<![CDATA[Thomas Eventing - Must Tango - The Blog of an American Mustang]]>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:53:25 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Moving!]]>Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:34:24 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2012/01/moving.htmlPhinn and I are continuing our blog on a new site: www.kcgsporthorses.com, please come join us there! ]]><![CDATA[Canter! Times Two!]]>Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:12:56 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2011/09/canter-times-two.html  Canter One, Mustang Cantering

Its been a long time coming!  Its been 6 months since we cantered and last week we finally reached the point in our rehab where we can start adding canter.

I didn't realize how much I missed it, or how far we've come: hand walking, game ready, wrapping,  miserable hand walking, restricted turn out, more miserable hand walking, tack walking, adding in trot, straight lines only, hard ground…and then, a balanced trot, with slight flexion to the inside, outside leg slides slightly back, squeeze with both legs, and effortlessly, Phinn stepped up into the canter, balanced, quiet, with purpose, like we had done it the day before, and every day before that.

I only cantered about ten strides at first, and our schedule is to add in 2 mins per week like we did the trot, but it feels like quite a triumph to be one more step closer to our goal of "return to full work".  The more we work, the better Phinn is. Tack walking was such a clear relief from the mutual misery of hand walking and adding in trot was entertaining enough in itself, for a while….then the games started. 

 A mustang with a job is a happy mustang, and a safe one. A mustang without a job is a mustang who will become his own activities director.  And the activities, while entertaining, are not as fun for you as they are for the mustang, mostly because most of the activities are of one theme: buck off  rider.  While he hasn't been successful yet, (knock on wood), he's pulled some sneaky ones. Thankfully he seems to be tickled enough with himself to have pulled off a buck or two and none of them have been particularly animated or mean spirited, just mischievous. 

The most creative self-appointed mustang activity was crossing the electric tape that cut his new paddock in half. It turned into a game of horse sized 'Operation', with Phinn watching gleefully as we would try new ways of stringing the electric tape every few days, only to find him on the other side of the paddock the next morning, tickled with himself for figuring out how to get through the new 'test'. Fortunately, the problem was solved with a two pronged approach: moving him to a paddock with ample grass, and taking the time to check the fence for anything that could possibly be reducing the output of electricity.  Advantage was taken of an afternoon rain and wet grass and Phinn was slightly coerced (lured with a carrot) into touching the now-hoppin'-hot fence.  A visible spark off his nose and an audible snap of the electricity jumping off of the tape preceded a leap in the air and a horrified snort.  I felt bad, but it had to be done, "Mustang Operation" had to come to an end, I was terrified that he would somehow get tangled in the fence. Of course, now he snorts with suspicion at anything white, including the gate to his paddock, which has made walking in and out of the paddock about as entertaining as "Mustang Operation" was.

Canter Two, CANTER

I was very humbled a few weeks back when Allie and Jessica of CANTER Mid Atlantic contacted me and asked if I would be interested in doing retraining for CANTER. Jessica had noticed I had relocated when my profile changed on face book (go social networking!) and we started talking. I'm located about 2 hours from one of the Maryland farms where the CANTER horses are let down and board at a fabulous facility for a young thoroughbred to learn new skills.

The horse I picked is "Big Talk".  A 4 year old filly.

Please follow her progress on my new CANTER Blog: http://www.kcgsporthorses.com/canter-blog.html

]]><![CDATA[Heath Ryan Clinic Notes]]>Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:17:55 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2011/08/heath-ryan-clinic-notes.htmlPoints made during the dressage sessions (BN-I):

Your focus should be to increase the accuracy with which you apply your skills not the power you use, power will actually come from the increase in accuracy.

Be sure to be aware of and consider both the physical and psychological aspects of your horse when teaching it new things and throughout your training.

The law of accumulative effect: Accumulative effects are gained through the maintenance of a concept (i.e. if you/your horse doesn't get it at first, don't give up, maintaining the concept is the only way you and the horse will learn the concept).

Just because something doesn't happen the first time don't give up, trust in the accumulative learning.

True extension comes from true collection.  Don't expect a jaw dropping medium trot if your horse cannot carry collection on a 20 meter circle. 

If you want to win competitions, train to build your competitive skills.  For example, while the medium trot is visually inspiring, it has a lower point value than the walk, which has a co-efficient of 2, so be sure not to throw away points, especially if your horse has a naturally lovely walk. Don't think for  a minute that dressage tests haven't been won on the walk.

If you want to win competitions, you have to realize, no one cares what you think, its what the judges think.

School a shorter gait with increased tempo at home (not what you would ride in competition) to begin to explain collection to your horse.  Training increased tempo in your dressage schools will also translate to cross country, consider that while you are galloping cross country and then enter the preparation phase before a jump you want to increase the tempo of the steps without losing the speed (which will cost you time), so think of the dressage canter as the cousin of the cross country gallop.

Don't be afraid to play tag with disaster, push to your/your horse's limits without terrorizing your horse, it is the only way you will get better.

The worst thing about a horse making a mistake in training (i.e. breaking to the canter while learning to lengthen the trot) is that its embarrassing, and if that's the worst thing that happens, that's not all that bad.

Teach at new things at the embryonic level - i.e. "embryonic half pass".

Green eggs and ham theory - "just keep asking"

Its important to realize that being aggressive does not mean being hostile and its important to make sure that if you are approaching something aggressively, you do not turn hostile in your approach (esp toward your horse).  Sometimes it helps to think about approaching things progressively rather than aggressively because it is less likely to turn hostile if you have that frame of mind.

During the jumping sessions:

Exercise one: five poles on the ground set up as canter poles, thirty feet (two strides) to two more canter poles, also ten feet apart:

| - 10' - |        - 30' -      | - 10' - | - 10' - | - 10' - | - 10' - |

After walking through, and then trotting through, the horses cantered through, both directions.  At the canter, the goal was to be accurate coming in, the last canter stride before the first ground pole should place the front feet approximately 5 feet from the ground pole, the hind feet have to have about two feet to come past the placement of the front feet, which will then set you up for an accurate ride through the exercise. If you get in wrong, its hard to correct in the middle.

The goal of the lesson was to be accurate, if you can't see a distance, you can at least see your take off spot and you can practice to be very accurate in your take off spot (which in turn, will teach you to see distance).

After cantering the poles, all the poles were raised to small verticals except the first and last pole, which remained as ground poles.  Cantering the verticals was easier than cantering the poles because the verticals naturally backed the horses off.

Keep the canter active coming around the corner to the exercise, if you come around the corner and don't see the distance, you have to do something, you can't sit there and do nothing, because nothing good ever comes out of doing nothing, so do something, influence the tempo or the length of stride and don’t be afraid to have made the wrong decision, the fences are small, so the likelihood of getting hurt is quite low, if you make the wrong decision you will at least know to try something different the next time around. If you do nothing, you will never get better because you will have never tried to change the outcome.

If you are having trouble with your horse, remember, while it is not your fault, it is now your problem.  Don't blame yourself for your horse's behavior, but do address it.

Ride your skills. Your skills do not change based on the situation.  Situations may change the pressure you feel, but don't let the pressure trick you into thinking your skills are any different before that pressure was applied.  For example, riding into the stadium arena at the Olympics, you have the same skills that you had a minute before you rode in, so don't let the pressure of  the situation trick you into riding differently.

Exercise two:

Plank vertical to a white gate oxer, on a short-ish 4 stride (walked at 54'). Placing pole before the plank vertical.  Goal was to get a good distance to the plank and then get the four strides to the oxer.  Getting the distance to the plank was the hardest part, once in, the four strides to the oxer were easy to get. The oxer was raised/widened while the plank stayed the same.

]]><![CDATA[Tack Walking]]>Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:32:15 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2011/06/tack-walking.html  We're just past the 90 day mark and we're walking under tack!

Phinn has been relocated to Top Gun Stables, http://www.topgunrid.com/ and has a lovely pipe paddock constructed partially under a run in shed in a large pasture under oak trees. The large pasture his pen sits in is home to two lovely quarter horse mares, Moon and Honey.  I don’t know if it’s the good influence of the quarter horses or the oak trees, or something completely different entirely, but Phinn has been an angel since he arrived here. We had to use ace for his last month of hand walking, biting, striking, rearing, spooking and bucking and all sorts of horrible behavior was the norm for him and it wasn't any fun for anyone.  The farm is incredibly beautiful, a long parcel of 20 acres with a barn, covered arena, outdoor dressage arena, large pasture with run ins, and ponds (occupied by lots of turtles!). The entire farm is dotted with oak trees so even though we're in the middle of summer here in Texas shade is not hard to find, and when coupled with a light breeze its heaven!

We started tack walking in the covered arena, but I was suspicious that the footing, while perfect for a working dressage horse or jumping, was a little too much stress for his tendon. I had the opportunity to consult with our vet, David Gilcrest of Lone Star Equine the other day when Phinn woke up with hives.  Luckily the hives quickly responded to Dex and during his visit, Dr. Gilcrest confirmed that the firm footing in the grass pastures would probably be ideal for this phase of his rehab.  So our tack walking has been relocated to a front pasture, under the shade of the oaks, in view of a beautiful newborn quarter horse filly and her mother, Alice, turtle ponds, and the farm vegetable garden.  Phinn's bad behavior has completely subsided, he stands quietly in the barn cross ties and walks quietly on a loose rein.  Part of the reason for  relocating him was to be at a facility that had a fenced arena for me to ride in - I was sure that he was going to buck me off at the first change he got, but he's been a doll.  I can't quite put my finger on the reason for the change, but whatever it is, he seems very happy. I let him graze on the way back up to his paddock with his ice boot on and he loves that too.

We'll walk for the next two months, gradually increasing up to an hour. If his good behavior continues we might be able to venture out into the back pasture as our hacking time increases.

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]]><![CDATA[Bowed Tendon]]>Thu, 12 May 2011 08:47:13 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2011/05/bowed-tendon.html  The week before Twin Rivers Phinn and I had a jumping lesson with Hawley and the next morning I found Phinny standing with a hot swollen tendon. Immediate devastation crept into my heart.

An ultrasound revealed a core lesion to the superficial digital flexor tendon and all my hopes for the event season turned to how to best care for my horse and help him recover.

We opted for bone marrow and PRP injected directly into the lesion and I quickly called Game Ready and had a unit shipped out. We spent the first two weeks only leaving the stall to do Game Ready treatments. Phinn started out fairly miserable, but plucky little guy that he is, he quickly made friends with the beautiful Hanoverian next to him and was keen to watch the comings and goings in the cross ties up in the main barn while horses were tacked and untacked during the day. He was a champ about the Game Ready and a very helpful patient.

After two weeks we started hand walking, 5 mins at a time, twice a day.  I quickly learned that I had to be careful about our hand walking route, Phinn took exception to certain areas of the property and promptly took advantage of any excuse to spook or leap in the air. Fortunately for me, if those areas were avoided, he behaved.

As luck would have it, I was also facing a move for work and Phinn had to come with me. I carefully choose my route and planned the days so that Phinn would not be overly stressed during the move.  We did Game Ready treatments each morning before we set out for the day, and Game Ready when we reached our destination each afternoon.  Phinn was a champ and travelled very well.

We arrived in Texas and I was lucky enough to have a spot arranged for Phinn at a small private facility where he could continue his stall rest and start his hand walking in earnest.  I also learned about BioLase and Kim Segal, a local laser therapy specialist.  After long discussions with her, I decided to add laser therapy to our treatment plan. Phinn had 12 laser therapy sessions before his 60 day ultrasound recheck.

The 60 day ultrasound revealed a significantly improved tendon!  The lesion was completely filled, though a ghost of the lesion could be seen, the fibers were excellent. We were cleared for turn out in a small pen and to increase our hand walking to 60 minutes a day.  Unfortunately the turnout is dirt and spring rains and thunderstorms have started in earnest, so we have been very careful about turnout while the ground is wet, or muddy, or slippery.  Ideally he would be turned out all the time, but we haven't been able to achieve that yet, erring on the side of caution for his safety.

At the end of the month we have been cleared to start back under saddle, starting just at the walk.  We're also moving to another private facility which has offered the use of panels to create a small place for him to be turned out in, on grass, under the beautiful oak trees common in this area of Texas. As he gets stronger, we can add panels to make an incrementally bigger area for him to move about.

If all goes well, we should be able to add in trotting in August. It seems like an eternity, but its obviously critical for his rehab to be done carefully and correctly.  If all goes as planned, I've been told we can expect to be back in full flat work by Christmas and can plan on resuming our eventing plans next spring.  I've been keeping busy volunteering at events and attending clinics in order to stay engaged in the eventing community and try to pass the time as sanely as possible.  

]]><![CDATA[February 2011 Galway Downs Winter Horse Trial]]>Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:05:04 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2011/02/february-2011-galway-downs-winter-horse-trial.html  Galway was a great first Novice event for us and really showed me where our strengths and weaknesses are and things to focus on for the spring.

We arrived early Friday morning, Galway was offering practice schooling rounds in both dressage and stadium. It was a good thing we got there early, as it was, the available practice rounds were almost all taken by the time I got up to the table, after waiting over 45 minutes in a surprisingly long line.  I knew I wanted to do a schooling stadium round and was tempted to also do a practice dressage test, looking back, I probably should have done a practice dressage test, in my jumping saddle and timed things to go straight from there to the stadium ring for a practice stadium round. We had a good warm up, he was supple and pretty relaxed, but as soon as he went in the ring he was very spooky.  He hadn't been in a stadium ring since last summer, so I think all the bright colors and panels and flowers were quite a sight for him.  Although my goal is to jump a light soft round with a relaxed, attentive, and confident little mustang, the bottom line is you have to jump the jumps you're pointed at, and we did that, and I was proud of him for being brave.

Dressage went well, he was quiet in the warm up and soft and supple, and we worked lightly on the haunches in half halts to encourage more swing and engagement. When we went up into the ring though Phinn had a whole new view to consider and he was very stiff necked as we came around the ring to say good morning to the judge. I should have done another circle before going in, I never got back the softness we had in warm up, which will be our goal for the spring. However he put in an accurate obedient test and we ended up in the middle of the pack when the scores were posted. Several places above me were separated by .2 points, so I knew that we were competitive, even though I want more from him in the ring and know he can show more as well.

Stadium was later in the afternoon on Saturday, so after a quick break for lunch we tacked back up, put studs in for the grass, and went down to show jumping. There were quite a few people having rails, and we were no exception. There was a lot to look at and Phinn was exceptionally spooky to the first fence which honestly surprised me as he'd jumped it the day before.  Looking back I let him suck behind my leg as he was so spooky, I mistakenly thought I was giving him a chance to look and assess as he approached each fence, but what I ended up doing was losing the impulsion he needed to jump well. So we dropped several uncharacteristic rails which I found really disappointing, but it was a good learning experience for us both.

Cross country walked well, it was straightforward and we had jumped all but two of the fences during our schoolings. He warmed up very well and I made sure he was in front of my leg as we approached each fence so all I had to do was guide and support him.  He was nervous leaving the box and jumped the first few fences with gusto and was eating up the ground at a much faster pace than the 350mpm assigned for the optimum time. He settled nicely by fence 6 and was jumping beautifully out of stride in a light uphill contact, I was thrilled with him!  Unfortunately as I approached fence 15 I over heard the announcer say that I had missed fence 13! I couldn't believe it. I've never done that in my life. Phinn finished beautifully and I couldn't have asked for a better first novice cross country round for him, but we were unfortunately eliminated. 

So with our first Novice event under our belts, I know where we stand in our training and have a set of small goals for us this spring.  At the moment Phinn's spookiness is creating tension and inattentiveness and I want to be able to work him through that.  I believe that he will likely always be spooky and suspicious of new surroundings but I think he will gain nothing but more confidence as I am able to expose him to new places and he gets several more shows under his belt.  I want to be able to achieve softness and supple engagement in our dressage tests. I want to have clean stadium rounds with a forward thinking ride. And I'd love to have more cross country rounds like we just had at Galway, with better piloting of course and a newly required mental counting of all our fences to make sure we jump them all!

We had a great lesson with Hawley the week after the show, working on poles (no one can ever work on poles enough!) and it was a great reminder of the deceptive simplicity of pole based exercises. We were also lucky enough to work on the same exercise she had worked on earlier during the Canadian team training session - several fences set in a circular fashion so that you could jump in, canter 5-6 strides and jump out, or circle inside the fences and then jump any one of the fences out. It was a great exercise to keep the both the horses and riders thinking, and using the circles to keep emphasizing the quality of the canter rather than getting sucked into focusing on just jumping the jumps.

We headed to the SCEC Hunter Jumper show this weekend to jump in the grass jumper ring and give Phinn a chance to get more exposure to the show environment. It was a great experience for us both and I'm really glad we did it. We did 2 classes which let us jump just enough fences that Phinn started to settle in and accept my request to move forward into a contact and stay in front of my leg with a normal size stride rather than his itty bitty "I'm spooking, I don't want to go forward" stride. I'm pleased to say that all our rails stayed up and even more importantly I achieved my goal of having a ridable horse in the show jumping ring!

We're entered at Twin Rivers at the end of the month and I'm excited the spring season has started!

]]><![CDATA[January 2011 Part 1]]>Mon, 17 Jan 2011 09:48:36 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2011/01/january-2011-part-1.htmlPicture
Buck Davidson Clinic, Kingsway Farm, Temecula CA
  With the busy holiday schedule behind us, we've continued our theme of doing lots of prep for the start of the show season. We had lots of rain again in the early part of January and I was feeling a little behind in my work. It rained so much that for a few days we couldn't get out at all, even the hills were too wet to walk on.  But things have dried out now and the footing in the arenas is perfect, the jumps are back out and we're back on a regular work schedule.

I was able to jump a few times at our barn, working on the basics to get back in the swing of things and we have ramped up our dressage lessons with Robin, working a lot on our half halts and suppleness with lots of leg yielding and shoulder in through out every movement, a few steps here, a few steps there to make sure I can touch Phinn at any time and ask him to move his shoulders, or his haunches and get a good response. 

We're entered at Galway's Winter Horse Trial and on Hawley's advice have entered at Novice.  So we've been practicing the Novice dressage test, taking it apart and working on the little elements within the test and improving on weak points. Robin is a master at problem solving and has been helping me understand when to apply the tools we've been working on over the winter to maintain rhythm and suppleness throughout the test.  Working with Robin has really helped me learn to slow down in my dressage and think through each step and to really not be afraid to move a horse in subtle ways, such as slight haunches in as we enter a corner to confirm a half halt, slight leg yield in a diagonal to maintain suppleness, slight shoulder fore positioning in a canter to trot downward transition to help with balance. 

 We also had an opportunity to ride in a Buck Davidson Clinic at Kingsway Farm in Temecula, CA.  It was a great two days of jumping work in near perfect weather.  Both days we worked on lots of grids and lots of turns.  The grids really challenged the Phinn to keep his feet moving and to adapt to changing distances while still thinking forward.  For me, I worked on my position, I get too upright in my upper body sometimes and end up chasing the motion, so we worked on sitting more on my inner thigh and getting closer to the saddle so I could be quieter with my upper body, though its still a work in progress. Watching the video I noticed my reins were a little long too so I'll have to work on that as well. We also worked on keeping a good pace and balance in our canter, and riding Phinn's ears up to the fences so his hind end stays up underneath him, and riding across our fences, keeping my leg on all the way over a fence to support Phinn. The combinations and turns were tricky and I was really proud of how Phinn handled everything and I left feeling a lot more confident about the start of the show season.

We have a full schedule the rest of January with cross country schoolings, the Galway Ian Stark Clinic, the one day at 3 Day Ranch, and more dressage lessons!

]]><![CDATA[Grids and Schoolings]]>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:31:28 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2010/12/grids-and-schoolings.htmlPicture
We're just a few weeks away from the first event of the season and so we've started ramping up our lessons and our jump schools. Our arena dried out and the fences were brought back in so we took advantage of the time between storms to get some training in. I work with a fellow eventer who lives nearby when we don't trailer out for lessons we trade off moving, raising, and replacing poles for each other.  She rides intermediate and it helps to have someone who is used to seeing the poles a few holes up from Novice helping you on the ground. Phinn is quite tidy with his front end but we want him to learn to be comfortable from a deep spot and use his back and our gymnastic work is really paying off. It also helps me remenber to leave him alone and ride him into a soft contact, but not baby sit too much, which I am prone to do. 
We are looking forward to some serious training opportunities in January.  Buck Davidson is coming to Kingsway Farm, followed by the Ian Stark Fundraiser Clinic at Galway Downs, and a one day at 3 Day Ranch, all leading up to Galway's Horse Trial the first weekend of February. I'm excited to get the season started!

]]><![CDATA[December 2010]]>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:10:34 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2010/12/december-2010.html  Early December presented some great learning opportunities. I was invited to ride in a lesson with WEG silver medalist Hawley Awad, and then a few days later a cross country schooling as well!  In our first lesson we worked on straightness and riding our corners correctly to keep the hind end squarely centered underneath our horses to allow them to push evenly for a powerful confident jump.  Hawley was quite impressed with Phinn and I was thrilled with the learning experience. We were invited to ride in the Buck Davidson clinic scheduled for mid-January, another great learning opportunity I am looking forward to!

Our cross country school was a few days later and Phinn was great, a little green and cautious at first, but then he really got into the swing of things, and Hawley said she felt pretty strongly that he would be ready for Novice at Galway's first event of the season, the first weekend in February, pointing out that there would be several schooling opportunities between now and then with her and other trainers.  Phinn jumped so well that I had to agree with her, so now we're aimed at Novice for our first event of the season, in 7 short weeks!

Hawley said our goal for the year should be the training three day at Galway's November event. I was tickled with her implied compliment, but we'll see how Phinn does and he'll let us know when he's ready t o move up. He's still  little spooky and cautious, and its imperative to me that he maintains his confidence, so we'll see how the spring goes, I tend to be a little cautious with him, but November is a long way off from now. 

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Link to youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psQNKxy7Y84
]]><![CDATA[November 2010 - Rain and hill work.]]>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:07:13 -0800http://www.thomaseventing.com/1/post/2010/12/november-2010-rain-and-hill-work.html  November presented some challenges with weather. It seemed we didn't ride in an arena the entire month.  Our barn managers are very good at preparing the rings for rain, but we still have to wait a few days for them to dry out and every time the rings were just about ready to ride in again it seemed like it rained again. So I took the conditioning information I learned at the Jimmy Wofford clinic and spent most of November walking the hills in the back of Harmony Grove and doing trot and canter sets at regular intervals as weather would allow.  We're really lucky that we ride at a property where we have hills and land to hack on!

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