Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Lilly Jumper

So Lilly worked over fences on Sunday. She was a rock star. We did a gymnastic line with her. He told me that he's just going to do a line. He said he'll save the courses for at the show.

Another thing about her he really got a sense of is that he just needs to drive her. He said once she's going to the fence, he just has to drive her with his legs and seat and she'll jump. He doesn't have to really balance her and really get in her mouth to keep her from being crazy.

She's so freaking tight over the fences. Her knees snap up and she's so careful with her feet as well. She flicks them extra high to make sure she doesn't rub a rail. Tho she was a little lazy with the cross rail. She hit it twice. Silly mare. But the big fences, she didn't want to touch.

Like my friend Greg use to say "no respect for little fences." lol.

She's clipped as well. She has a nice little trace clip. Need to upload pics and videos soon. Been lazy past two days. :P

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Jumping School

So Lilly has entered jumping school with Budi Tulodo. :D He's worked with her here and there he wanted to wait until I was finished with my showing. The show is looming Dec. 19th, he's going to have the up the training.

He was suppose to ride today, but problem with Budi is sometimes he can't get away from his clients up north. But tomorrow morning he'll definitely be riding. I'm going to set up a line.

I painted a few fences red and white and pink! :D I haven't finished painting, with my dog needing to go to the vet I've hold off on any purchases until after I see the vet bill. I wanted to paint one standards red-white-blue, and another John Deer themed.

Dec. 19th is around the corner. Kind of excited. :)

Friday, November 26, 2010

a lil behind

Went to the last Morven Park show. We didn't do too bad. I just get in a habit of riding like a hunter in shows. I need to really eliminate that over the winter.

Circles are a way to get Lilly's mind back on me. So when a trailer zoomed past us and spooked her I immediately sent her in a circle. Her mind instantly focused back on me and we continued to make our way to A to start our test. :D

I've been riding without stirrups lately, but when I put my stirrups back my legs don't know what to do.

This is going to be a short post. I needed to update, but didn't have too much time lately.

Need to shop for new horse insurance.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Lesson with Lauren

So I headed to Lauren's place Saturday the 6th of November. (I'm a little late with this blog post, wrote it but forgot to post it) The day was beautiful. Aside from the wind blowing it was a great day.

So I get ready to tack up and I realize that I forgot my saddle! o.O oh no! I felt like a block head. Lauren lent me one of her saddles, so situation taken care of.

We started the lesson, working with getting Lilly rounder. Lauren commented on how much she’s improved and how less resistant she’s become. She asked me how her jumping was coming along.

The spiral exercise came into play. Patrick also does this exercise with us too. So we spiraled in and then we spiraled out. She was being a little bit of a bugger. I think all the fresh cool air was making her feel extra jazzy. She went on a little bit of a bucking spree. Plus since this saddle wasn’t mine, I was reaching for my stirrups. This is after Lauren even rolled them. I got short legs.

Lauren taught me how to leg yield properly. I always kind of did it the hunter way. I explained how I was taught and she gave me a funny look and proceeded to tell me how to leg yield correctly. Of course I over think sometimes and she even was like Anna stop thinking so much. Lol. Then it’s like I have a new toy to play with. I practice it a bit on my Sunday ride.

She also tried to teach me how to bring Lilly down from canter to a trot by picking the right moment where she wouldn’t fall so downhill. But it’s going to take me a few times to really get it in my head. The right moment comes so quick, that it’s like ahh! So I’ll figure it out eventually.

So we're going back to Lauren's place on Friday. Took off because of Harry Potter midnight showing, plus I have to take a day off, because I'm working Black Friday. Danica and Cherie are planning to be there with me as well. So it's a grand day with the ponies on Friday. :D

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Instructors

If you read my blog you'll get a sense that I don't have one instructor.
Why have one when you can have three! ;P

I switch btw Kelly Weatherhead, Patrick Tigchelaar, and Lauren Sprieser. 4 if you count Budi, but I don't take lessons from Budi he just rides my horse. But if I want lessons I can take them.

Why do I have three?

I've learned so much from all my instructors. With all the instructors they all are trying to get my super woman to be a little rounder. That's everyone's goal is to make the Lilly girl more rounder. Everyone except Lilly is fond of this idea. But she's getting there.

But each instructor has brought something different to the table. I've learned so much about dressage from each of them. That it's hard for me to pick which one I'd go to.

They all gripe about my position, Kelly nitpicks at my position more than the others. Lauren the second most and Patrick the least, but during one of my lessons I forgot what the hell a diagonal was, but my position was fine. ::rolls eyes::

Then sometimes they all tell me something and I'll do the movement and they praise me, but my brain is still confused. Then finally I'll have my own Ah ha! moment either during a lesson or just randomly.

This winter I plan on trucking on as much as the weather will allow. I really want to start breaking into the first level dimension. But with Lilly's permission of course.

But it's a system that works for me.