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
Doozy had what we hoped would be her final vet check last week to flex all the things, jog hard soft straight round etc etc etc, dot all the i’s, cross all the t’s, etc… And the vet was very pleased to declare Doozy completely cleared for full and unlimited work, including jompies omg!!
all screenshots and video today are actually courtesy of a real human riding buddy, not pivo!
Somewhat hilariously, it actually made it into the vet’s notes about how we needed to be really really certain the mare was ready bc she is an “all or nothing” sort of horse — there couldn’t be any qualifiers like, ‘well just take it easy!’ or ‘stick to trotting cross rails for a little while,’ ya know? Like, we needed either a green light or red, no in between.
“is that jomp… for me?????” — doozy, the *most* excited
Doozy is who she is, right? And… Well. Doozy is full of surprises.
The day came for our first proper jump school — the ring had been completely cleared, dragged and watered* (with *rain, but still) and I had permission to set up whatever I wanted. AND we had a friend to ride with, Doozy’s best bebe morgan friend.
eeeeee crossrail!!
And Doozy was, not to put too fine a point on it, literally perfect. Not like we didn’t make mistakes or whatever, bc we did lol. Obvi. It’s been four months, ya know?
eeeeeeeeeeeee crossrail the other way!!!!!
But ahhhh it was just so fun! Doozy was in such an amazing mood, the feeling was there, actually I probably could have pushed her more in front of the leg, she was so relaxed.
She was still forward and excited to the jumps, but not rude rushy or insecure — no going inside out or getting frantic or anything like that.
literally what more could i want???
Honestly, I thought setting up the full grid from Peter Wyde’s show jumping sessions at the Windurra Camp might be a little aggressive… And therefore opted to keep the heights low for both trips, and only two trips obvi bc I’m not trying to jump the horse’s legs off the very first chance I get, right?
heights were appropriately conservative given, ya know, everything haha, but lookie how engaged she was!!
But Doozy was so ho-hum about it! She stayed straight as an arrow, actually respected the placing poles (spaced 8.5’ from each element) and never batted an eye!
like she hasn’t missed a day
Obvi I can’t predict the future. It’s horses, anything can happen at any time, right? Like, that’s how we kinda got into this whole summer-interrupted situation in the first place.
so proud of her footwork her first time through!
But I’m already kinda wondering if I won’t look back on this rehab-mandated reset period as a bit of a blessing in disguise.
almost amazing that i actually ended up getting ahead of her by the end
Doozy feels and looks so good in her body right now. More important than that, tho, is the progress we’ve made together just in the last month in reproducing more consistently relaxed and pleasant rides.
lolz boxes #TooBoring after all that
That’s not to say that Doozy’s wild child days are behind her, winter IS coming, after all! It just seems like something is sorta clicking for her right now.
ooooh but this was exciting <3 <3 <3
She’s a happy sort of horse who likes doing activities and solving puzzles and answering questions — especially when she already knows the answer. But it’s been a bit of a trick trying to get her to modulate that over-achiever nature to keep her from getting anxious or ‘locked out.’
she was proud of herself too <3
And who knows, all the same old problems could (and probably WILL) reappear when we’re finally back into the big electric horse show atmospheres. It just feels like we have more tools right now.
last trip through the grid was less perfect than the first, but still honestly fucking fantastic <3
Regardless, it felt really good to shake some of the rust off and get airborne again. Basically all of our combined skills, strengths, weaknesses, etc, were right where we left them. We didn’t ’forget how to do it,’ nor did either of us magically like… tune up in the time off haha.
grateful for this mare who is so full of surprises
Maybe in an ideal world I should have gone back down the grid one last time to fix our pace after knocking a couple of the rails in the last trip. But… Meh haha. We can save that for another day.
On this day, it was enough to just be out enjoying ourselves, having a great time jumping around!
I listened in on a webinar last week with a Q&A session hosted by an FEI dressage judge who had some, hm, strong perspectives on the future of the sport. Granted, a lot of horse people have strong opinions, and judges are quite literally tasked with, ya know, judgement.
welcome to another episode of two dozen pivo screenshots!
So it’s not surprising when they take advantage of a presentation platform to get up on their soapbox and expound upon the issues they see as most critical. All that to say — as with anything, we listen with open ears and open minds and also a grain of salt at the ready.
here’s the video if you’d rather see it in motion.
only about ~8min this time
It was timely for me, tho, bc I’d actually just recently scribed the dressage at a USEA event for a judge whom I’ve known for years. Lovely lady — witty, clever, and realistic about horses and riders presenting at all the various levels of skills and experience.
not sure what it’s going to take to make me shorten my reins LOL
Naturally she and I chatted throughout the day about all sorts of topics. Our impressions of the 2026 tests, the various local pros and their up and coming horses. Her past experiences, my experiences with Doozy and our dressage struggles etc. All the things. And the change in scoring formats for the test collectives came up too.
happier about my posture in a lot of these moments tho
I may or may not have even whined about how Doozy and I consistently get nailed in the “Harmony” collective. That instead of the score reflecting more or less our test average, judges often use it to make a point about their overall impression of how we go. Which this particular judge (having, ya know, not seen us go but just chatting with me) agreed seemed harsh and maybe unfair.
lots of halt transitions throughout the video
So fast forward a couple days to this webinar with the FEI dressage judge who… Honestly kinda blasted my whinge right out of the water. She got up on her soapbox and practically shouted at us that “the harmony collective isn’t going anywhere!” And that even in the FEI classes (she was particularly preoccupied with pure dressage in the Olympics) the general impression scores are shifting to prioritizing harmony.
then right back into forward again, really pleased with basically all of our canter transitions
She predicted that judges at all levels and in all aspects of dressage will be increasingly using that collective score to “make a point,” and that the “wow factor would not win over harmony in the future.” Short necks, open mouths, BTV frames, a lot of tension… The more prevalent any of that is in a test, the lower the score will go.
we’re still mostly bracing and above the bit, but she was decently relaxed anyway
Which. Ya know. It’s so funny how the world works sometimes, right? To go literally from one day complaining about how the scoring seems unfair or impossible for our sensitive reactive hot house flowers… To just days later sitting in on a webinar where the message is a loud and clear, “Buck up, buttercup, and do better!”
emma. shorter reins WILL help you communicate better, i swear!
And so. As one does, I updated our “vocabulary word of the daymonthyearlifetime” exercise with Doozy. Now we have two vocabulary words: Composure. Forever, obvi. And the newest addition: Harmony.
trying to ride forward into organization, not backward!
And a new measurable goal to go with that: I’d like to ride our dressage tests such that the Harmony collective actually DOES represent a more positive reflection of our scores. So like, if we ride a wild ‘n woolly test that nets us a 45% penalty score (55% in pure dressage), then yea a Harmony collective of 5.5 is expected.
i’m actually happy with some of our canter moments for once!
But historically, a lot of judges have rounded that down to a 5.0 for us, based on their general impression of how we go. Looking forward, I’d like to prioritize a style of riding that makes it more likely for a judge to round up to a 6.0, with some sort of sympathetic comment like, “Unfortunate tension today!” lol. A girl can dream, right?
doozy thinks the halt transitions are stupid, but she squared up anyway!
Right lol. To go hand in hand with my new goal, I’m bringing a fresh newfound zeal to my persistently terrible upper body posture. Bc damn, it just seems CRAZY to me that despite literally a decade of bitching about it here on ye olde blogge, zillions of lessons, and now doing yoga basically every damn day… I STILL sit like a friggin potato on the horse.
and forward again, good girl
And it turns out… Most dressage judges are all too eager to blame the rider’s poor position and use of aids for a messy test or horse who isn’t going well.
don’t look now, but somebody is developing a little elasticity!
Now it IS true that part of the problem is just my own personal conformation. I have a short torso, short arms, and the sort of bust line that, when taken all together, really amplifies any impression of slouching. But… It’s also true that even when I really am trying so god damn hard to sit up straight with shoulders back… I’m just like, not. My body is lying to me, I swear!
lol @ her face…. “halt is my least favorite speed” — doozy, 1,000%
Recently, tho, one of the yoga teachers at my studio did a multi-week class focused on “grounding,” emphasizing a strong energetic connection and downward flow through whatever body part was in contact with the ground in each pose — feet, hands, spine, sit bones, etc.
we hit the block, whoops
And it brought a different awareness and feeling for me. Most often, I’ve thought of stretching ‘up,’ sitting ‘up,’ feeling lifted and tall. But this yoga flow was all about the energetic push down to find the full expression of the posture. Ymmv, but for me, this is a really helpful new way to think about finding that strong open and tall core — pushing down into the sit bones to find the strength and stability to lengthen into a taller frame.
“false alarm, everything is fine!” — doozy, composed just one step later <3 <3
It’s not a silver bullet, obvi. At this rate, so many of my muscular postural habits are very very deeply ingrained. But maybe it’s helping?
proud of the pivo for coping despite not being alone in the ring!
Idk. All that to say, this most recent Pivo-recorded ride had a few fundamental areas of focus:
- Lateral suppleness with lots of inside leg even when Doozy tries to convince me I should take my leg off lol…
- HARMONY
- And, lastly, sitting tall (but-i-fucking-mean-it-this-time) for the camera
determined to work on my canter lol
Oh. And not shying away from working on the canter haha. And transitions too. Bc apparently none of it gets better if we don’t practice. Go figure!
pretty much satisfied with our how we finished the ride
And guys, Doozy is loving my newfound embrace of riding forward. There’s a lot more smoothness in all of our transitions — particularly trot to canter, but also the downwards too. Especially if I remember to keep my leg on, she really seems better able to get her legs up under her and hold a more comfortable balance — vs spurting off onto the forehand or snowballing into an avalanche of a pulling match.
one last halt with lots of pets, obvi
We still see a fair amount of bracing especially through the underneck, but I’m inclined to think that’s mostly a strength thing in the downward transitions, and maybe a lack of good preparation + reins too long for the upwards.
still lookin pretty relaxed after all that! <3 <3
Again, tho, that’s also kinda the beauty of the Pivo LOL. Like, to spend as much time studying / editing / screen shooting that video as I do, and be thinking ‘ugh Emma shorten your reins!’ the whole time? Perhaps that’ll be the lesson that sticks lol.
We’ll see, I guess! Anybody else working on any positional breakthroughs, or general feelings on the future of judging in the sport?
