Dressage practice and corners!

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I sort of married into a dressage family. Both my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law do dressage. Then Betsy who owned the barn where I had UK before was a dressage rider, as well as my friend Kristy who owns Dacharia. I felt a bit outnumber to be honest, as I have always considered myself a huntseat/equitation rider.

Anyways, the reason I'm pointing this out is when it comes to dressage as a sport I'm really rather clueless. I can watch and evaluate just fine, as I know a lot of dressage as flatwork, but competing in dressage is a whole other ball game. I did drill team and I know where the basic dressage letters are, but other then that I'm just not up to par. Considering I want to event with UK, I really need to learn how to do a dressage test. So I asked my sister-in-law, Amy, to come to the barn last Saturday and give me some help.

We never got around to practicing an actual test because it dawned on me that I didn't know exactly how big a 20 meter circle was. So we mostly practiced those after warming UK up. Plus I didn't want him too tired because Amy was going to ride him for a little bit after me.

The other big change was I decided to ride in spurs. UK actually didn't seem to mind them, and was much more willing to listen to the spurs then listen to a crop/whip. He's a lot of work on flat, he really needs leg every step of the trot and canter. He's very responsive but tends to want to suck back more then move forward because of his western training as a baby. And as I'm still not exactly at peak physical condition I could use the extra help.

UK has no trouble tracking forward, which is why we now use bell boots.

Look at the muscles!

Amy getting a lovely working trot from UK.

UK's still weaker to the right, but he has improved. We can go straight without dropping our shoulder now, and even have a fairly balanced circle if I give him lots of help. All the bending and stretching has done wonders for his confidence. He's much more willing to try new things because he knows he's stronger now.

Amy finished her ride on him by trotting over some poles someone left in the ring.

So I lunged UK on tuesday and ended up lunging him over a jump as well. It wasn't a regular jump either, it was a corner! Using two barrels, I lay them down and put a pole on each end, then had the poles resting on safety cones so it all made a triangle. I let UK take a good look at it and then asked him to trot it. He did it every time, and never tried to run out! In fact he was enjoying himself so much he kept jumping the widest part, clearing it by at least a foot. After that display I decided that purchasing a neck strap might be a very good idea.

It rained for three days straight, so he got them off to chill in his shed with LD. The rain stopped yesterday afternoon, finally, and I went up to ride. He didn't have a whole lot of energy so I just flatted him lightly, and then decided to jump the crossrail that someone had left up in the ring. My corner jump hadn't fallen down, so I asked him to jump it tracking right (I always start out jumping off his bad direction as it gives him confidence). He did it great! We trotted it again, and then cantered it a couple times, switched directions and did it off the left just as well! I was able to point him right at the end of it and he never tried to run out. I'm ridiculously proud of my little paint horse!

I hope to do some more jumping with him tomorrow! 

I know, I know... I've been bad about posting!

First off let me start out by apologizing profusely for my lack of writing the past couple of months. I had some really hard (non horse) things to get through.
Literally the day after my last post I had a life altering doctor's visit. I'll sum it up thus: There were complications and I ended up loosing my daughter who we named Faith Ann. I was in the hospital for almost a week and spent about a month recovering. Our family and friends were wonderful, supportive and helpful.
Then the holidays commenced and well, I'm sure all of you know how it goes...

As for UK, he's been a peach through everything. We have been working on his big fears (specifically tarps and their plan to eat him alive).
The above picture was a momentous occasion! His feet are actually on the tarp, and it was later followed by actually walking (quickly) over the tarp. (He later ruined all his calm by getting brave and pawing the tarp which of course scared the daylights out of him)

So I was mean and made UK work that morning. I was doubly mean as I moved the tarp from being on the ground to on the fence. The tarp is UK's sworn enemy, he is convinced of this and has been awaiting it's attack for months now.
He started out awesome, then once I started taping he got lazy, which I told him (I cut myself off in the video by accident).
His free lunging has come a long way, as has his jumping. And all that hard work has been paying off! I've now jumped UK undersaddle twice and both times he's been fearless and smart. Thanks to me making him learn how to balance and find his own rhythm he's confident in himself now. Big difference from when I first brought him home. He's starting to even have that wonderful "fifth leg", which has me all excited.
In October UK lost a shoe, again (this time it was my fault, with everything going on I sorta forgot to call the farrier). Here his is pictured reading the manual regarding the proper application of an Easyboot. However the Easyboot didn't last and ended up being returned in frustration as UK made it clear that he did not want it on his foot, not even for an hour.
The upside is his feet are in wonderful health now, and don't chip despite all the rocks...

Then UK was introduced to his new adopted sibling, a black lab mix named General. General is a year and a half old and from Tennessee. UK likes General a lot more then General likes UK.
Their relationship has improved since those first couple of weeks. General has tried chasing UK a couple times, and UK has been unimpressed. UK was even better when Gen escaped and came after us as I was cantering to a jump. I had a heart attack as I saw the black streak come flying towards my horse's back end. UK's reaction? "Whatever" Needless to say Gen was in BIG trouble for that little stunt, and he seems to have learned his lesson. Pictured below they can be seen in their Pessoa blankets... awww.
Winter arrived up here early, with bitter temperatures and biting winds. I sprained my ankle the day before thanksgiving and ended up riding bareback that weekend.
UK has not been staying warm enough, which is surprising, as he was born in upstate NY.

UK was wearing the pictured heavy weight Amigo on a 32 degree day and was not warm.... And I haven't even clipped him at all!
After trying him in my other blankets and finding that quite a few of them don't fit him, ugh. I was forced to order him a last minute Christmas present from the lovely people at SmartpakEquine.com. I got him the Amigo heavy weight stable blanket. It arrived Christmas Eve and he was a very happy pony after I put it on.

After becoming addicted to watching Peter Atkins and HJ Hampton aka "Henny" and joining their fan club, I started to once again pay attention to Eventing (this started in the summer and got worse after WEG). Anyway, I am trying to get to a point. I've decided that this coming year UK and I are going to try Eventing. I talked to my friends, including my friend Kristy who used to do horse trials. Everyone thinks he'd be fabulous at it, and I just know he's got the talent. Now it's just a matter of making it so I can afford it. Ha!
Jumping I've got down, and I know my way around a field with hills and iffy terrain due to the hunter paces I used to do combined with all the crazy stuff I used to do as a teenager. It's the dressage that I'm skeptical about... UK has the moves, but I've never been a big fan of dressage. I did however marry into a dressage family and some of my closest friends do dressage. So it can't be that bad... right? I mean I'm big on flatwork, you can't jump well if you don't do a lot of flat work, but calling it dressage just gives me the heebe-jeebes...

Now I leave you with this festive and ridiculously cute picture of UK showing us how to rock the Santa hat. I mean, I don't think you could get much cuter without someone's brain exploding!

Also I'd like to mention Eventing Nation, this blog has become my new addiction and daily read. The whole crew there have a great sense of humor and make it easy to keep up with all the horse world news and drama.

Now I've just got to try to dig myself a path to the manure pile tonight in the 3 feet drifts left by the blizzard that hit Sunday. FUN....

Toodles, and I promise it won't be another two months before I write again!