Vaccinations

I have the vet (Kim) coming out March 30 to do vaccinations and anything else that is needed. I would like to have a list for the clinic by the 15th if possible so they know how much time to book and how many vaccines we need.

Required: Eastern and Western Encephalomyelitis, as well as Tetanus are required to be vaccinated for annually for all Hillside boarded horses.

Strongly recommended: Equine Influenza and Equine Herpes Virus (Rhino). This vaccine will help keep your horse from getting AS sick with the flu goes around, and will help protect your horse from getting the fatal neurological version of EHV that was a big issue last year (and still is present).

Recommended for Show horses: Strangles. This is one the vet HAS to give, and it goes up their nose. They do not like this. Strangles has been present at a few barns in the area and is persistent. It results in a VERY sick horse, and can be deadly, in particular if the horse has a compromised immune system. It is not recommended if the horse has had Strangles in the last 4 years, so if you are unsure of your horse's history, it is not recommended. If the horse has not been vaccinated for Strangles previously, they will need a booster a few weeks later. They can sometimes get a slightly snotty nose and cough from this vaccine.

Optional: West Nile Virus: If your horse has previously been vaccinated for WNV, then I recommend continuing with the vaccine. WNV does kill or leave mental deficits (although not sure how you would tell with some of our horses....), although it hasn't had a high incident rate in Alberta.

If you wish to purchase your own vaccines from either the vet or another source, that is acceptable, but you must let me know when you are vaccinating so I can watch for signs of an adverse reaction. I do recommend having the vet do it, as with some vaccines if the horse reacts after a vet has given the vaccination, they will cover follow up vet costs.

If you want anything else done at this time, please let me know as well.

If anyone is available to help out on March 30 with catching the horses, that would be great too!

Karen

May 12 and 13th

I have Shelley booked to come out for a spring dressage clinic on May 12th and 13th. Sign up poster in the barn, or email me for more information.

I am also working on our show schedule for this season. We are thinking of trying the Maple Leaf Meadows show series this year; they have dressage on Saturdays, and hunter/jumpers on Sundays, so something for everyone. I have also heard it is a very nice facility. The one downside is that the show is NOT ran with Equine Canada, so they can't use the Equine Canada dressage tests, and instead use CADORA tests, so something new to memorize.

I also need to make plans if we are going to run Ride for Red again this year. This year I will need to be more organized and have some help to organize, build/repaint jumps and approach sponsors before the show, as well as help out at the show, so keep that in mind if you are interested!

Karen

This week in lessons

This week in lessons we are going to be working on being a little quicker to get things done, so that means transitions in rapid succession like we have done in the past (transitions at each letter), but we are also going to throw in lateral work, turns and other exercises to get you guys really riding and keeping the horses focused as they once again are dealing with icy and muddy paddocks.

The jump course we do this week is also going to involve transitions and quick thinking.

To help you be able to ride your horse more effectively so it doesn't take so long to reorganize and get the horse's attention, we are going to be working on maintaining a more consistent contact with the horse. This means shorter reins, and more effective and active legs.

It is important to remember that effective can mean different things on different horses. For a horse that likes to tune out its rider and get rushy you may have to be more active, whereas on a sensitive horse, it is more effective to be passive.

Passive doesn't mean zero contact though, passive means being in neutral. So not a loose rein, but rather a rein/arm/hand that follows. For leg, it means a leg that lies softly on the horse's sides.

Having light/passive contact is comforting for the horse, kind of like resting your hand on someone's leg if they are nervous (someone you know...resting your hand on a complete stranger's leg is likely to make them MORE nervous). For the horse it helps because they know where your legs and hands are, and aren't worrying about getting jabbed or yanked. Think about it, if your rest your hand on your thigh and maintain that connection, you can increase or decrease the pressure, but you can't really do anything abrupt or harsh. In order to do anything harsh like slap yourself, you have to take your hand/contact OFF. This is the same with riding; being able to follow the horse with your hands and maintaining a pleasant connection is softer than the loose rein and occasional jab, same with leg.

Karen

This week in lessons

This week in lessons:

- We are going to be focusing on hands; keeping the thumb on top, straight line elbow/wrist/bit, and keeping the reins short and riding into contact. I am going to research some good self check exercises for these as I need help with it too, but it is so hard to catch yourself letting your hand get flat for example.

Shorter reins means we are also going to have to work on riding with more leg so that the horses compress from back to front, rather than just getting pulled onto the forehand.

- In jumping, we are going to be riding some in and outs (one strides) as part of a course rather than as a grid as we did the last couple weeks.

We are also going to have a small end jump set up. End jumps help encourage riders to really balance their horse back and get them deep into the corner so that they can prepare and set up for the end jump. This may also help some horses get their lead changes...something I want to start working on as well.

Karen

Coregel and the clinic

Rob very kindly came out and took pictures of Coregel and I on both days of the clinic. He also less kindly took some hat hair pictures of Laureen, but I am opting to not post those...

Apparently our good camera can take ok pictures in the indoor!

Coregel has come a long ways from the clinic in January were we didn't even dare try cantering!

Shelley has so much depth of experience having worked and trained in Europe that she has so much better of an idea of how and when to start pushing a young horse.

I had been working Coregel more or less like a little hunter, with the long and flat neck that comes natural to her, and just working on simple things like leg yield and big 20 meter circles. Shelley upped the demands on me and Coregel and we worked on:

- 15 meter circles at the sitting trot. (we did a fair bit of sitting trot...something i had not done much with her...she was very confused to feel my bum in the saddle at first, and I definitely need to work on my core, as she is nowhere as smooth as Lily or Jezz!

- Riding with a much shorter rein so that she has to come up and round a little more.

- Canter trot transitions, only letting her canter a few strides at a time...this was hard as I tend to let her canter forward to get her balance, so having to come back to trot so soon really made us work on being balanced right at the start of the canter.

- A little lengthened trot...although this got her a tad too excited!

- Some stretch trot....keeping contact with a low and wide hand.

- Trot walk trot, and trot halt trot transitions, trying to keep her round and balanced in the transition.

- Some shoulder in.

I also have to really work on:

- Not letting my left hand get flat

- Keeping my upper body back...I tend to revert to hunter mode!

- Strengthening my core so I can sit her inconsistent baby trot.

- Keeping my reins sort, but still keeping the contact soft.

Planning to have Shelley back at the beginning of May, so keep that in mind!

Karen

Bonding over matching blankets...

Cute pictures from yesterday; two obnoxious geldings playing tug of war with a ball over the fence. Jetta was not impressed she could not join in!

Its the end of the Month

It is February 29th which means that board is due! Yippy!

It is also Laureen's 11th Birthday...happy birthday Laureen!

I am deworming the horses this week too...so let me know if you DON'T want your horse dewormed. The cost will be $10 which you can either pay with this board bill or the next.

Clinic times are posted in the barn. For people NOT in the clinic but who want to ride, the arena will be available after 6 on Saturday, and likely by 3:30 or so on Sunday (I don't remember the exact times).

There is still room for a Semi-private or Private on Saturday, and for a private on Sunday if anyone is interested.

If anyone wants to brings snacks for the weekend they will be appreciated!

karen

Am I the only one who felt like singing Christmas Carols this weekend?


The snow looks so lovely and the horses are able to play in the paddocks without the ice and mud being an issue! Rob and I took the puppies for a walk out back, and it is nice to see the hay fields covered in a thick blanket of snow.



Of course I don't have to drive anywhere in this...but at least it happened on a weekend right?



The weather looks like it should be decent this week; perhaps more seasonal than we are used to, but not bad during the day.



The Shelley clinic is next weekend, and there are still a couple spots if you want to ride in it...or pay for me to ride your horse in it ;)



This week in lessons:




For jumping we are going to do a grid again. I think the grid last week was good at giving some of the greener horses some confidence and letting them jump the jumps on their own a bit. For more advanced riders on more seasoned horses...we will make it more exciting, don't worry! Oh, and if you want me to video you through the grid, just bring your video camera out and remind me, and I can do that too!



For dressage/flat, we are going to be doing more leg yields. I found an exercise I really like that helps to correct the tendency to let the horse's lead the leg yield with their shoulders, and it sets the rider up for the aids required much better than using the quarter-line; we are going to leg yield off the diagonal! It is easy to do, but perhaps hard to conceptualize, so I drew a diagram:

In this example, you would be coming to the right (counter clockwise) and turning as though you are going across the diagonal (grey line). Once on the diagonal line, ask for the new bend (right in this example), but keep your old posting diagonal, and keep your right leg back. Then look slightly more to the left, and push your horse laterally while maintaining the angle more or less true to the original line.


I like this method, as there is less preparation needed to set your aids up for the leg yeild, and I think it helps the rider think more about the entire horse moving sideways as the hind quarters seem to have further to go; if you let the shoulders lead too much you will end up perpendicular to the wall!

So we will see how that goes.

We will also do some work on lengthening the stride at trot, remembering the lengthening doesn't mean faster, it means LONGER, so the entire horse's spine needs to stretch out; the stride needs to have more reach, and so does the horse's neck. Many times rider's ask nicely to start, but then let the horse fall on its front end part way through the lengthening; you may need to re balance every few strides to encourage the horse to keep pushing from behind, and you also need to keep an active inside leg and rein to keep the horse from leaning and rushing on its forehand.

Karen

Snow!

Finally some more snow! The horses are happy as am I; they are running and playing without fear of slipping, and I am enjoying how much brighter and cleaner it looks outside.

Hopefully this means the horses will be less nutty this week too...

Good timing too with today being a holiday for most, so less traffic.

Not sure what we will do this week in lessons, but perhaps work on the elements of training level test 3, which really is just the "loop" out of the corner to X and then back again.

Karen