seems to be a calibration game with her — support with leg, but omg not too much! Or, conversely, she may need very exaggerated bending and suppling aids on a Day 1 ride, compared to something a little more subtle by Day 3.
just trying to normalize relaxed balance
She also seems to benefit from practicing and recognizing patterns — whether that be with verbal cues or how we arrange various exercises etc. Doozy is a very anticipatory type horse — she always wants to know what’s coming. So it’s not like we drill the work or whatever, but I definitely aim to give her a nice predictable schooling experience day after day to ideally help her sorta relax and breathe into it.
and more walkies
Again, this obviously hasn’t necessarily proven to be a winning formula or major difference maker or whatever in the show ring. At least, not yet. Our experience in the warm up ring at Loch Moy, however, gives me confidence that we’re sorta kinda getting there. Maybe. Lol.
and halties too bc mare Could.Not with the flies and required personalized swatting
Regardless, the last three days leading up to Loch Moy were all dedicated flat schools. And I did my best to set myself up for success by recording the first of those three with the Pivo. With the idea being that:
1) Having the pivo rolling would keep me accountable for sticking to the plan; and
2) Reviewing the footage afterward would still leave me with a couple practice days to work on any key adjustments — like remembering to shorten my reins, or prepare the mare more proactively for balance in changes of direction
we’re both learning to hold our balance a little more upright
Basically treating it like a bit of a coaching session while still ensuring there was time to work on any findings etc. That note on balance in particular being one of the biggest topics for us lately.
plenty of decent moments despite the tension!
It was our last lesson with Matt that kinda helped me connect the dots that some of Doozy’s tension, anticipation and rushing are directly related to how balanced she feels — or doesn’t feel, as the case may be.
Doozy is naturally a very balanced horse, that’s a big part of what I like most in her natural way of going. But it’s like once she kinda gets into that rushing frantic rigid place, everything snowballs.
would love to be able to do more of this in the actual show ring!
There’s actually a really nice example in the video from this ride where I try to trot a little serpentine change of direction from tracking left to tracking right, passing in front of the camera to turn toward the gate. And Doozy just like completely loses her balance, bend, suppleness, rhythm, all in a flash. She goes from feeling supple and on the aids and in a nice tempo to hollow, rigid and counter bent and rushing almost instantaneously.
the overall picture at canter is still middling at best but the balance is coming along!
Obvi that’s not exactly uncommon, right? Like there’s a reason you don’t see very sophisticated changes of bend in the earliest dressage levels and tests — horses have to gain the strength and learn to hold that balance. But it’s becoming more clear to me that it’s the feeling of imbalance itself that’s part of what gets Doozy a little frazzled and upset and hard to put back together again.
might not look like much but this is light years better than just two months ago
So that’s something I’m trying to keep in mind, keep working on — and stay proactive about.
In our last dressage lesson with Trainer C (I didn’t take the pivo so there’s no media so probably no dedicated post, sorry!) we kinda integrated this idea by doing more serpentines — but throwing in circles within the serpentine as needed to reestablish balance if we lost it. And also tinkering around with feelings of shoulder fore down the long side.
lots of cookies for the good girl
I’m also working on doing more canter. Just in general to help channel Doozy’s energy and not lose sight of the commitment to “forward” that has been so important for us these last few weeks.
And it seems like it’s working! Suddenly it’s like, even if Doozy feels like she’s rushing and flat and hard to sit on, I can throw in a fairly dramatic half halt to really kinda sit her down a bit — but then she stays there and holds it. Almost like this feeling of, “Ah, yes, actually this IS better!”
smooshy biscuit <3 <3
The next thing I want to work on is spending more time in an actual 20x40m space — but like an actual court, not against a fence or wall, as with our smaller indoor ring. Probably I’ll measure out a couple corners or something with poles + cones in our outdoor ring. Mayyyyyybe in one of the grass paddocks if I’m feeling really ambitious LOL.
Bc this topic of balance has me wondering if part of Doozy’s difficulty in the show ring itself comes from trying to hold herself together without the crutch of a proper wall or fence, when she’s already inclined to be rushy and over pace. It probably wouldn’t be a silver bullet — if such things even exist with horses haha — but seems worth a shot, right?
We’ll see. In the meantime we’ll just keep chippin away with the regular practice haha.
It’s been just rainy enough, often enough, to keep our outdoor arena closed while the footing dries (or, doesn’t, as the case may be).
setting my pivo up on the fenceline, willfully ignoring the storm clouds behind me lol
Obvi with two indoor rings there’s still plenty of options for riding … But idk, I kinda hate riding inside if we don’t have to, ya know?
walking with doggo lol
Like… We’re basically confined entirely to the indoors during the winter since the outdoor ring doesn’t have lights (and again, the footing is bad in wet weather and slow to dry). So for the rest of the year, unless there’s a specific reason to do so (like when I wanted to jump before Thornridge last week), I’d really rather not go inside.
just trit-trottin around the field!
Especially on the weekends — this time of year the horses are inside during the day, meaning the paddocks are all empty. And there’s a very nice and decently flat paddock right next to one of the indoors. This paddock has the extra advantage of being essentially the closest thing the farm has to a dry lot — the grass is extremely short and picked pretty bare by the sweet pudgy ponies that use it for turn out.
something so refreshing about the grass!
Obvi I do my best not to leave marks or tracks or ride out there when it’s muddy anyway, but since it’s the one paddock that never gets ‘rested’ to grow grass, I really don’t worry too much about that.
jussssssst enough terrain to keep it interesting
And there’s something so nice about riding out on the grass! It’s up on top of a hill so there’s a nice breeze, and there’s options for working on slight variations of slopes and undulations in various corners of the paddock.
lateral suppleness remains an area of opportunity lol
I feel like it’s an entirely different type of workout for the horse to school on uneven ground too, compared to well groomed flat surfaces and footing. Like Doozy has to work harder to contain herself, keep her feet underneath herself.
feels like canter is coming along tho!
A friend I boarded with years ago moved to a farm that didn’t have any ring at all, and I remember seeing them at shows and her horse looked amazing. Like, obvi she was a lovely rider and he was a very nice horse anyway, but something about working full time on the grass had really done wonders for him.
obvi not perfect, never perfect, but it’s feeling a lot more pleasant to ride!
Plus, we have a lot of events around here that run dressage or show jumping, or sometimes both, on grass — in addition to cross country. That can be a slightly different experience if you’re not used to it, too.
Ms Thing felt very balanced on the grass!
Like I’ve honestly kinda avoided some events historically bc of the grass rings or especially the warm up situation. Which… ya know, is fine. But it’s also something we can practice, right?
wouldn’t mind having this down transition at a show!
It’s also “just different enough” that it can kinda influence how I ride in the same way being at a show can — in the sense that maybe I get more tentative or passive, or lower my expectations etc, bc we’re doing something “different” and “hard.”
we squeezed in some quasi-test-practice before the rain got too heavy
So with all that in mind, it was nice taking advantage this weekend of the nice weather but unrideable outdoor to get out into the paddock.
**singing free-walkin in the rain!**
Doozy is still going strong on her Princess Streak too. Idk what’s in her Wheaties these days but she’s been literally the most pleasant creature for actual weeks at this point. The last time we had what I felt was a ‘bad’ or ‘frustrating’ ride was back in July, actually.
actually kinda nice to school in the rain — a rarity for us these days
And that was its own interesting experience too bc it was when I first got the pivo, and upon watching the video from the ‘bad’ ride… I actually felt better about it, like maybe it wasn’t that bad after all. And in fact, that was the ride / video situation which kinda helped me figure out that I was trying to solve rideability issues by getting too backwards.
our “test practice” was more like just trot a circle, canter a circle, change directions, rinse repeat
Since that ride, I’ve been a lot more intentional about keeping my leg *on* and riding forward. And gooooooo figure, lol, Doozy looks like an entirely different animal now to how she felt then.
doozy loves her halts now
Actually, if anything, I probably need to add even more leg now bc she’s suddenly so ho-hum about life. It’s honestly been so pleasant!
fairly quick ride bc of the weather…
It’s like I almost don’t know what to do with ourselves when she’s this pleasant haha. Like, we walk, trot, canter, she’s a perfect princess, and it’s like…. okie dokey so…. now what?? LOL…
collecting the expensive electronics before they get too too damp!
Obvi it’s easy enough to see from these pictures and the video that perhaps I could push for a little more, be a bit more exacting about frame and posture and all that… And sure, we’ll keep working on that. But I’m not gonna lie, it’s nice to just enjoy Doozy’s relaxation for a bit too haha.
lol @ her face…
My hope is to keep sorta reaffirming this relaxation in new and slightly different ways — like riding out in the grass! or riding in the rain! — while also continuing to nibble around the edges of improving our flatwork, so that ideally the relaxation will remain accessible to us when we get back to events.
I recently participated in one of those webinars where a professional rider reviews video submissions. It was… obviously a little uncomfortable to put forward a video* of ourselves with so little context. But also super interesting too.
(**For the curious, I submitted the video from this flat ride, since submissions opened a couple weeks ago. It’s obvi not a perfect ride, but is reasonably representative, right?)
first time with pivo in this indoor went better than expected!
it had some trouble with this bright open door. tho ya know. doozy does too sometimes LOL
Having already learned a bit about his training methodology and philosophy, I wasn’t surprised that his overall impression of us was that I needed to put more emphasis on frame control, first and foremost. That’s kinda his order of operations: Frame control comes first, then foot control, then pace control.
look at us finding more and more nice moments!
That’s… obviously not how I’ve really found much success with Doozy, to be honest. Our whole recent little rehab induced renaissance has followed a slightly different order: foot control first, then pace control, then frame control.
trying my best to stay focused on the flatwork even when we start jumping
Realistically, tho, it’s all important, right? So Brett’s feedback was around emphasizing frame control with the intent of utilizing a soft round posture in the horse to induce and support relaxation. And to achieve this, he wanted me to be more firm and accountable in my expectations — he said I’m not really “pressing the issue” enough.
i think she’s cute <3
His point was that Doozy needs to let me into her top line as a trigger for her to relax mentally, to become more through as she yields to connection, gets rounder, and draws forward. So the “forward” feeling should still be there — the bit pressure shouldn’t be backward.
she was super quiet for this ride!
It honestly sounded a lot like a comment trainer C made in our last lesson — that “ if I don’t ask, and Doozy therefore doesn’t do it, Doozy ain’t exactly wrong.” And it also meshes nicely with what I wrote about last week, about how Doozy actually needs to be connected to feel soft and secure.
walkies lol
So ya know. It’s added to the list LOL, always more stuff to work on, right? As L. Williams often said, “Yesterday’s solution might be today’s problem.” Maybe I kinda needed to back off the intensity of too much contact and pressure earlier in the rehab bc I was getting too backwards and Doozy was too explosive… But ya know. The pendulum keeps swinging, and now we’re on the other side of that, ready for the next step. And so it goes.
and jump crewing our own self… these rails are feather-light and Ms Thing doesn’t mind getting close
So that’s the mindset I brought into this most recent pivo-recorded ride. It was overall intended to be a jump school (bc hopefully if the weather cooperates I might possibly actually be doing a little CT at Thornridge today!!) but obvi it’s still all the same stuff anyway, right?
legit every jump is decorated with hella ground lines and flowers and boxes etc but she don’t care!
And it felt like a good sorta first push toward “asking for more.” Not that it necessarily made a hugely obvious change in how we go, but the feeling was good — better, not worse. So that’s always nice haha!
still gonna just knock ‘em down all the same, whoops lol
I’d also hustled up to the ring before the ride to set up my jumps, since the outdoor is still too wet from recent rain.
ooh was surprisingly tidy over the swedish oxer even with the dark rails!
Course included a low vertical for warming up, at-height vertical on the diagonal, swedish oxer, a grid of roughly 21’ to 21’ in and outs (all verticals), plus ground poles at either end in line with center line. Everything with big ground lines and flowers and fill etc, set to be safely ridden both directions.
absolute princess thru the grid <3 <3
Doozy was super relaxed and flowed beautifully from the flatwork right into jumping. Tho obvi she knocked the very first jump down, so I had to hop off and reset it… Jumped it nicely the next time, but then knocked the next vertical too, womp haha. I did not reset that one…
the grid honestly helps her more than i do, apparently!
At least in our sample size of two jump schools since coming back into work, it seems like we keep wanting to get a little close to the jumps. The spots don’t necessarily feel wrong or terrible, just a little close sometimes.
easy out <3 <3
In the grand scheme of things, I think I prefer that to a horse who isn’t comfortable jumping from a closer distance… But it’s just something I’m keeping an eye on for now. In this ride, at least, we probably actually could have carried slightly more impulsion, tho honestly I was happy with the rhythm and pace.
and one last trip over the swedish the other way
And Doozy’s technique through the grid and over the oxer was basically everything I could have asked for! Which… ya know… is kinda the point of those particular exercises.
video of just the jumps
Another note that Brett shared in the webinar was that “exercises are for people, aids are for horses.” Meaning, the exercise (he specifically was referring to dressage exercises like riding certain figures, patterns, transitions etc) basically ‘put a line in the sand.’ To do the exercise, the rider must actually put the correct aids on. And the horse, for their part, gets better when the aids go on correctly.
video of the full ride, minus the walking, if you’re into that sort of thing
In a way, that kinda puts into better words something I’ve often struggled a bit with in the flatwork compared to the jumping. Doozy doesn’t need me to interpret the grid for her, she understands it and experiences it herself directly, for better or worse. The grid asks her for positioning and technique, and if she answers correctly it feels easy and smooth.
The flatwork, however, is often less intuitive to the horse. So I liked the way Brett talked about the exercises in dressage — that a rider focusing on a specific exercise is more likely to be more definite about their aids. Meanwhile the horse, obvi blissfully unaware of whatever pattern the rider is imagining, responds better to the more clear and definite aids, and therefore goes better.
good girl is ready for her peppermint pls!
As always, it really just boils down to good communication and feedback between horse and rider LOL. Everyone’s happier when things make sense, feel familiar, and expectations are clear. Doozy especially, just look at that sweet little face up there lol, eager for her peppermints bc she knows she was a good girl <3 <3
