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

Perception vs reality

What people think dressage is

Funny because it is true.

not that I drink

That is what Rob does after seeing the bills to pay for what I do.

Which is care and feed obnoxious and gibbled equines while asking him to buy yet another....

Happy Valentines Day!

Rob surprised me with lovely flowers for my newly redecorated office. Now to make sure I remember to water them.

The horses would appreciate carrots as a token of your love for them...

I am still not sure what I am going to build for a jumps today, but it will be something that won't get in the way of schooling the training level 1 and 2 tests, and that won't encourage rushy horses...maybe we will do the long line where you try to alter how many strides you get, or transition in the middle?

I guess it will be a surprise.

Karen

This week in lessons

This week in lessons we are going to be working on the elements required for training level tests 1 and 2, so things like getting straight to "X", 20 meter circles at "E" and "B", stretch circles at trot, and changes across the diagonal. We will also work on knowing how and when to rebalance and correct the horse during a test. So often rider's go into the show ring and forget to actually ride ;)

For jumping, we are going to go back to single jumps and basic exercises. The paddocks are back to being icy, so the horses are back to being fresh, and courses seem to be a little too much for some of them to hold it together! More details on that to come.

The sign up for the Shelley clinic will be posted in the barn today as well; let me know if you want to join!

Karen

Crazy horse people with too much money...

http://www.slice.ca/watch/

But it's the show "Party Mamas" Season 4, Episode 55 "Shelley".

Insane mother...spoiled 9 year old.