Spring Starts Now!

Although the month of February brought terrible weather and a pesky hoof abscess for Taco, within the winter doldrums have been opportunities to prepare for spring. 

Take, for instance, the MSEDA annual meeting in Louisville, where the educational session speaker was Daniel Stewart.  He took us through a day-long program that began with sports psychology strategies and ended with a series of fun balance board exercises.  He taught us all how to simulate various gaits and positions on our own two feet, and took volunteers to help demonstrate how to unite our minds and muscles in mock dressage tests, stadium rounds, and, finally, a cross county course.  I really wanted to try the XC course so I overcame my misgivings about embarrassing myself in public and gave it a shot.

XC dancin' with Danny... I look like a fool, but it was fun! (photo by Hannah Hubsch)

The weekend ended with a lovely awards dinner at the Kentucky Derby Museum and an interesting meeting of members.  And I won the Alta Vista Farm XC schooling door prize-- thanks Mary Lowry!

Then Taco's new saddle came.  It is a Black Country Tex Eventer, the same one as our old one but a size larger.  Oh, and it has a gold stripe on it.  It is extremely pretty.

I ordered it through Trumbull Mountain Saddlery in Vermont (which, coincidentally, has our old saddle for sale). After I rode in the new one a little, Kate Wooten came out to adjust the flocking so it is sitting on Taco's back perfectly.  So far, I love it!  I don't think my lower leg is swinging back nearly so much, which was the point of getting the new one.

Then Taco got a haircut! The weather is warming up, but his coat is still thick and we want to avoid his staying wet and getting chilled.  So I de-furred him.

 

Notice anything on his butt?  Look closer...

And, because he is now more nekkid than the day he was born, he has a special suit to wear.

Why me???

Finally, I got myself excited for the season by making my annual volunteering trip (my 5th!) to Pine Top Farm Advanced Horse Trials, February 25-27.  Readers of this blog might remember that my trip last year did not go smoothly.  After years of an excellent safety record, the event logged several serious accidents on one day-- two of which were rotational falls at fences where I was judging.  I was deeply shaken, as were the wonderful organizers, Glenn and Janet Wilson, and many others who were present that day.  Like the riders who were injured, however, I felt it was important to go back this year as part of acknowledging that my enjoyment of the event can continue even after an uncommonly difficult weekend.

The Frog Pond at Pine Top

I am so glad that I returned this year!  The weather was perfect, the horses were impressive and beautiful, and, as usual, I learned so much.  On Friday I scribed the Advanced dressage tests for Sandy Osborn ("S") and jump judged at the coffin complex.  I scribed for Intermediate and Preliminary all day Saturday, and then jump judged all day Sunday.  The courses rode very well and the few partings-of-company did not lead to injuries.  I enjoyed visiting with the Wilsons and friends I see there every year, and I left feeling excited about the start to the season.

Tools of the XC fence judge's trade

Next week we go to Aiken for Spring Break!  I will update as much as possible.  And, as usual, send your questions to Taco!

Rainy Day Learning

It's raining today, and Taco has had a light week.  He had two days off after getting home on Monday.  I did some light flatwork on Thursday and he felt really good-- nice and supple and happy.  But the last two days have been just walking for him, since he seems to have banged one of his front ankles with the other foot, leaving it a little swollen and painful to touch.  He is a very exuberant guy in his turnout and did this very thing last summer, only to the other ankle.  So he has gotten some Surpass and cold therapy and easy walking to get keep the circulation moving.  He was sound on it yesterday and the swelling had gone down but today it is raining sideways so he gets another day off.

In the meantime, then, I have been doing some studying.  I came across this series of two Lucinda Green clinic videos on Horse and Country TV(a UK site).  Each of them is a little under half an hour, so they were easily digestible.  None of the concepts were brand new to me, but she explains them in a very vivid way.

Lucinda and Regal Realm at the 1984 Olympics.  Image: http://www.olympics.org.uk/

In the first episode, Lucinda teaches a group of riders on fairly inexperienced horses.  Two of her points were very useful to me.  First, cross-country training is about increasing your horse's ability to read and answer progressively harder questions.  At first they take a long time to puzzle over a simple question.  As time goes by, they are able to process far more difficult questions far more quickly.  While Taco is not green by any stretch, it helps me understand what makes him tick.  And I also understand my job as presenting him to questions in a way that allows him to solve them correctly (there is that energy, line, balance thing again-- which, by the way, is a concept that Lucinda constantly emphasizes).

Second, she explains that horses initially get up in the air to jump by lifting their front ends.  Then the back end propels the horse upward and forward, but it is the lifting of the front end that is the crucial function at the moment of takeoff.  So... it is really counterproductive for the rider to allow her body to tip forward onto the horse's front end at that very moment.  Again, another concept that I already was aware of, but the way she put it is so commonsensical and crystal-clear.

Here is the first episode itself:
http://horseandcountry.tv/episode/lucinda-green-clinic-episode-1


In Episode 2, Lucinda uses two groups of demonstration riders to further explain some important concepts. "Fundamentally," she says at the beginning, "a horse that goes eventing has got to believe that wherever you want him to go, he can go and he's not going to get into trouble."  This is exactly how Annika trained Taco, by the way.  She always asked him to do things that she knew he could and would do.  That is, I am sure, one of the main reasons he is so honest and confident today.

She also has good ways to explain the use of aids. I really liked how she explains the use of the legs in steering and supporting the horse.   When steering, our legs are like cling film (Saran Wrap) around a sandwich-- not too loose and baggy, but not squishing the sandwich.  Or in my case, not squishing the taco! But then when the horse hesitates before takeoff and/or we're jumping something difficult, those legs can go ahead and squish the sandwich (or taco) in order to make sure the horse keeps going and support during takeoff.

At the end, she works with the riders to put together engine, line and balance over some straightforward gallopy fences.

I'll leave the rest of it for you to discover yourself:


http://horseandcountry.tv/episode/lucinda-green-clinic-episode-2


 Enjoy!

Ribbons in the Wind

The past week has seen part of Team Taco (minus Taco) journey to Kentucky for the MidSouth Eventing and Dressage Association meeting, plus some actual riding here at home in Tennessee.

I bundled Carol and the dogs into the car on Saturday morning and we drove to Lexington, KY in time for the afternoon lecture at the MSEDA meeting.  The lecturer was Heather Blitz, an international Grand Prix dressage rider, and her topic was a philosophy of biomechanics and training that she calls Mind Your Riding.  I won't try to recall the entire lecture here, which was about two hours long, but I found some of her concepts especially eye-opening.  In particular, she described a method of maintaining the rider's center of gravity somewhere between the waist and mid-thigh through core engagement and thigh strength and leverage.  She also explained what the horse's forwardness and balance mean to her.  Her definition of "forward" refers to the horse's state of mind and means that the horse is "switched on" and that the horse and rider have a mental connection.  Good balance for the horse means that a medicine ball would balance in the middle of a seesaw with its fulcrum just behind the horse's girth.  She illustrated these concepts, plus several more, with photos and video of herself riding.  The entire lecture was fascinating and I would really love to ride in a clinic with her... so stay tuned to see if we make it!

After a lovely dinner at Lexington's Atomic Cafe and the annual MSEDA business meeting on Sunday morning, Carol and I took our seats at the awards luncheon.  Taco and I had earned my first-ever year-end award.  We were second in the Senior Novice category for 2009.

I will treasure that red ribbon for years to come!

Now that I've returned to Nashville, and the weather has been marginally better, I've been able to ride.  The ground is still rather wet, but I can do some long slow distance work.  I got on and hacked the other day, despite the snowflakes that were drifting around, because I finally had a chance to ride in between the snow and rain and travel.  Taco was a bit fresh but I practiced keeping my center of gravity low and lengthening his strides at the walk, which settled him.  I think we both felt a lot better after that.

I rode today, too, which presented another problem: wind.  It was about 32 degrees and the wind was whipping down at Panther Springs at around 20 mph!  I hate wind.  And Taco was, shall we say, a little wired after I tacked him up in the barn and ventured out the double doors into the wind tunnel that was the great outdoors.  After leading him to the mounting block I peered at his slightly wild-eyed face.  Hmmm.  Maybe a little lungeing was in order.  So I went back into the barn for the lunge line and we hit the round pen.  Wheee!  Lots of bucking!  After a few minutes his eye had softened right up and I got on.  No problemo.  Another winter day conquered!

If the weather holds we will have a nice stretch of 40-degree days without rain for the next week or so, and we can get some work done.  After all, the average daily high around here in early February is 50 degrees, so is 40 too much to ask?  Fingers crossed everybody!