Until Further Notice

The title of this post sounds rather grim, when really I'm feeling anything but :) I had a GREAT lesson today on the lunge line, and holy mother of God am I sore. I'm not talking any easy ol' lunge lesson, I'm talking 50 minutes of nearly constant WTC work in the dressage saddle, sans stirrups. The title of my post of course refers to my recent decision to take the stirrups off of my dressage saddle indefinitely. To kick off this time of torture, I texted G a few days ago and her actual response was, "sure, I'll torture you." Not only was today the warmest day we've had this year, but the weather has been so crazy that it went from low 30s early last week to 85 today... not enough time for my body to adjust and Limerick used it as an excuse to be lazier than usual!

However, the warm weather makes me soooooo happy. Limerick is now shedding his wooly mammoth coat, it's warm enough to hose him off after a ride if necessary, and I can now ride until 8:00 if I feel like it :) I don't have much else to update other than we have another lesson on Saturday with S! I've been riding consistently and had a great conditioning ride on Monday, involving an hour or so of work out in the expansive fields behind the barn. Limerick was once again lazy, but we cantered and cantered and cantered around the uneven terrain, which allowed me to practice slightly leaning back as we went downhill, something that used to terrify me. I'll update after my lesson and will hopefully have some videos or pictures to share, as my parents and sister are coming to visit/watch!

Here are the videos from today (if you only have time to watch one, watch the last one... you'll see why):

Pefection, Part II

IT'S HERE!!! My dressage saddle finally came in today and it's awesome :) It seems to fit Limerick well and is very comfy. I didn't get to have an extensive ride in it because I had a jump lesson beforehand, but I think it might just work for us! Here are some pictures of it on Limerick's back, please let me know what you think: 

Like I said, I also had a jump lesson with S at Gail's farm. I didn't know what to expect going in because last time we lessoned there, Limerick was crazy. That was in our reindeer phase where his back was really bothering him, but I had yet to figure out what the heck was going on. Needless to say, he was 100x better today and quite the gentleman :) We started out with a warm-up of a small cross rail, which was quickly moved up to a 2-ish foot vertical, which we trotted back and forth over. He was good, so we upped the ante and slowly increased to a full-blown course. 

He was awesome, even with little kids screaming at the neighbor's house and dogs running around. Combine that with G's rather ghetto jumps, and he was practically a saint. No refusals or run outs, the worst he did was bring back the reindeer move, which I got hilarious video of this time!! If you watch nothing else, please at least watch Limerick's sweet reindeer skillz, they are too funny. He whipped them out for a rather innocuous little white vertical, which just so happened to have a horse eating flower box underneath, clearly worthy of clearing by three extra feet (he easily jumped the height of the standards). Today was my first time riding and experiencing the reindeer for myself, and I actually laughed out loud at how it feels... 

Well, at least we know the boy can jump... 

LOL

Other than that absurdity, the lesson was luckily uneventful. He did do some serious peaking at some of the other scarier jumps (black barrels, green gate, blue vertical), but he was never dirty and jumped everything, even with some less than decisive riding on my part. What a good guy!!

The video:

And some more screenshots: 

SO CUTEEEEE

Rock Star Status

The title of this post obviously refers to Limerick, who was beyond fantabulous today! I'm not gonna lie, the last time we went XC schooling, he flipped his shit when other horses got to jump before him, proceeded to refuse a starter coop with my trainer onboard, and kind of made me question whether or not I'd ever be able to handle him (this was in August, maybe 3 weeks after I got him). As you can imagine, I was nervous and went in expecting the worst, which is why I was so pleasantly surprised when everything WAY surpassed my expectations :)

We started out watching Collyn and Frankie go around the training/prelim course for at least an hour, calmly standing and filming them the whole time and taking a minute to splash in the water. Let me just say that C+F are total badasses and I want to be them someday! Limerick started out ok, though a little bit nervous and insecure when Frankie wasn't in sight, but he calmed down as soon as we turned to watch them go or walked around a little bit to get out his jitters.

Then, Limerick and Frankie trotted/raced back to the starter course, and it was our turn to have fun :) S started the lesson by having us hack around the field, doing some trot and canter work. We had to canter downhill, which made me more nervous than anything else we did, but is SO much easier when I just lean back! We moved on to jumping one starter fence at a time, slowly moving around the field and occasionally jumping the middle fence. We jumped a little log, to a brown coop, to a white coop, to a black coop, to a stone wall, to a little wood jump with three poles, to barrels, to tires! I think I got all of those in the right order...

None of them presented any real problems, though some of them elicited bigger jumps from Limerick than others. There were also a few that he tried to get his head down afterwards, and I don't really know what that was about, but I'll chalk it up to a little bit of back soreness. He's getting adjusted on either Monday or Wednesday of this week, so YAY for that! I also got to use my new cooler today, and I highly recommend it! It's a weatherbeeta and actually does what it's supposed to do, as in doesn't make Limmers sweat more!

The day could not have gone better and was such a good first experience for Limerick and me :) He got a whole bucket of Nicker Doodles and lots of love, as well as some liniment on his legs and turn out when we got home. I can't wait to go schooling again and can't thank S, E, G, and Collyn enough!

Here's the video: (sorry it's mostly unedited, I suck at iMovie..)

Some pictures:

The cooler! Kind of weird, but super effective and the first one I've ever used that doesn't cause him to get hotter

Gorgeous ending to a gorgeous and perfect day :) 

Impromptu lesson with Gail!/Lesson with S/HOME for the holidays :)

I decided to make this all one big post because I waited too long and don't remember all of the details about my lessons. So,

For a couple of weeks now, since we had the chiropractor problem that we originally thought was a behavioral issue, a local rider named Gail has been riding Limerick once a week. Her rides are a training ride of sorts and remind him of his job/improve his responsiveness. I have to say, other than the minor issue with the spurs, he has been fabulous since she came into our lives! I'm starting to get my confidence back (in both myself and him) from all of the negative things that were said about our suitability for each other, and this week has been full of great rides. He has been consistently responsive, willing, happy about life, and we seem to just be in sync with each other.

CVF girls :)

Our lesson was just on the flat, as I was scheduled to have a jumping lesson with S the next day. She asked me to start out by taking my feet out of the stirrups and letting my legs hang long, all while asking Limerick to walk on just with my calves, which was so hard. If I did it a certain way, I would get awful thigh cramps, which were not fun at all! I apparently rely on my heels too much to ask him to go forward... I also learned that I don't have nearly enough calf muscle. Then, G asked me to rotate my entire leg from my hip in big circles, all while maintaining my balance in the saddle and not using my hands to stay up- also hard, mostly because she made me do both legs at once!

Then, I got my stirrups back and started to work on circles of various sizes, getting Limerick to listen to me and figuring out how to prevent him from pulling me forward. I knew that I had been leaning forward a lot lately to try to keep him round, but sitting back helped a lot more and I didn't feel like I was going to topple over the whole time... shocking, I know. In fact, I think I actually got him on the bit and kept him there more than I ever had before (as in for the longest period of time on consistent contact). It was an awesome feeling and she cleared up a lot of things that I was unsure about. For example, if Limerick resists the contact and I get a little bit rough with him, therefore pissing him off... I never knew who was right in that situation, but Gail would say "you're right, he's wrong," which gave me confidence in my judgment and my abilities.

We worked a lot at the trot and canter. Trot mostly involved poles set up in a circle, which was fun and challenging. G made me first aim for the outside stripe, then the middle, and then the innermost stripe, testing my ability to be accurate/steer. Can I just say that we owned this exercise :) Then we moved to the canter, once again doing circles of various sizes and reminding me to sit up/back.

The next day, I had a lesson with S, which you've already seen pictures of. She was running late and it was starting to get dark, so we did quick WTC flat work and then moved on to the jumping. Lims was awesome, responsive, and overall really good! He had some funny moments in the corner of the ring... S's dog was yapping its little head off at the cows in the bordering field, but other than that he was great :) The pictures pretty much say it all, so I would refer back to the following post. I also mentioned last time that the gate that we jumped was two feet three inches, and I didn't get scared at all!!!!! I know, that's a relatively small jump, but it was the highest I've jumped in a very long time, so I'm proud :)

As the title mentioned, my finals and assignments are finished and I'm now home for Christmas! Limmers is all settled in at my home barn and I have my first lesson back tomorrow with my home trainer, E. I promise I'll update with actual coherent details this time, as well as maybe with some pictures or videos. This also means that I now get to ride with Hillary and Houston every single day, which is maybe the best part about coming home for so long!!

                           

SO Many Pictures!!! (and lots to tell, but that'll have to wait)

I would love to do a full update now about the two lessons in two days that I've had, but I have a term paper hanging over my head. I was supposed to work on it today and instead decided to spend 5 hours at the farm... BAD KATHERINE! Therefore, the rest of this update will have to wait until tomorrow, but as the title suggests, I have a gazillion new and awesome pictures. I spent so much time at the barn because my B.O. wanted to take pictures of us with our horses... she is so sweet and wonderful :) Then Kimmie and I kind of messed around setting jumps, and then came the lessons. I jumped the highest that I've ever jumped (at least intentionally...) and Limmers was fab! The whole lesson was great and S keeps telling me how happy she is that things are finally starting to go right for us, which is so good to hear.

More to come, but here are the pictures!

Kimmie and Jazz looking perfect as always! 

Liz

Kimmie and Jazz over Liz's ghetto jump

The most round I've ever gotten him at the canter :)

Cool action shot, even if I don't appreciate my heel being even with my toe...

My favorite of the day :) Cute festive jump! 

My leg is too far back, but this is the biggest jump I've ever (intentionally) jumped! S said 2' 3"
The best part was that I didn't even think twice about it or get scared :)

The sunset after my lesson

decidedly not feeling the spirit of Christmas... my horse is a grinch! 

It's ok, he actually loves his life and is trying to hide his enthusiasm for the santa hat

My horse might actually be a reindeer... he certainly knows how to jump like one! 

Boyfriends 

Lims and Jazzers

Limmers wishes you all a happy holiday/merry christmas! 

I am in love with this picture of us... new favorite of all time! 

M.I.A.

Sorry for neglecting the blog lately, my life has been crazy with school and coming back from break, etc. Next week is finals week, meaning this week is that fabulous time when professors throw last minute assignments at you and make term papers/projects due. I've actually been very productive since Sunday, powering through a bio quiz, a 22 page Holocaust journal, a 6 page bio paper and a group project. I'm almost there and finals week will actually be less stressful for me because I only have one real cumulative exam. I'll be home for break a week from tomorrow :) Which also means that starting next Thursday, I'll get to ride at my home barn with Hillary and Huey EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! Collyn kindly offered to haul the Limmers and I'll drive my car with all of that unnecessary human stuff... I can't wait!

The day I got him :) You can really tell how big he is here...

Immediately after this, he got tired of posing and threw his head up, out of my reach... he can only handle so much cuddling

Because of this awesome and unusual productivity level, I've been out to see the pony and ride twice this week. Yesterday, he started out extremely stiff and I was concerned that he might be lame. Kimmie watched us trot around and agreed that he was short in his hind left... to me it felt like he was only willing to take baby steps with it and wasn't reaching forward. My B.O. aptly described it as a "flat tire," which is exactly what it felt like. She and Kimmie both thought I should keep working, and he did work out of it a little bit, but something still felt a little funny. We didn't do anything stressful, just trotted around in fun patterns and cantered a little bit over some poles. I figured I'd leave him be and see how he was today. 

Today, he was much more willing to reach forward with that leg :) I could still feel the slightest limp, but that was mostly because I was looking for it and being overly sensitive. The ride started out really frustrating though. Since G started riding him on a regular basis, he has become really pissy about my spurs. I've noticed that G keeps her spurs on/in his side the entire time she's riding, which to the best of my knowledge is improper use. However, S acted like that's how she should be doing it and thought he was reacting negatively to me intermittently tapping him with mine. I always thought that keeping a spur on a horse's side the entire ride would make them dead to leg aids... is that not true?

Regardless, he was not listening to my leg at all today and would swish his tail/pin his ears every time I nudged him with my spur, so I took them off and grabbed a crop. What a difference that made! I got the best, most forward walk I've had from him in a long time, he actually listened to me, and for some reason he was much more willing to go on the bit, come round, and actually carry himself. Coincidence? I didn't think so, and Kimmie said that he looked awesome and super relaxed. He also did not listen at all when I asked him for the canter transition, with or without spurs. The crop made a world of difference and allowed me to give him subtle (or not so subtle, if necessary) reminders to listen to me and pay attention. I think he learned a little bit of a lesson and that yes, I did want him to canter and keep cantering, not break to the trot the second I took my leg off or got distracted. After using it the first couple of times, just carrying it with me was enough of a reminder for him. The difference was incredible and I've decided that I'll be using a crop instead of spurs, at least for now.

One of my favorite pictures of us (even though he looks like he hates me)

Love this picture that Collyn took of us during a lesson with S! We both look so happy :)

From this summer. Hillary and I died laughing because of how freakishly small this fly bonnet was! Poor guy was embarrassed that we made him a public spectacle   

A normal fly bonnet