From our ring to yours, with love

Nothing says "Slow down and stay straight, or else" like a gymnastic line of big honking cross-rail bounces. Here, I've got five of them set 9 feet apart--you can trot or (short, bouncy) canter in. Julie Richards had me do this exercise with Maggie and reminded me when I rode with her last weekend that it'd be a good exercise for the ol' Spreezer Pleaser as well. You almost feel like you're jumping in slow motion. Esprit's eyes were wide-open the first time through but he was a champ after that.

My latest obsession: Trapeze

That's me on the bottom, not.

I'm always looking for increasingly extreme, bizarre ways to get in shape for riding. Most recently, my search led me to Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio, which happens to be in a warehouse about five miles from the barn. I took my first trapeze class last night and I am HOOKED (and bruised and sore). Trapeze is a super upper-body and core workout, and there's lots of hanging upside down involved, which is always cool with me. What is it about hanging upside down that feels so good? It's also all about balance and being aware of body alignment; if you tilt even sligthly forward while sitting on the trapeze with no hands, you fall off. An excellent reminder why it's important to keep your shoulders back on the flat and over jumps--that little bit of weight forward feels amplified to the horse and can mean a botched transition or a dropped rail. Anyway, I'm signed up for a six-week course so I'll keep you posted! 

Naptime in ponyville

After a couple bitter-cold days...

today the sun came out

and everybody took a nap

especially Flash.

Tryon Boot Camp: Day 5 (The last!)

Third time's a charm when it comes to alternators, I guess. Stott's Ford in Tryon had my big red truck fixed up by late morning, so I had time to take Esprit back to FENCE for one last conditioning workout just to make sure he was good and exhausted before we headed home.

Being home is good, but being away from home for a few days was exactly what I needed. It was helpful to pare things down to the bare essentials--fiance, horse, laptop--and rebuild outward from there. I always feel like I'm being pulled in about a dozen directions at once that are all demanding 100% percent of my attention, and since there's not 1,200% of me to go around, I end up feeling stressed or disappointed in myself for not being able to invest fully in every endevour. So, that's about to change. I've let some things go, and pulled the important stuff back up to the top of the heap. I officially feel much more ready to tackle this spring on multiple levels, so bring it ON. 

Tryon Boot Camp: Day 4

I don't know how a weekend of lessons ended up with me sitting here, alone at a bar, four days later, indefinitely stranded, but there you go, life's hilarious like that.

My truck is down the street at the Ford dealership, and instead of hanging out in their crusty waiting room I thought I'd hit the town. All three blocks of it. I found a pub with internet and these wonderful ham, swiss and raspberry preserve sandwiches, so that's where I'm hanging now. I also got to experience the Tryon Horse, which is a somewhat underwhelming wooden, polk-a-dotted horse on wheels that sits in the middle of the main drag. People in Tryon take the horse seriously, though. There are Tryon Horse paintings and replicas and crafty things in all the shop windows. Kaitlyn apparently knew some people in high school who got drunk and rode the horse down the street. (I don't THINK Kaitlyn was involved.) Anyway, hopefully I'll know before too long whether the truck is an easy fix or whether boot camp is going to keep... going.   

Backing up a few steps, I had another lesson this morning with Amy. She walked out to the ring in her helmet, thinking she'd have a crack at the old Spreezer-pleaser herself. He had a little hissy-fit when she got on, like, "Just who do you think you are, lady, telling ME what to do? Do you KNOW who I AM?" But about 15 minutes later, his tune had changed to something more like, "Yes, ma'am, whatever you want, ma'am." I think he was happy to have me climb back on, and Amy had some good suggestions based on what she'd felt while riding him. To make a long story short, I've got to make sure that I stay really straight and centered (especially to the left) even when he's goading me to fall for his bag of tricks, all designed to get be off-balance so he can wiggle and twist and basically do anything but work.

After our epic flatwork session, we moved on to a couple jumping exercises designed to test his straightness: a single barrel to a single barrel, and a skinny, bending-3-stride to a liverpool. He was a little squirrly about the barrels at first but got more committed as he got more confident, and then was surprisingly good about the three-stride. Amy observed that sometimes I'll use my voice to "whoa" him but not follow up with my body. She also got after me a little for letting my flatwork fly out the window once I started jumping; I need to make sure that I am disciplined about every single transition instead of just trying to get to the fence as fast as I can.

I love this bar. I think it's called Elmo's. I just ordered another pint and the bartender looked at me and shook her head and said, "Dang, hun."
  

   

Tryon Boot Camp: Day 3

So I'm finally feeling good about my riding and caught up on my work and guess what: My truck breaks down. I feel like I'm in Hotel California, this lovely place that's marred only by the fact that "you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave." Oh, well. The Jansens have about 500 boxes of Spongebob Squarepants mac-n-cheese stockpiled in their cabinet and I've got my laptop and my horse and a few thousand acres to explore, so it's not like really have anywhere to go anyway. Except, you know, home. 

Anyway, I had the truck towed back to the farm and we'll see what's going on with it tomorrow--the power just died. I replaced the battery a couple months ago and JUST replaced the alternator last week, so I'm definitely curious. Thank goodness for extended warranties.

Took Esprit to FENCE today for a long trail ride and a couple gallops up the hill. Doing the hill usually gives me a pretty good indication of where my horse is at fitness-wise, and today it indicated that Esprit and I both need to start hitting the cardio. Yup. It wasn't as dazzlingly beautiful today as it has been, kind of cool and drizzly, but I am NOT complaining. This is about as good as January gets.

    

Tryon Boot Camp: Day 2

Another day in January paradise: Can you believe this weather? Warm, sunny... I was sweating in a long-sleeved t-shirt by 10 a.m.

Today's lesson was all about straightness, straightness, straightness. Not so easy when you're riding the equine equivalent of a spaghetti noodle. We did about a thousand figure-8s on the flat, encouraging him to fill the new outside rein and calmly accept the new bend. On my end, I had to focus on keeping an opening inside rein, outside rein against the neck, and weight on the inside seatbone. Also worked on training myself to turn into the skid when he fishtails his haunches. Over fences, we warmed up by trotting a large-ish vertical with a take-off pole, remembering not to be "invisible" on the landing; then cantered an oxer with take-off and landing poles (good thing we've been practicing that at home!); and finished with a related distance line. Amy reminded me to keep my aids on all of the time so that when I need to make an adjustment it doesn't seem like they're just coming out of the blue.

After our lesson and a bubble bath, Esprit got a fabulous clip job from a local guy named Buddy. Buddy said Esprit was "ready for Devon," and while that's definitely not true, he does look A-circuit good. I returned the Stubben to Re-ride (the Passier is a winner, I believe) and rode Kaitlyn's Casey, which was a blast. I've also, obviously, been a little preoccupied with my Hipstamatic app the past couple days. What an iPhone artiste.    

Tryon Boot Camp: Day 1

Esprit, my laptop and I hit the road yesterday for a romantic riding/writing getaway in Tryon, NC. After subjecting my poor fiance to a full-blown nervous breakdown earlier this week, during which I suggested that we "call off the wedding and just elope," I knew I needed to go somewhere far, far away to blow off some steam and refocus. 

We had a lesson this morning with Amy Barrington. Our flatwork was definitely tense but he wasn't as bad over fences as I'd expected. We started by trotting an increasingly large oxer with a take-off pole, then cantered through a triple of oxers with placing poles, and finished with an S-curve sort of a course. Amy had me ride everything in a tall two-point so that I would focus on staying quiet and still with my body since Esprit overreacts to every little movement. She noted that when I sit down and back in the saddle to "whoa" before a fence, I tend to take my leg off, making it more difficult for Esprit to jump well from a deep distance. 

In the afternoon I got some work done and also picked up a couple of ancient dressage saddles to try from Re-ride, a local consignment tack shop. One's a Passier and the other's a Stubben, and both of them have got to be at least 15 or 20 years old and in the "minimalist" style. Which is actually fine with me--modern dressage saddles tend to be so big and blocky that it's hard not to feel hemmed in. I hacked to FENCE in the Passier in the late afternoon and thought it felt pretty balanced. The other thing I really like about Passiers, and I wish I hadn't sold my old one for this reason, is that they fit almost everything you put them on. They're almost magical like that. I'll flat in it tomorrow to get a better idea of how it feels.      



Whoa, Seabiscuit

Since Esprit started back jumping, he's been a little... wild. As a result, our jumping efforts have been mostly contained to exercises that encourage him to slow down his brain and body: an oxer with placing poles on either side, complicated grids and lots of walking and trotting single fences. We're also excited about getting back on track with some lessons, starting with a field trip to Tryon to see Aunt Amy this weekend followed by a clinic with Aunt Julie next weekend. Hopefully that will get us back on track to where we were before a massive subsolar abscess sidelined us last fall. Boot camp, here we come.

Meanwhile, Amadeus has perfected the art of coming and going as he pleases.