In like a lamb!!!

It was such a beautiful day today, that I rode pretty much every horse in the outdoor arena. They were all very good, although a little "up", since it was their first time outdoors since last fall. The weather was absolutely fantastic, sunny, mid 50s to low 60s, light breeze!
Monkey is always a little more up and active outside, so it is useful to ride him outside. At Thermal, he was fantastic out in the outdoor jumping arenas, but more backed off in the CDI arena. I also ride him on the cross country course in the summer, as it really helps his way of going. Majek thought about exploding, as usual, but I rode some haunches-in on the circle, and really made him sit and bend his hind legs, and he decided that leaping in the air was too much work. It was interesting how much it relaxed his back. You wouldn't think making the work harder would relax the horse so much, but it worked in this case. Then he was really super.
Our local show season is fast approaching, so my students are all starting to think in that direction. I've started making them all ride tests, or elements of the tests, or make them ride outside, to get everyone prepared. There's a small schooling dressage show at our barn in late April, which will help them all get prepared for the first big recognized dressage show in our area, the Idaho Festival Dressage show in mid-May. Then there are the idiots that pick big, busy shows with Olympic riders and six-figure horses in Southern CA as our first show of the season. :)

Back to work!

I put Monkey and Majek back to work this week after a week off following the big show.
Majek was pretty wild the first day (I wisely decided to lunge him) but also started very tense and fresh the next day as well. He is a very tense horse in general, often reminding me of a thoroughbred (although he is holsteiner). He wanted to be very tight against the leg and short in the neck. I was able to work through it, although it took 15 minutes or so, mostly I have to remember to start with really small steps in the right direction. So I'll bend his neck and try to lengthen it, but it helps if I think to only do really tiny increments and build on those, not expect him to go from really tense to really long and loose. If I find those little improvements, where he gets just a tiny bit longer, then a tiny bit longer, etc, then I have a more solid foundation on which to build. That helps me to stay better connected as well. By the end he was quite good, very drivable and elastic feeling.
I had a lesson on Monkey today, after having ridden him the day before to get him going again. He's been absolutely nutty in turnout, a week off gives him way too much energy! I brought him in a few days ago and he was piaffing sideways down the barn aisle, snorting the entire way. He was good in my lesson, we worked on some very basic suppleness and straightness issues (like controlling the haunches in my turns, I tend to lose his haunches to the outside through corners) and keeping the shoulders in line with the haunches independent of flexions through the neck. Also making those flexions more subtle (so I don't lose the connection) but still effective, so he lets go in his back. We finished with some work on improving the medium trot by riding passage to medium trot to passage transitions. He has finally figured out the passage, it took him a little while to find the beat and push off the ground enough without just flattening and running. Now that he's found it, we try to use that to improve the cadence and engagement of the medium trot. It worked very well today.
Also of note I rode my 3 year old Dutch filly "Jazzy" last weekend when I was in Portland! Every time I go to Portland I work with her a little bit, generally some combination of lunging, basic ground work, desensitization to saddle pads, saddles, etc. I backed her lightly over Christmas (mom led me around), then went off the lunge line for the first time in January. So this February ride (I only did one) was her second ride off the lunge. I have to say, for only being ridden once a month, she was significantly better. She kind of steered this time, and had a much better (albeit very basic) understanding of the rein and leg. She was also much MUCH more relaxed about me influencing her this time, last time she was a more worried and tense. It was a little wierd how relaxed she was. I trotted several times. She has a very nice trot to ride, it has a very smooth, liquid-y feeling to it. You wouldn't think a horse would progress that well given the amount of time between rides, but she did.

CDI Thermal successful!!

Just got back from the CDI Thermal in Southern California...the show went really well for me! This was my first CDI in over 10 years, so it took a bit of adjusting...ended up with a 61% in PSG with some mistakes and a 64.5 in the I-1 with a much better test! I rode the trot a bit too quick in the PSG, to keep Escorial (aka Monkey) in front of the leg (the arena was a small claustraphobic tent and he backed off considerably when I rode him in there before the show), plus I had mistakes in both lines of tempi changes. For the I-1 I slowed the tempo down and rode more cadence. Plus I cleaned up the canter work and got my tempis. I was very happy with the result! Especially O judge Volker Moritz liked the change, he gave me a 59 in the PSG but bumped it up to a 65.5 in the I-1.
The young horse Charismatique did his first outing at Third level (having done first level last year) and earned a 64.5 and 65.5 in two tests (plus a 60 in his last test, when he was tired and had more mistakes!). I was very happy with him too, he was a bit overwhelmed early in the week by the busy show grounds and was crazy when I rode him. He tried to run out of the warmup at one point, and refused to walk at all earlier in the week...I finally just got off and figured I would try again the next day! As is typical of hunter/jumper shows, there were golf carts, motorcycles, people, horses, jumpers, cars, etc, etc going every which way! Luckily he settled by the time the show started, and my tests went very well.
I actually stabled with Megan Jordan, a hunter/jumper trainer from Oregon (until the CDI). The hunter/jumper crowd knows how to have a good time! I also sold Zimbalist NBF at this show as a hunter. I bought ZZ as a yearling, and after backing him myself, went on to win several high point awards at training level on him when he was a 4 year old. He won the High Percentage at Devonwood one year with a 75%. Although he did well in dressage, and was a good dressage horse, he is a fantastically talented hunter, and had some very good placings in the tough hunter division in weeks 1 and 3. Another former horse of mine, Lovely Lola (renamed Lolita), was mid-circuit Level 6 champion in the jumper division. Megan bought Lola from me when she was a 5 year old, and she has turned into a fantastic jumper. She won several (very) large classes in levels 6 and 7, some with 70+ horses in them.
It was also awesome to watch some of our country's top dressage combinations vie for a spot on the WEG team. The GP competition was intense and very, very good. It is very inspiring to watch people like Guenter, Steffen, Adrienne (Lyle) and Sue Blinks ride.
Definitely a show I would love to attend again! Weather was awesome, mid 60s to 70s pretty much everyday, and some awesome competition. I also watched the CSI Grand Prix in the Indoor on Saturday, which was incredible too. All around a great show!

First show in less than 2 weeks!

I will be leaving next Sunday for my first show of the season and my first CDI in many years! I am going to make the 16 hour drive to Thermal, California (outside of Palm Springs) for the Dressage Getaway CDI. This show is being held in conjunction with a big 6 week hunter/jumper show, so it should be a blast! Plus, this being a World Equestrian Games year, I will likely be seeing many of our top west-coast combinations trying to qualify for the selection trials.
Did I mention it is currently 65-70 degrees and sunny down there? Much better than our (recently) snowy weather!
I will be showing Monkey (aka Escorial) in the PSG/I-1 in the CDI. I'm also bringing my mom's horse Majek (aka Charismatique) and he will be showing third level for the first time. Should be fun!

Trip to TEXAS!!

I just got back from a great trip to Texas, where I went on a horse-buying trip with a client. It was only a couple of days, but the weather actually was decent, the horses were quite nice, and we had a great time being entertained by the Texas "culture"!
Ok, so imagine nonchalantly walking into a Wal-Mart to find some beer, only to be morally shunned by the checker who piously declares, "we don't sell THAT here!" I swear, she even crossed herself. Evidently, we were in a "dry county". This is a concept with which I was unfamiliar, until that fateful day in Texas. They don't serve beer, but they serve their morality straight up! And these are the same crazies that are totally against gun control. Can't buy a beer at Wal-Mart, but you can get an AK-47!
My favorite was the Texas draaaawwwwwlll...some of those people actually made me anxious, as if I would forget how their sentence began by the time they were finished with it! It is really difficult to hold a conversation with someone when you are forgetting how their sentences began. I think my anxiety might have also resulted from them talking SOOOO slow, that I just felt really fast and anxious talking at a normal speed. Kind of like driving a car at 80 mph, thinking you're going really fast, then being passed by some BMW going 100+, and then thinking you're really slow!
On the plus side, I have perfected my Texas accent. You know, it is really difficult not to talk with a Texas drawl down there. I swear, anything you say is more entertaining when you use the accent. Try it, it's a fun game! (Probably better with a few beers, but you'd have to be in the right county for that.)
The horses were at Garner Creek Farm, located in the Middle of Nowhere, Texas, (ha, I mean Ranger). It is a fairly large Hanoverian breeding operation, and a very good one at that. Sharon Garner stands the stallion Bonheur (who is from Brentano II) and has quite a few very nice imported horses and horses she has bred herself. It was great to see such a nice operation, with beautiful barns and friendly (and knowledgable) people. Even if it was in Nowheresville.
We flew back today, on New Year's Eve. Nothing like spending the holiday rushing from airplane to airplane. We even got to finalize the day with a bomb scare at the Boise airport, which kept my client from her checked luggage. We tried to get around the cops, but they were ready for us. Me, I dun' got outta dodge and took the truck home!

New Painting

When I lived in Portland, I attended the Pacific Northwest College of Art for a year or so and earned credit towards a certificate in painting. I haven't been painting much lately as I have been very busy with the horses. Last Sunday I got the urge to paint, and I did this still life (normally I do landscapes) in oil.

I really like the vertical orientation here, I think it really emphasizes the strong vertical lines of the composition. The rounded forms at the bottom, oriented in a more horizontal fashion, work really well against the strong vertical lines, keeping them from totally dominating the painting. I don't normally use a lot of white space, which I did in this painting, but I think it helps the forms stand out and provides a visual relief from the highly saturated color.

I rarely use black in a painting, and this one is no exception. The darks are a combination of ultramarine blue (my favorite "black") and/or one of the darker earth tones (raw sienna, burnt sienna, or burnt umber). I find it makes the darks much more vibrant.

I don't think the painting is entirely done yet, could use some more color depth (especially on the rounded forms and yellow areas). But a pretty good start!

20 degrees actually feels warm!

All week has been unbelievably cold around here, Tuesday through Thursday highs were around 16, lows subzero. Ick! I never thought 20 degrees would actually feel warm.
I read a very thought-provoking post on the 'net a few days ago, and decided to re-post my response here. The original post, by a veterinarian/dressage rider, brought up some interesting points about how riders' horses reflect their own balance issues and speculated how these rider induced problems can lead to long-term soundness problems in the horse. The original post specifically "picked on" dressage riders as being more guilty of creating a host of soundness and physical problems in their horses, as opposed to other disciplines (specifically eventing).
Here is my response:

When I was 15 or so, my half-Arab came up a little lame behind (right hind). We did diagnostic work (x-rays) and found mild arthritis. We also had a massage therapist/chiropractor come out and work on him. This guy was amazing, he worked on the horse for a bit, then proceeded to tell me exactly how I was sitting, which leg would be forward, how my hips were twisted, etc. And he was exactly right. He understood rider biomechanics better than most instructors.
This brought up a huge moral dilemma, which your post so beautifully describes...how can dressage, which is supposed to make the horse's more balanced, stronger, more even, actually create lameness or possibly lead to breakdown? How can one do dressage knowing this?
My resolution is to acknowledge this danger, and to pay attention to dressage specifically as a therapeutic means. Good riding should make the horses go better, more balanced, more sound. That means structuring your program accordingly and looking to yourself for chronic imbalances. But this is difficult...to become this rider requires more time and energy than most people can commit (most only ride one horse a day, if that). Many people also want to look outside themselves for lameness issues, they don't deal with it as a training issue (and by training, I mean a fundamental balance problem with horse/rider). You can pour as much money as you like into your chiropractor or massage therapist or whomever, but if your way of riding is creating the problem, it will ultimately get you nowhere.
To this day I still have problems getting my horses to use their right hind leg property, which tends to overload the left shoulder. I still sit slightly crooked (too heavy on the left). Guess what, even good riders aren't perfect, and even slight imperfections will show up in the horse's way of going. Similarly, I can sit on any horse and feel some degree of unevenness/unlevelness. They aren't perfectly ambidextrous either. The job of training is to improve on this.
I agree 100% that many dressage horses are overweight and underworked. I tend to like mine on the lighter side (by dressage horse standards). I have had this discussion with several clients (your horse is obese), I have absolutely NO idea how anyone can expect an athlete to be overweight and perform to their optimum. Unfortunately most clients don't listen until they have a horse founder. It takes a vet to convince them.
I have also started incorporating more outdoor riding in my program (we have several outdoor arenas and a cross country course here, plus it doesn't rain as much here). Also some light jumping/cavaletti work. I think these are good ways to build strength and work different muscle groups. I also think the horses balance themselves better outdoors (not as many tight turns as in an indoor). Also my dressage program is very structured in the sense that I don't go out and work the same way every day. I have hard days (more collection, perhaps), then more forward/longer riding, some days only walking with lateral work (or a hack), etc. Sometimes the lateral work emphasizes engagement, sometimes looseness. It depends on what I think the horse needs. But even in a "light" ride the horse is still balanced. My version of a "light" ride is still harder than what most people think.
Furthermore, I think some people confuse what is comfortable for them, with what is best for their horse. Sure, Dobbin is probably "happier" cruising around on the forehand forever and argues whenever he is asked to use his hindend, but ultimately it will break down his front legs if continued forever. So the rider will have to go out of their comfort zone. That doesn't mean drill engagement every day of the week!
I think the moral dilemma I described earlier is brought into full relief in the rollkur discussion. Especially since you have the upper echelon riders doing, what looks to many people, as something abusive or physically destructive to their horses. How can this be compatible with the basic principles of dressage? But you're right, the rollkur discussion is really a small portion of the larger moral problem that faces every dressage rider.

Hope you find this issue as thought-provoking as I do!