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!