Well today was the first show of the year for me and Cody. And it seems fitting that it is a good time for my first blog.
Anyhow, over the past couple weeks, Cody and I have had a rough go of it with our dressage work. Danny and Kelly have worked with me to quiet my hands and stop my constant leg-kicking, so overall, my dressage has been improving. But as things improve, more seems to be asked and we are now trying to raise his poll and improve his trot. Since we started working on this, Cody sensitivity has emerged (along with my lack-there-of). That combination has resulted in some rough rides (and 1 fall which I'll call a dismount).
So with the rough dressage riding, I wasn't sure how today would go. As it turned out, we had a really good warmup and I was feeling confident as our test started. He was doing rather well but then he broke at the trot into a canter! I was able to recover from this mishap and still finish with a fairly solid test. Even with the break, I thought my score would have been better, but the judge put me on a 45 and in 6th place.
Stadium and cross-country were amazing. I enjoy the cross county so much with Cody. And he seems to really enjoy jumping and has been jumping better and better. I hope, at some point to be able to do novice on him, but his dressage needs to continue to improve before we make that move.
Everyone else in my division seemed to struggle with the jumping and even though I had some time faults on stadium, I was able to move up and finished in 2nd. Overall, we had a real good first outing. Now on to the next show...just not sure when and where...
Seth
Showing posts with label Cody. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cody. Show all posts
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Rideability - Satan's Exercise
So there are a few holes that I need to fix to continue progressing through the levels. You see, since Legacy is kinda talented, I got away with some things up until this point. So last week in my lesson with Danny we focused a lot on this bending line exercise...let's call it's Satan's S-Curve Exercise. Let's just say that it was a mess and I will be spending the next few months of my life perfecting this. The intent is to jump in quietly, soften the horse's jaw and take a bending line to the next fence (see the black s-line in the diagram). Now, y
ou won't see this detailed exercise in a stadium course at my level, but I WILL have to drop off a 3' bank and bend to a skinny solid fence on cross-country. Up until now, I've been able to "cheat" and take the straight line (blue line). Those days are now over and I need to fix this... Anyway, last week I just kept rushing and thinking I had to do so much to get him to bend and I would end up hanging on his mouth and fighting with him and we wouldn't get to the next fence. There were run-outs and just ugly, ugly fences. I basically have an intermediate exercise where after each fence I do a 10 meter circle to recompose myself and then proceed to the next jump. So...tonight it was time to attempt it again. So I started with my silly circle exercise so I didn't freak out and rush to the next fence. That went pretty well, so I decided to go for the bending line....it actually went really well!! I still had trouble getting to the 3rd fence quietly, but it was a huge improvement from last week. We also struggle going from a left bend to a right bend since that is more difficult for him to change leads...that's a whole other workout :). Then I had the pleasure of riding Cody. Let me tell you, riding that horse is the ultimate upper body workout. My body aches from my bellybutton up. He is such a massive tank of a horse...I swear he has extra muscles. It's like one of those cows that are fed too many hormones...that's Cody>>> 
So needless to say it's tough to ride him and I always feel bad for Seth because he is a beginner dealing with a beginner horse who doesn't make it easy, but at least he has nice arms from it :). So we're working with Cody to try and make him rounder...well I think he has too many muscles in his body to carry his fat head in a nice round frame. He does try though and hopefully it will click. There are moments where he is ok, but his dressage will never be strong. Considering he wouldn't even pick up the right lead when we bought him, he's come a long way. And he and Seth have a blast when jumping, so that's all that matters. Ok...time for a glass of wine and American Idol...
~Kelly
ou won't see this detailed exercise in a stadium course at my level, but I WILL have to drop off a 3' bank and bend to a skinny solid fence on cross-country. Up until now, I've been able to "cheat" and take the straight line (blue line). Those days are now over and I need to fix this... Anyway, last week I just kept rushing and thinking I had to do so much to get him to bend and I would end up hanging on his mouth and fighting with him and we wouldn't get to the next fence. There were run-outs and just ugly, ugly fences. I basically have an intermediate exercise where after each fence I do a 10 meter circle to recompose myself and then proceed to the next jump. So...tonight it was time to attempt it again. So I started with my silly circle exercise so I didn't freak out and rush to the next fence. That went pretty well, so I decided to go for the bending line....it actually went really well!! I still had trouble getting to the 3rd fence quietly, but it was a huge improvement from last week. We also struggle going from a left bend to a right bend since that is more difficult for him to change leads...that's a whole other workout :). Then I had the pleasure of riding Cody. Let me tell you, riding that horse is the ultimate upper body workout. My body aches from my bellybutton up. He is such a massive tank of a horse...I swear he has extra muscles. It's like one of those cows that are fed too many hormones...that's Cody>>> 
So needless to say it's tough to ride him and I always feel bad for Seth because he is a beginner dealing with a beginner horse who doesn't make it easy, but at least he has nice arms from it :). So we're working with Cody to try and make him rounder...well I think he has too many muscles in his body to carry his fat head in a nice round frame. He does try though and hopefully it will click. There are moments where he is ok, but his dressage will never be strong. Considering he wouldn't even pick up the right lead when we bought him, he's come a long way. And he and Seth have a blast when jumping, so that's all that matters. Ok...time for a glass of wine and American Idol...
~Kelly
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