2012 in Review

I didn't do this last year because 2011 had been a tumultouos year and I didn't really feel like re-hashing it. In January 2011 I had just had my heart horse taken away by a vindictive horse rescue owner (if you want to read about it, go to My Equestrian Journey), and found myself adopting a very green and beautiful warmblood cross to take his place. Rhythm's terrible issues with bolting and spooking turned out to be the result of some sort of neurological disease that we could not afford to have worked up at the time for 3 different reasons: I had a broken toe as a result of him falling on me, which had made me miss work and my hours had been cut once I was able return, plus I had no health insurance at the time and had had to pay all of the expenses out of pocket; getting Rhythm worked up was horrifically expensive in South FL, and even if I had been able to come up with the money, the accident had finally shattered my confidence to the point where for the first time ever, I couldn't see myself ever getting on a specific horse again-I was too terrified of him, especially now that I understood why his issues had not responded to training: he couldn't help it. He was spooking on days when he felt vulnerable due to his disease. And Charles and I just weren't willing to go into another huge debt for a horse that I had no intention of ever riding again. The stars aligned for Rhythm and us: my vet happened to have a client who needed a companion horse for her elderly gelding, and so Rhythm quickly found a home. And that is how Lily came into my life-the rest I wrote about here when I had time. I had been very unhappy and felt extremely unfulfilled at my previous job, and so my professional life found me taking a position as an emergency and critical care veterinary technician at a start-up emergency and referral practice. Despite being relatively new to the profession and one of the least experienced techs there (4 years of experience at the time, 3 of those in referral practice) I quickly became one of the lead technicians there. My confidence in my skills grew, and I finally started to feel and see the potential that others saw in me. We were struggling financially, however, and other than work and the barn, Charles and I weren't really doing much else with our lives.

In contrast, 2012 was an epic year for us.

January
My mare became a little spitfire with the cooler weather, a side of her that had been unknown to me before. She bolted on me for the first time ever that month.

Judy and I went to Homestead with Sarah to try out Paso Finos and Trote-Galope horses and had an absolute blast while doing so. This post is still one of my greatest hits-I think most of the views my blog has had have been due to that post!

It finally dawned on me that maybe part of Lily's issues with inverting were due to poor saddle fit, and I started looking into the Ludomar Spanish saddles. In the meantime, I tried out Judy's Wintec Pro Dressage, and discovered a consistently and completely different mare-one that was a lot more willing to give me her back! In trying to get her to settle, I discovered how to get Lily working long and low for me for the first time since she became mine.

February
All of us from the barn went to Tree Tops park with 2 trailers and 4 horses, and we had a lot of fun. It was our first outing since Judy had taken over the barn, and it would be our last with this group due to barn drama that would eventually ensue. At this time, though, it was unimaginable in our future: Elisabeth and her hsuband, Judy, Dianne, Mark, Ines, Sarah, Charles and I had a really great time on an unseasonably warm day.

Lily acted somewhat frisky and herdbound, but she proved to be an awesome trail horse in a completely new environment, and gave me some more of this:

I thought Lily and I were doing great for the most part-we had gone to working correctly maybe 15% of the time to more like 50% of the time. However, during one workout where I was having a hard time getting Lily to start coming onto the bit during the warm-up, Judy decided to get on her and try to figure out what the problem was. Lily did not like all of that contact and threw Judy, which resulted in my trainer's torquing her knee. She was out of commission for almost 2 months, and during that time I worked with Rose, her Azteca, to keep her on the rehab program ordered by the vet after a strained suspensory. Each ride on Rose was supposed to be compensated with a lesson with Judy.

March
Judy and I went to watch the dressage and jumper shows at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, and I became melancholy watching all of the professional riders. I mentioned my old dream of riding at the Olympic level, and Judy started feeding that dream-she said it was something I could most certainly still do if I wished to. I honestly didn't think so, not for lack of talent, but for lack of money. However, I allowed myself to listen to her. Lily and I were going through a particularly rough patch, and after one major freakout from her and an optimally timed ad for a gorgeous Donnerhall grandson colt, I put Lily up for sale and went horse shopping. The Donnerhall colt sold within 24 hours of me going to look at him, and 2 girls came to try out Lily: one was a total failure and almost got thrown, the other did fantastically well on her. The second girl happened to have a Selle Francais gelding for sale, and we discussed trading horses if her gelding worked out for me. Other than being a fancy breed, this gelding didn't have much going for him and at most would have been a resale project. We did not click-there was no chemistry, and after coming back home and riding Lily, I couldn't see myself living without her. That, and the fact that even trying to get recognized at the upper levels in dressage, whether at the Olympic levels or not, was a hugely expensive ordeal. Judy had an outrageous plan B, and she even offered to sell me Rose, but ultimately I am SO GLAD that I came to my senses. In the process started to reassess my goals with Lily: I would continue to explore dressage with her, but only up to the point where she would allow us to go. My competitive dreams slowly started to fade at this point-I realized that I did not need to compete to be happy with the horse I have.

Judy was trying to get certified as an ARIA trainer and needed a video of her giving a lesson to a student on a First Level horse. Lily proved she could do the movements, so Charles filmed the video. We discovered Lily leg-yielded a lot better to the right than to the left, so there were a lot of shots of her leg-yielding to the right.

Our first, and rather tense, leg yields

This ended up being a problem, as it became the focus of our lessons even after the video: instead of stepping back and working on getting her comfortable leg yielding in both directions at the walk before moving up to the trot, we did a lot of leg-yielding to the left at the trot in our lessons, which only succeeded in making her more and more resistant to this. I still don't understand what the point of rushing her was. It has taken almost a year to correct her intense resentment of leg yielding at the trot to the left, and she will still swish her tail in annoyance when asked. Around this time, I started to lose faith in Judy as a trainer, though she gave me many exercises that I would add to my training toolbox. March was also the first time I got a flying lead change out of Lily. :)

I didn't write about this, but that month Lucero, my Paso Fino back in Puerto Rico, became very sick, and Mark and I also had a really nasty argument about a really stupid issue, and both of us being knuckleheads, neither one of us admitted defeat, so we simply didn't talk to one another for almost 2 months. It was a really rocky time for me. There was also some drama beginning between Elisabeth and Judy, which started a war of passive aggression that created a very tense environment at the barn on the weekends when we were all there.

I didn't write about his either, but in March, one of the owners of El Sueno Espanol stopped by with some Ludomar saddles for Judy and I to try out on Lily and Rose, and I ordered my semi-custom Alta Escuela saddle.

April
It was such a busy month that I didn't even write in the blog! April was a huge breakthrough for Lily and me. We went to the Manuel Trigo clinic in Stuart. It started out as a negative experience, but resulted in this:

At the clinic, we experimented with a Spanish bit and discovered classical dressage, which Lily seemed to really like. This became key in her future training, and allowed us to explore a whole new realm of possibilities in dressage. Lily's body began to change by leaps and bounds.

May

May was a weird month. Judy started dating a guy that turned out to be toxic for her, and we watched her personality and priorities at the barn change. Maybe it wasn't the guy-maybe she was just showing her true colors. Either way, it seemed that May was the start of Judy's loss of interest in the barn, and the beginning of a lot more work for the rest of us. I did not write about this, as I had shared the link to the blog with her and I didn't know how faithful of a reader she was at the time.

Part of the reason why I wasn't writing as much was because I was exhausted even on my days off due to the added barn work. I stopped riding Rose at this time because Judy's health issues had resolved for the moment. Plus Judy owed me over $700 in lessons and artwork at this point, and I didn't want to keep adding to that bill. Of course, most of Judy's dates were now occurring on the weekends, so I stepped back and waited for her to let me know when she could schedule a lesson with me. I figured eventually things would fall into place with the boyfriend, and she'd have time again for lessons. This never happened. Part of it is my fault for not bringing it up like this or letting Judy know exactly how much she owed me in lessons, but up until that point, she had always been pretty good about keeping a mental tally about these things herself. I trusted her to have an idea-of those $700, $300 were from artwork she had commissioned from me. She did not keep track this time. I wouldn't discover this until it was too late.

In May, Judy evicted Elisabeth from the barn, and this temporarily resolved some of the tensions at the barn.

This was the time when Charles and I really started talking about leaving South FL. He began collecting information on travel nursing companies, and applying for jobs locally in the Orlando area.

Lily flourished. This was her at the end of May-no inversions in sight!:

                                      

                                     

June
My best friend Diana FINALLY moved from the horrible barn down the street to our barn, bringing Bali, her Percheron cross mare, with her. I can't begin to say what a big deal this was for me-I had been begging Diana to move for the last 2 years! It would be nice to have a friend around at the same times I was at the barn, and Diana needed to get out of the scary environment at her old barn. She had been talking about moving for the last 2 months, so Judy had been given a heads-up way in advance. Flooding rains in May finally prompted Diana to get out-all of the stalls on that property were flooding, and Bali had been standing day in and day out in 2" of mud.

Bali

However, Judy charged Diana for the 2-minute trailer ride down the street from her old barn, and this contributed to further friction between our barn manager and the rest of us (Diana is a nice person and had been planning to give Judy a hefty tip anyway just for the trouble of hooking up the trailer). Why a trailer ride to a barn so close? Diana had to pretend she was sending Bali to an off-site lease so she could safely remove her mare from the property, and we had asked Judy if she would be willing to help out. Diana had other people she could ask for a pretend trailer ride. However, Judy had said yes-it wasn't a problem. She would gain a boarder and another person to help out with chores around the barn. At the last minute the day she was going to pick up Bali, she decided that there were other things she'd rather be doing (going on a date with the new boyfriend, specifically), and decided to charge Diana for the inconvenience. I was not happy with this. Diana could have asked someone else if it was going to be a problem, but the day of the move was not the time to decide you have an issue with doing a favor. It was just so unprofessional all around. If she was going to charge for moving the trailer, it should have been discussed 2 weeks prior, when we first asked her about using her trailer to move Bali. This is what a professional would have done, and it would have been taken well. However, deciding to charge a fee at the last minute for something originally discussed as being done for free just seemed plain spiteful, especially to the new boarder moving in.

I also started doing a lot more groundwork with Lily, which made a huge difference in her work under saddle. Her skittishness during her heat cycles began to dissipate.


July
Mark and I finally made peace and started talking again. What a relief!

Bali had a nasty colic on July 4th, which was not handled well by Judy. Mark and Dianne discovered the mare dull and listless in her stall when they fed in the morning, and called Judy, who lived right across the street, to let her know what was going on. It took Judy over an hour to show up. Mark and Dianne left, assuming Judy would take care of Bali while waiting for Diana. Diana showed up to find Bali down in her stall...and Judy riding Rose in the arena! I was at work and could not help, but pretty much everything you should not do with a colicking horse was done with Bali. By the time I got out of work in the evening, Bali was still colicking-she was dehydrated and painful, because Judy had only given her half doses of my Banamine. Being a draft cross, she is stoic and the only one who could see how uncomfortable the mare was was Diana. I gave Bali a full dose of medication and stayed at the barn until 11:00 pm, when Bali finally seemed back to her normal self. Diana was not a happy camper-she still wonders if Judy was deliberately trying to hurt her mare. I was not impressed with our barn manager's ability (or lack thereof) to handle a boarder's horsey emergency.

On July 8, Lily and I celebrated our first anniversary together with a trail ride in the park, where we cantered on the trails for the first time.

Charles had an interview with a brand new hospital in Orlando, but they wanted him to start at the end of the month! Our townhouse lease wasn't up until November. We tried to figure out how we'd finagle this one, but as it turned out, we didn't have to: Charles didn't get the job. He had 3 other interviews with Florida hospitals between West Palm and Orlando and none of them panned out. I began feverishly looking for travel nursing jobs for him, trying to figure out a location where there would be an abundance of jobs so we could just relocate permanently while still allowing him to bounce around from one job to the next in the same area.

We celebrated my birthday in Wolf Lake with the horses, where Bali proved herself to be quite the seahorse, and Lily got used to being in the water again (we had taken her there the year before, but she didn't remember).

Bali having a blast splashing in the water!

"Mom, why you do this?"

Around this time, more tensions came up between Judy and me, and I had finally lost so much faith in her that I just decided to not even try to talk about it. At her boyfriend's recommendation, she decided she needed to move-they were going to move in together, however he was not offering to help her out financially with the deposits. She had offered to let me buy the Wintec Pro and pay it off in installments (this would have allowed me to still have a dressage saddle I could compete in), but I had just bought a very expensive semi-custom saddle and had had no money left over to even start paying for Judy's saddle. Out of the blue one day she asked me to pay for the saddle in full. I had just told her the day before how Charles and I were struggling financially, and I very literally freaked out. I told her I did not have the money and she could sell the saddle at our local tack store. What irritated me about this? I had ridden Rose for Judy for 2 months consistently for 3-4 times a week to keep her in work. We were supposed to exchange that work for lessons. As mentioned in May, when Judy started dating, she was going out on the weekends, so I had stopped asking for lessons, hoping that Judy would let me know when she was available. The $700 she owed me was twice the amount she wanted for the saddle, and I had been hoping that at some point we could discuss simply exchanging the saddle for the work I had put into Rose and the artwork I had done for Judy. Of course, the moment when Judy was asking for money was not the time to tell her exactly how much she owed me, so again the whole subject went undiscussed. The saddle was put up for sale at our local tack shop, and as far as I know, it's still there. Judy had to come up with the money for her new apartment on her own. 

I took a job as a relief technician on the weekends at an overnight emergency clinic to get additional money for our own move. I also stared doing extensive research on equine transport companies and getting quotes.  

In July I also had Lily's front shoes removed, to officially start our barefoot journey.

And my saddle finally, FINALLY arrived after a long, long wait! With the Alta Escuela, we started looking like this:

Judy broke up with her boyfriend, and she almost completely removed herself from the barn. We never knew when she would be in a good mood when she was there, and were often submitted to dirty looks and glares for no reason. I tried a few times to continue being her friend, but in the end I threw in the towel. I continued trying to be friendly with her because Judy had been very good to me, but the change in her was obvious and not for the better. 

August

Lily continued to progress without shoes, showing me how much better she moves without them. Diana and I went riding together in the park. We continued our ground work and progressed to work at liberty in the arena. 

I gave notice at my previous job and started working full time at the emergency clinic where I'd previously been doing only relief work-they paid a lot more, and we needed the extra money for the move. 

We had Tropical Storm Isaac. Judy also proved to not be the best at managing the barn during natural disasters, having Mark and Dianne do all of the storm preparations by themselves while she hid at home (Diana and I both had to work the days before and of the storm itself). This was the talk of the barn for a long time:

Right smack in front of Bali's walkout "to act as a windshield". Diana swore Judy really had something against her.

Which, if you know anything about hurricanes, can result in this:

After the storm, I noticed Lily resting her left hind a lot, and this marked the beginning of the struggle with her punctured frog. 

At the end of August, I ordered my own rasp and trimming equipment. At this time, my Paso Fino Lucero was euthanized-he had lost his long battle with heaves. 

September

This was the worst month of the year for me. I was still mourning over Lucero, when Shakti, my kitty whom I'd had from the time she was a kitten, started vomiting blood. She was also having diarrhea with blood. I'd known for a long time that she had cancer-she had been steadily losing weight for the last year, and she had a lot of muscle wasting around her head and back (cachexia, one of the big indicators of cancer). I suspected  intestinal lymphoma or carcinoma in her digestive tract. I had never had her properly worked up because she became a fiend at the vet's office to the point where she wouldn't even recognize me. Just sedating her was an ordeal-you couldn't restrain her, as it would make her more violent. I've seen the way cats are treated when they wig out at the veterinarian's office and hated the idea of having her go through that. And for what? I knew what was wrong, and I had no intention of putting her through chemo. So I just waited for her to let me know when it would be time. 

It was time exactly 10 days after Lucero's death. I made arrangements at work, and Charles brought her in. She died in her favorite place in his arms, peacefully. She had been a muscular 15 lb cat in her good days. She was down to a skeletal 5 lbs on her last day on earth. The vet was able to palpate an enormous mediastinal mass in her abdomen, confirming my diagnosis. I cried a lot the rest of September.

Charles started interviewing with travel nursing companies. We were trying for the Virginia Beach area, but all of the jobs were popping up in the DC metro area. We both applied for our Virginia licenses and got them.

Lily and I started trying more advanced lateral work, and I had a real barefoot trimmer come out to work on Lily's feet. 

October

This was such a hectic month that I only posted once. I pulled a wood splinter out of Lily's foot and had it radiographed: the images were clean. 

Charles was hired by the Georgetown University Hospital. We had to move up here by October 28th, so he could start to work on October 30th. I didn't have much time to ride after that, as we were in a flurry of activity to get everything packed and make arrangements for the move. Charles barely had enough time to get his DC RN license.

Lily had a battery of vaccines and one last trim with our FL trimmer. She shipped to her current barn in Maryland on October 21st.

We left South FL on October 27th, driving right in front of Frankenstorm Sandy all the way up the East coast with our one remaining kitty, Astarte. 

We made it safe, sound and dry, and even got to see Lily at our new barn before the storm hit. I thought she was slightly lame during our visit to the barn, but thought maybe I was being paranoid. The weather change was a big introduction to winter, and Charles got to see autumn for the first time in his life. 

We didn't even lose power during Sandy, though NY and NJ weren't so lucky. 2 days later, it was confirmed that Lily was indeed lame, and she had some extreme bruising in her right front hoof, probably from pawing in the trailer for 5 hours straight during a layover in Savannah on the trip North. We tried Cavallo boots on her and she had another week off, during which she recovered well. I started riding her in the boots. 

November

I started a new job at one of the biggest referral practices in this area. We rode on the trails with Tina for the first time, and Lily was introduced to ditches. In my attempts to do groundwork with her over a stream on the same trail, I had a very close call, during which Lily only stepped on my right foot instead of my body. I was alive, but my foot looked like this afterwards:

Despite having health insurance, I never had it looked at because I needed to continue to work-I preferred to not know and plod on, than to know for sure I was walking around on a fractured foot, or God forbid, be told I needed to rest it for 4 weeks-I needed to keep my new job. I knew it would heal better if I didn't know. I'm pretty sure it was fractured in at least 2 places, but I hobbled on thanks to ibuprofen, Vetrap and an old pair of wide, very broken-in sneakers. 

Riding seemed to make my foot feel better, so I continued to ride as often as possible. Lily was turned out in the big field with the other horses, and it was a nice non-event.

We met our farrier/trimmer and Lily got her Eponas on her front feet only. 

Back in Florida, Judy relinquished management of the barn to Dianne, and moved Rose to a full board facility with a bad reputation in the area. Of course she barely gave 2 weeks notice to the remaining boarders that she was leaving, then tried to sell all of her stuff (which she wouldn't be using) to Dianne and Mark. This included some stuff that they themselves had paid for (like the hoses), and stuff that wasn't hers to sell (the large black rubber water tub-that had belonged to the previous manager; and my pair of cross ties). I had donated my cross ties to the barn, but when I heard Judy was trying to sell them off as her own, I had Dianne hide them and say I had taken them, along with my old bottle of Banamine. Apparently this created a lot of wrath in Judy, because she defriended me on Facebook. Oh well. I suggested setting up the second wash rack, I drilled the holes in the walls for the eyehooks myself, and I paid a lot of money for some rather shitty cross ties from the feed store that weren't even adjustable. The cross ties in that second wash stall were my pair. I did tell Judy that I had done all this, but of course she wouldn't remember a year later. I refused to have her try to sell my cross ties as hers, however, so I made sure Dianne and Mark would have them. 

Judy managed to alienate Mark and Dianne, who are really nice people, and for some reason believed Diana was now her best friend-she even tried to convince Diana to leave with her. Diana, who still thought Judy had deliberately tried to harm Bali. Judy left the barn alone, with all of her stuff. Even Sarah, who had been very close to Judy, felt like Judy had betrayed them all. 

I really hate barn drama, and I'm so glad to be out of that situation. I really do hope that Judy finds happiness in life, and realizes that true happiness is found in oneself, not in a man. 

December

Lily finally started to grow a winter coat. We had some awesome workouts. 

We went on another trail ride with Tina, during which Lily owned those ditches, and my foot got better. We adopted Aengus, our new kitten, who has turned out to be a great match for Astarte:

Lily and I participated in a riding clinic with one of the trainers at our barn, and worked on new things together. We also did our first solo trail ride and it was a huge success:

The in-laws came to visit and we did a whole lot more exploring. We have hopelessly and thoroughly fallen in love with this place:

And we had our first bit of snow in our new home:

So yup: all in all, like I said before, 2012 was most definitely an EPIC year for Lily, Charles and me! 

Goals for 2013? I'm not big on setting goals-I like to just do better than we did last year. I do have some vague goals: I'd like to start working out for real at some point in the near future, since I don't have barn work to keep me fit anymore. I'd like to start working with a quality trainer who will take Lily and me further along. I'd like to canter on those trails that lead from the barn. I hope Charles gets a steady job that pays a lot more. I hope we can resolve our student loan issues in a way that allows us to live as we are now and still have some money left over. And I wish for love, happiness, health and prosperity for us and our families. 

And for you and yours too. :) Thanks for reading!

Clinic and Bits

One of the trainers at our barn had a clinic this past Thursday. He is an eventer, and I've seen him ride Sally's mare Jezebel, an OTTB-he has a beautiful riding style, very light on the hands and leg. A very classical style, and his tendency is to sit more in a dressage seat than a jumper seat. Jezebel is very green, but within minutes he had her going in a nice, relaxed uphill frame, almost effortlessly. At that instant, I had decided I wouldn't mind taking lessons with him, so the clinic seemed like the perfect opportunity to give him a whirl.

The clinic had 2 sessions-the first session had the older horses and riders, the second session had the hotter horses with more experienced riders. I was in the second session. It was supposed to be 3 riders each, but the 3rd horse in my session was out with a sore back, so it was just Anna on her little Arabian mare Jazzy, and me on Lily. Jazzy is quite feisty with other horses, but apparently can be lazy under saddle, so the trainer had to get creative with us, as the two mares were complete opposites. He had Lily and me working on halt-walk transitions, then trotting with small 10m circles in the corners. After that, he had us work on spiraling in and out at the trot, which was pretty awesome-we hadn't done that exercise in a year, and man, did Lily feel different doing it now!! WAY more organized, way easier to keep her butt from swinging out, and  our spirals were round. I can't find the original post now, but we were doing this in lessons sometime between September and November of last year. It was so hard back then!

Afterwards, we did work over grids: first ground poles, then cavaletti. It was very simple: just trot over a straight line of 6 poles-but the point of it was to organize the horses before and after this. Something I can do, but I hadn't done this in a long time. The trainer then changed it up, raising one end of each cavaletti alternately, making them look like tiny crossrails from head-on. Lily handled this beautifully. The idea was to set the horses up correctly so they could use themselves properly over the grids, thus creating trust in us, the riders, and confidence in the horses themselves.

Jazzy has navicular, and around this point, though she looked spectacular doing a sort of passagey trot over the poles, was starting to become sore. Anna and her little mare left, and the trainer worked with Lily and me for what was probably another half hour, doing more spirals with the goal of getting Lily to lengthen her frame and stride. He then asked to see our lateral work, and this was my fault because I didn't organize her properly-she was pretty sloppy as we alternated haunches-in and shoulder-in down the long side of the arena. That, and the fact that we are just getting back into this after all of the setbacks in FL and due to the move north, plus I'm always going solely off of feel, on exercises that I have done with no other horse! I have never had access to arena mirrors, other than the 2 small ones we now have in the indoor at this barn. I think our consistently best lateral workout in the past 4 months was the one that Charles photographed. My point: the trainer wasn't terribly impressed, but he gave me some more tips to improve this, and then we kind of left it at that. We could have done a whole other lesson just on cleaning up Lily's and my lateral work. My favorite tip was that he suggested I post higher, to get more air time. This automatically slowed my posting (I post conservatively because I've always tried to prevent slamming the horse's back), and helped Lily lengthen without losing momentum. It was a variation of a common suggestion, but this phrasing really did it for us. After a lifetime riding, all a trainer had to say was "Post higher" instead of "slow your post" for me to really do this effectively!

I had to laugh when he described Lily's movement as almost excessively uphill and her neck as drafty! This is what my mare looked like when she first came into my hands a year and a half ago:

May 2011 pic

September 2011. She wasn't underweight, she just didn't have any muscle along her topline.

This is her now:

All beefed up. July 2012

December 2012

So the "drafty neck" comment was taken as a huge compliment!! And "uphill"? OMG! She used to be soooo on the forehand! Regardless, the trainer thinks I should work with Lily on stretching down more to lengthen her muscles more. I guess sort of like Pilates for her. This is easy-just give her a snaffle and she works in a long and low hunter frame when she's not trying to invert:


This past March, before starting work in the Spanish bit/Pelham. She was in her Myler Comfort Snaffle in this photo. She is in a perfect Training Level frame in this pic, but see how her left hind is leaving the ground before the right front? She was on the forehand. This is the drawback of long & low work-it is almost impossible to keep them off that forehand.

I specifically asked the trainer if he recommended a different bit-he did ask why was I using a pelham on Lily, but he said I know my mare best and he didn't want to recommend anything and have it end in disaster. He did suggest riding her with both sets of reins, which I had stopped doing here for now because we were just getting back into more serious work: I have always felt like the double reins are more demanding. I guess not, though-when I use the double reins I do tend to ride her more with the "snaffle" reins than the shank reins, so it really is kinder. 

I did like the idea of Pilates for Lily, so on our next ride, I brought out my biothane halter-bridle with the Myler snaffle. She was very good in it-we worked long and low, but it was hard keeping her together, especially at the canter-she was trying to get strong, so I had to really sit up and tighten my abs to bring her back onto her haunches. We ended up doing a lot of walk-canter transitions to get her "up". Her trot, when trying to extend, had a greater tendency to get quick with the snaffle, IMO. I was having a hard time getting more hang-time posting to make her strides longer without slowing her down, so we practiced more spiraling in and out, and this did the trick. I have always loved double-jointed snaffle bits (especially anything with a French link mouthpiece; I hate regular snaffles and think they are actually more severe than a lot of ported bits out there...) and am a big proponent of using the mildest possible bit. Even so, I don't understand the taboo of leverage bits-almost everyone at the barn has questioned my use of a pelham with Lily. I'm not cranking on her mouth, and I can slip 2 fingers between the chain and her jaw-it barely comes into play with the amount of pressure I use. I use the pelham because it works, period. I don't have to worry about her losing her shit anymore out of the blue like she used to, and I can get her to do what I want with minimal effort. Having said this, I have been looking at other bits for MONTHS trying to figure out which gentler bit will work the same as our current pelham.

However, working Lily in the snaffle again reminded me why I hate using this kind of bit so much with her-to get the same results that I get with the pelham, I had to use a lot of contact. A LOT of contact. Maybe it's me-maybe what I think is a lot of contact is normal for the average rider. I learned to ride on Paso Finos where Weymouth bits were traditionally used (nowadays they have these monstrous spoon bits-a subject for Fugly Horse...) and you use your seat and a feather touch on the reins to get them to collect and turn. Then when I was riding one OTTB after another for years and years, I discovered that riding them with very soft hands was a lot more effective than hanging on their mouths. I like riding with the most minimal contact possible, and this is one of the things I was having a lot of problems with with German-style dressage. I personally think that if you have a horse with a sensitive mouth, a lot of contact ultimately creates a hard mouth, regardless of the kind of bit you use.

So yes-with the snaffle, it felt like I had to really keep her up with my upper body, whereas with the pelham, I barely have to touch her mouth to get her to flex, bend, or come up. Look back at the last 2 photo posts-there is slack in the reins in almost every picture! This is how I like to ride. And this is my favorite part of classical dressage: minimal contact.

I'm still looking at bits. I'm afraid of putting her back in something too light after our little bucking episode on the trail back in FL (the one time I tried to ride her out on the trail in a mullen mouth snaffle...I couldn't pull her head up when she started bucking!) I've had my eye on a ported Myler D-ring on eBay and on some other Myler bits, but for now ended up going with a mullen rubber-mouth pelham with very short shanks-they're just 4", vs the 6" on mine. I honestly didn't set out to get 6" shanks when I first purchased that pelham, so the shorter shanks will be nicer. Plus I think the rubber mouth will be much more comfortable for her as it continues to get colder. And at $12, it was way, waaaaay cheaper than any of the Myler bits...

Regarding the trainer at the clinic, I really liked his style. And while he is not, as he himself admitted, a proper dressage trainer, he has a good eye and the quiet, effective way of teaching that has always appealed to me. He corrected all of my usual faults (I've also started hunching my shoulders when riding...this is a new and very bad habit!!) and gave me new angles and exercises to work with. I will definetely be taking more lessons with him in the future. His training facility is about 20 minutes from my barn, and lessons there are $10 less. He has a string of Irish Draft horses he is training for eventing and resale-it would be fun to take a lesson on one of these guys, especially since this trainer's riding style is so light and minimal. We shall see. :)

Quest for Lighntess

It's been a long time since I posted on here, though I think about it all the time! Between work, more responsability at the barn, riding, and time with Charles, it seems the days fly by. Usually when I'm home, all I want to do is sleep, and then it's time to go back to the barn.

Lily's progress continues. It seems like almost every ride includes a new breakthrough with her. April brought about a few of our first real leg yields:

Still some tension here, but she is slowly improving

A lot more work on the bit:

I'm leaning forward (yuck) but love how she looks here!

Tracking UP!

And the Lightness clinic.

The clinic was life-changing, if I may call it that. I cried, bitched and had internal tantrums, and poor Lily, overwhelmed by a progressive change of all of the equipment she was comfortable with, in one fell swoop demonstrated the trainer, whom I will call Miguel for the purposes of this blog, why she DIDN'T need a whip, why I think she IS athletic enough to make it to upper level dressage, and her rider's (me) ability to stay on...

Despite all this, we ended on a really, really good note:

Yup, that's us, on the 3rd and last day of the clinic.

The clinic took place at the Martin Downs Equestrin Center in Palm City. Please check out their photos! It is a LOVELY, top-notch facility, where all disciplines (Western, H/J, dressage, and everything in between) are truly welcome. Tara, the barn manager, is awesome, and despite her busy schedule running a 50-stall barn, managed to make all of us feel welcome and appreciated. It was a beautiful experience.

Sarah organized the clinic single-handedly, and it was a huge success. Judy came too, but as an auditor, because Rose's hip had been flaring up. We went a day early, to give Lily and Romeo extra time to become acclimated to the new surroundings, since they both initially can get worked up in new environments. Sarah towed Romeo in Mark's truck and trailer because she had to pick up Miguel at the airport, and Judy and I drove down in her truck with Lily in tow about 30 minutes behind her. The drive only took an hour from our area in Broward, and Lily trailered well. She was assigned a large box stall in the main barn, with her own overhead fan. Her neighbor was...an Interagro Lusitano!! As it turns out, Martin Downs is home to the Interagro Lusitanos when they are shipped to FL for the yearly auction, and some have become permanent residents. Hence, Lily's handsome gray neighbor (he was a gelding. They did have Interagro stallions in the stallion barn.)

Romeo was over at the stallion barn next door, where most of the clinic horses were placed for the weekend. I had asked to be in the main barn away from the stallions, not because I have anything against stallions, but because Lily had gone into raging heat 2 days before the clinic and I didn't want her distracted by the absolutely gorgeous Spanish stallions at the end of the stallion barn (all of them either Lusitanos or Andalusians...beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!) while I was trying to get her to learn new things in a completely new environment!

Thursday afternoon, after allowing the horses to settle in for a couple of hours and checking out the hotel room we would be sharing, we went back to the barn (a 10 minute drive) to tack up and ride Lily and Romeo in the covered arena. There were mirrors at one end, and Sarah and I wanted to make sure the 2 horses were used to the mirrors before the clinic started.

Tacking up Lily, she was fidgeting constantly and calling, which drives me crazy. This is one of her things when she is in heat-she gets monumentally attached to other horses within seconds. After saddling up, I released Lily in the large round pen, and had her trot and canter around for a bit before hopping on. After being so worked up in the cross-ties, I figured she'd explode in the round pen. She surprised me by being very good.

We rode over to the covered arena, and entered by the mirrors. She looked at them, but was unfazed. We walked and trotted, covering the length of the arena and letting her look at everything. She was fine until Sarah and Romeo left the arena, where she decided to have a small fit-she spun, did a small rear, and crow-hopped a couple of times, but I spun her around and made her trot. She wasn't really paying attention to me after that, and despite her anxiety, I could tell that she was exhausted. I had her do a couple of leg yields and shoulder-ins in front of the mirror at a walk, and left it at that for the day.

We met Miguel for dinner that night. He is Spanish, and his first language is Spanish, but when he speaks in English, he has a heavy French accent from having lived in Switzerland when he was younger. The most fascinating thing about him is that all of his training and riding is self-taught, which makes him truly gifted. By the end of dinner, we were all excited to start learning from him the next day.

The next day, Friday, was private lesson day, and Miguel was booked solid for the day. Sarah had the first 2 lessons (for a total of 2 hours riding). They worked on shoulder-in and counter shoulder-in to get Romeo's mind off of wanting to run when excited. By the end of the lesson, Romeo was dripping sweat. Sarah had a somewhat hard time understanding the exercises because she doesn't have a dressage background and there was a language barrier, with Miguel's first language being Spanish. I could understand what he was asking her to do, but my one criticism of the lesson was that when one way of asking her to do something didn't work, he didn't phrase it differently-he just kept asking her to do the same thing over and over, in the same choice of words, even though she wasn't understanding. Eventually she'd get it, but she had no idea what she was doing to make it work. In Sarah's case, it might have taken her 15 minutes instead of 1 hour to understand the one exercise if the information had been relayed differently. A very good instructor will change the way he/she describes movements or corrections to try to reach his student more effectively. Sadly, most riding instructors, Olympic calibre trainers included, lack this ability. It applies to everything-someone may be excellent at something, but that doesn't always translate into that person also having the capacity to teach someone else how to be that good.

Sarah demonstrates a shoulder-in as she had Romeo circle around Miguel

By the time the 3rd lesson was happening, I was really wishing I had been able to schedule a private lesson for Lily and me-the private lesson day had already filled up by the time I registered. I was curious to see what Miguel would think of Lily, and what exercises he'd come up with for us. He seemed to be very impressed with 2 of the riders, both upper level competetitive dressage riders, both of them with beautiful gray Andalusian geldings. His way of teaching worked perfectly for the more advanced students. The first rider owned 5 horses, and had brought her Andalusian and a Hanoverian mare for the clinic. She seemed nice enough, but had already angered Sarah by requesting in advance that no one watch her private lessons, and then entering the arena on her horse before Sarah's lesson was finished. The second rider had a gorgeous ride on her gelding-it was like watching a dance, where they were both completely in tune to each other, and there was this tangible love between the two of them as they rode past...it was lovely to watch. I expressed interest in a lesson, if there was any kind of cancellation or if there was any way I could be squeezed in at the end of the day, and Miguel said that if he still had the energy, we could do it.

As it turned out, another lady who had scheduled 2 lessons back-to-back finished early because she was tired, and Miguel was able to squeeze me in after all.

I tacked up Lily with my heart in my throat from NERVES. By this point, it was 5:00 pm in the evening, and pretty much everyone who would be attending the clinic had arrived, and was sitting at the covered arena watching the lessons. I have stage fright, even after so many years competing on the jumper circuit. Also, some very dark, ominous clouds had rolled in-it looked like it was going to downright pour at any minute, there were hail warnings for the county (lovely, the sound of hail on the tin roof of a covered arena!), and Lily had been cooped up in her stall all day. She was distracted and fidgety while I tacked her up, whinnying at the horses turned out in the pastures, and it didn't help remembering that every other time I have gotten on her in the past when I've been nervous, she's turned into a firecracker.

I mounted up in the covered arena, and we warmed up so Miguel could watch her move. I didn't even bother trying to get her on the bit-he had criticized this when done by everyone else, even the Grand Prix riders, so I just stayed off of Lily's face and rode her with a light seat. She was going particularly inverted because of her own nerves, but she did walk, trot and canter uneventfully. Once he had seen enough, Miguel called us to him, and then he proceeded to rip into us. Or so it felt.

He asked what did we want to learn in this lesson. I said I wanted exercises to get Lily working more from her haunches and improve the quality of her gaits, and to get her lateral work equal (she is much better leg yielding to the right than the left). He asked if my goal was competitive dressage and I said yes; I just want to see how far Lily and I can go; my main goal right now is to get her working correctly. He kind of scoffed at us, which I found incredibly offensive. He truly acted like he thought my mare was useless, and said that we would never be able to help us in a 1 hour lesson. I was floored. He had given lessons to several inexperienced riders on gaited horses, ranging from Paso Finos to a Mangalarga Marchador without a problem, without belittling them, but he couldn't teach me on my horse? Why even bother squeezing me in, if he was going to have that kind of attitude?

We had been told to bring 2 sets of reins, but to bring our usual bit. The first thing he said was that he couldn't teach us anything with Lily in a loose ring (I had her in a Myler Comfort Snaffle loose ring). WTF??! I had a whole collection of bits back home, with everything from a waterford bit from my jumping days to a low port kimberwicke that I used for brakes on my previous gelding, and had brought NONE because we had been told they would not be needed. Then he pointed out that Lily has an inverted neck, which I am fully aware of, and I pointed out this was actually an improvement from before-we have only recently been able to figure out how to get her to work correctly without freaking her out.

He then had us work on a 10 meter circle at the walk, with Lily overbent to the inside, and then send her out in a straight line, pushing her forward with my legs. The point of the exercise was to improve the quality of her gait by getting her to extend, though I still don't understand the mechanics of this exercise-the why and how of it. Lily would release in the circle, but I would be told to continue-I couldn't tell what Miguel was seeing as indication that it was time to send her into the straight line. We tried this at the walk and trot, but she wasn't giving a snappy response to the leg pressure on the straightaway-she was still tired from the day before.

Because of this, he asked for someone to hand him a whip. For me to use. I felt all of the blood drain from my face. Lily is absolutely terrified of whips. All I have to do is hold a lunge whip in my hand, unmoving with lash pointing down, and she will LITERALLY run herself into the ground in terror. She will tolerate me holding a dressage whip while standing on the ground next to her and running it over her body when she is calm and in the right mindset, but when she is in heat, any little thing I do can cause a flashback, and has the potential to seem life-threatening to her. I had no idea what she would do in a new setting, with a group of people watching us, and a man trying to pass me a whip across her neck. Judy actually spoke up for me, explaining that Lily had been abused, but Miguel decided to proceed with the introduction of the whip.

She did freak out when he tried to hand it to me, so Miguel quickly worked on desensitizing her, running it all over her body until she stopped flinching. I was enraged because my mare does NOT need a whip. However, he wanted me to use the whip just to reinforce my leg. If she didn't respond immediately to leg pressure when sending her out on a straight line, I was to tap my calf with the whip. I tried it, and was very surprised when Lily did NOT take off, proving the new levels that her trust in me has reached. Her response at the trot, however, was to give me her very fast pogo-sticky trot. Miguel then wanted me to slow my post to control her, which I can do just fine without half-halts, but Lily wasn't really responding to that with the whip in my hand. He then wanted me to try the exercise at the canter. Now, that did result in Lily bolting, where I instantly dropped the whip, and we did a mad circle at a gallop around Miguel while I got her back under control.

"THAT is why I don't use a whip." I said, my blood boiling, as I brought my poor mare to a halt in front of him. After that, he still wanted me to use the whip, but by then, Lily was so worked up there was no need for me to tap my leg-she was responding instantly to leg pressure.

I was a frazzled mess of nerves by the end of that lesson, and felt that it had totally not been worth putting myself in danger for it nor worth the extra money I'd be paying for it, just to be subjected to this man's opinion of a TB cross mare. Example: Lily snorts with every stride when she canters, like most fit TBs do. Ex-racers have the snorting-with-every-stride down to an art, and thanks to Lily, I learned that this is actually inherited. She started this type of snorting when she really started to really trust me at the canter, which happened around the same time that she really started to get fit.  I love hearing her do it-the snorting stops when she is tense. Miguel said he had never heard a horse do this and acted like Lily was a freak for doing so. I find this very odd. I'm pretty sure this isn't limited to just Thoroughbreds, but whatever.

I untacked Lily and hosed her off, so angry that I felt the tears springing into my eyes. I put her away next to her boyfriend as the thunder really started to rumble. That evening at dinner, we discussed who would be in which groups. The vast majority of riders were on gaited horses, mostly Paso Finos, Trote-Galopes, the Mangalarga and a gaited Morgan. They were divided into 2 groups, one with the more timid and inexperienced riders, the other with the more experienced riders on difficult horses. I was kind of placed by default in the 3rd group with the Grand Prix dressage riders and another First Level rider, because we were the only four on non-gaited horses, and we all rode dressage.

The next morning was a chilly and watery one. I was exhausted, and felt like I was coming down with a cold-my head was throbbing and my nose was runny. The weather wasn't helping-we had more hailstorm warnings, and we'd had electric storms all night long. It was a good thing we had that covered arena, as the storms rolling in from the sea were affecting all of Florida. Even Charles, back home and working Thursday night, had said the thunder and lightning was so bad in Broward that they could hear the rumbling inside the building, a rare occurrence.

In the morning, we had the lecture portion of the clinic, which was fascinating. We learned about Nuno Oliveira and Jean-Claude Racinet's theories, all new to me. I wondered how I had existed without knowing about this kind of riding. The entire principle of lightness is that you teach the horse to carry himself with minimal cues and effort from the rider. The ultimate goal is to have the horse so in tune to your aids, that you can think what you want and the horse will do it. But to be able to do this, you must have the horse in an uphill frame. The horse is naturally balanced on his own, but becomes unbalanced with the weight of the rider. You must bring the withers and neck up so that the horse becomes balanced again, so that everything that he can do at liberty, he'll be able to do under saddle.

This is the video of Nuno Oliveira that Miguel played for us. Please note that not only does he ride one-handed, the horse doesn't flick his tail a SINGLE time during the entire video. The whip is carried upright in the traditional French classical manner:

He also played this video, which I had seen before. This is dressage on steroids. I don't agree with the bullfighting part of it, but man, this horse is AMAZING. The rider is Pablo Hermosa, and his Lusitano, Merlin.

I think the theory portion of the clinic was essential for us to be able to understand the exercises that we did later, and why we were doing them.

At noon, we broke for lunch, and returned at 1:00 pm to ride. It started to drizzle at this point.

My group went first, and I rode Lily in a borrowed Myler D-ring with 2 sets of reins, which we learned to hold in the French classical manner-one set of reins threaded through the thumb and index (snaffle rein to lift the horse's neck), the other beneath the pinkie (curb rein, to tuck the horse's nose).

We did several exercises, dropping and picking up the reins, asking the horses to walk, trot and canter with no reins. We then practiced the counted walk, which was completely new for us. Lily wriggled and tried to scootch sideways, and later I would find out that this is normal in young horses-they have a hard time going that slow while still staying straight. It was a fun exercise-we had to keep the horses going very straight, and very slow, with no reins, no legs and no hands. If they stopped, we had to start over. We even did a little "race" where we all did the counted walk down the length of the arena, with the slowest horse winning first place. We then did transitions from counted walk to trot, and from counted walk to a collected canter. And then we were asked to do flying changes without hands. This is where it got very interesting for Lily and me...

Up until that moment, Lily had done fairly well, despite the addition of a second set of reins, a completely different bit with a curb chain, my dressage whip in my hand (I had been ordered to carry it, though I had not needed it whatsoever) and an arena with 3 other horses, including a Lusitano stallion.  We had only done 2 flying lead changes in the past back home, and both by accident: the first, she had flipped leads on her own, from right to left (and took off when she frightened herself...), and the second time, I was experimenting with a counter canter, and she swapped leads on her own again from right to left, as I turned her into a circle to the left on the right lead. That second time was perfect, but I had never attempted to repeat it because her canter was still unbalanced.

Well, Miguel wanted me to try it. He had every rider cross the diagonal of the arena one by one, and do a flying change halfway down with a change of direction in favor of the new lead, all without reins. When it was my turn, he had us canter from a walk, with no rein contact. I was to pick up the lead he ordered at the instant he said it. At the corner, we would be turning to the right in front of the mirrors.

"Left lead!" Miguel called out.

From what I was told by onlookers, Lily picked up the left lead and actually did do the flying change to the right. I never felt it. All I felt was the part where she bolted, and the part where I froze, thinking, "Oh shit, I'm going to fall off in front of all of these people". I tossed the whip and grabbed the reins as she was headed straight for the exit. At the very last second, she changed her mind, swerved towards the inside of the arena, and gave a demonstration of some of her best crowhops yet. She must've gotten at least 2'6" of air-it certainly felt like we were going over fences with her head down... I pulled her head up, straightened her out, and she took off down the long side of the arena. I felt the instant where she considered running into the crowd, corrected her, which sent her in a beeline straight for Miguel, corrected her again, and she aimed for the back exit of the arena. The lady on the Lusitano stallion was standing next to the exit, and she backed him up against the exit to block it as we came flying down straight towards her. At this moment, my brain finally clicked and I went from helpless mode to "This is enough!" I sat up, and jumper-style, grabbed mane with my outside hand, and with my inside hand turned Lily away from the exit and spun her in a circle around Miguel, where she finally stopped. Why I hadn't done that right from the start was beyond me. It had been a 30 second run maybe, but it felt like we'd galloped the Kentucky Derby. Instant applause from the crowd when we stopped. Miguel was speechless, and after a second, he said, "And you need to practice more emergency stops!" I managed to laugh at this with everyone else, but I was sooo mad, and my heart was about to pound its way out of my chest. We had put everyone in danger -riders, Miguel, the crowd, and myself- because of a damned whip that my mare did not need.

I did not carry the whip again during the rest of the clinic. Miguel did not argue the point with me again.

We finished our session uneventfully, though Lily and I were both frazzled after that, and we simply trotted when the rest of the group cantered. Afterwards, Miguel had us get off and practice everything on foot. This was very interesting, and it was even more interesting to realize that none of these riders had ever thought the effort that it took for a horse to do all of these exercises. We discovered how difficult it is to balance during a counted walk, especially if you only have 2 feet, and we then did counted walk to canter transitions on our feet, then with flying lead changes. At the end of the exercises, it was me by myself doing one tempis down the length of the arena (as a kid I didn't run-I cantered. One of my favorite things to do at the beach was flying lead changes while running on the wet sand at the edge of the shore). If you have never done this on your own, you should try it. Not only will you understand the horse better, but you will realize what YOUR body must do in order for the horse to be able to perform what you want. "Canter yourself." Miguel said while we were riding. If you can canter yourself, you can get the horse to canter while astride, without cues.

After the session, I asked Miguel how Lily and I had done overall. Compared to everyone else, we had received very little correction and I wasn't sure if it was because we were doing very well, or we were doing so badly that it was too much to correct. He said we had done great, and even the flying lead change had been great. He said that as a rider, all I need to do is sit further back. He wanted me to try the Spanish bit. It is basically a sweet iron curb with a low port and short shanks, that can be set up like a pelham with 2 sets of reins. He gave me one, and I placed it on Lily's bridle, ready for the next day.

That afternoon, we sat and watched the gaited horse groups. They were somewhat disorganized, as in one group, where Romeo and a Trote-Galope stallion had been assigned, there were a lot of very strong horses whom their riders could not get to walk under any circumstances. The exercises were a struggle for them, including Romeo, who was very worked up about being in an arena with other horses. The last group included the more inexperienced riders, on mostly Paso Fino horses. These horses were a lot more laid back than those in the second group, but one girl in particular was singled out because she, too, could not get her little mare to just walk either. It became such a struggle, that at the end of their session, both the girl and us in the crowd insisted that Miguel show us how he would get the mare to walk.

He switched her jaquima noseband for a serreta, and rode her with one set of reins on her curb and the other set on the serreta. It took Miguel a good 15 minutes to get the little mare to walk. Initially she was very confused and became quite worked up. However, Miguel insisted, patiently, with almost invisible aids of seat and hands, to get her to relax and just...walk... Eventually, it worked, and they walked several laps around the arena, and did circles in the center. Miguel suggested that the girl try a different saddle the next day-he explained he'd had such a hard time because the saddle placed him in a chair seat, where he was driving with his seat, and until he adjusted his weight so he was sitting straighter, he could not get the mare to walk.

The next day, each group was to ride twice. It was another watery dawn, and it was chilly. My group went first. I mounted up, and Lily immediately flung her head violently when she felt the pressure of the curb chain on her chin. We walked around the arena with everyone else, while I quickly got the 2 sets of reins sorted out, and figured out how much pressure I would need on one or the other. Just a gentle squeeze was enough to get a response from Lily, even with a loop in the reins. I was absolutely thrilled.

We did walk, trot and canter (myself and the First Level rider both continued to trot during the canter portions) playing with the reins per Miguel's orders to elevate or drop the horses' heads and necks. Miguel was teaching us how to bring the horses' withers up, which automatically made all of the horses look taller. The photo above was taken by Judy during this portion of the clinic. I was amazed when I looked down and saw that curve in Lily's neck, and felt her front end suddenly disappear, as all of her weight transferred to her back end. Really, really cool. We then did circles with contact on only the outside rein. This was one of the hardest exercises I have ever done, and Lily and I were almost able to do it at the walk, but barely at the trot. We didn't even attempt the canter.

Afterwards, I sat next to Judy to watch the other groups go. I was glad I'd been placed in the advanced group, because I would not have been able to do half as much. However, the gaited horse groups were MUCH more organized today, and it was interesting to note that pretty much every rider who had had issues with getting her horse to walk the previous day, was riding in a borrowed dressage saddle today! Even better-when asked to, all of these horses were walking without a problem.

In the afternoon, my group did more of the same, and I continued to make mental notes of all the stuff I wanted to practice later at home. Afterwards, I bought the Spanish bit, and have continued to use use it at home with the double reins.

Immediately after our session was off, Judy hooked up the trailer while I got all of my stuff together, wrapped Lily's legs, and then we loaded up and went home. We were all exhausted. While we all went back to work the next day, Monday (it was the loooongest workweek ever!), Lily got some well-deserved 3 days off.