Gems from George

I survived my first George Morris Clinic.  Patty Ball turned out her facility, Hunterville in Penryn, beautifully for his 23rd annual visit, which is just as reliable as swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano. There were three sessions per day for 2 days, each over 2 hours long. We were rewarded with a lot of wisdom gleamed over the years, and had some challenges thrown our way.  Thanks goodness I was in the first (i.e. lowest) group. I fit about in the middle, could get the job done, but some activities were a stretch.  I did not expect the first jumping exercise to be the bank, and the next day to include jumping the bank without stirrups.  This, of course, was followed by self-evident comments like "Horses like to buck coming off the bank."  George humor.

I present the top ten countdown of concepts I intend to remind myself riding in the future, based on this informative clinic.

10. Don't grip solely with the knees. Wrap around the barrel with thighs, knees and calves for more effective leg aids. Squeeze, don't kick.  If no response to a squeeze, remind with spur, stick, cluck to get a conditioned response to have the horse in front of your leg, forward on request. Inside leg at the girth, outside leg slightly back.

9. Hand in a straight line to the bit or above, never below.  You are then communicating with the lips, gently and steadily, never with the bars of the mouth in a punishing manner.  When she puts her head up, your hands move up with that motion, a learned response is for her is to come down in response to that cue.  Look at the muscles in her neck, and the puny muscle in your arm.  You are really going to pull her head down? Hands steady, no see-sawing.

8. Get off her back!  Don't be a "butt grabber."  That heavy seat is activating and energizing, the wrong thing for a hyper horse.  A light three point for driving forward is useful.  It was amazing to see a harried hyper horse calm and slow down with the rider riding up out of the saddle in a two point. This stopped the tapping/slapping/driving stimulation.  The transition happened in minutes.

7. Get your heels down by getting your butt out of the saddle.  The weight shifts down and the heels drop like magic.  Another reason not to be a "butt grabber."

6. In the beginning of a schooling session, jump a jump and stop on a straight line.  This has multiple effects. When landing from a jump, the horse is shifted completely to the forehand.  An elevated halt practices transition back to the hocks, gets them listening after the fence, teaches them not to cut the corner since they don't know which way you are turning as you have not told them yet.

5. At the end of a session, end a short course with a nice cadenced circle, maintaining size with the inside leg, and yielding the inside rein.

4. Correct a cross canter with the inside leg, push weight to the outside to lighten the inside so they can switch behind and correct the late change behind.  The natural tendency is to kick with the outside leg like a lead change, but that shifts weight to the inside hind leg maintaining the status quo.  Thank goodness someone actually had the situation, and it worked!

3. "Pace to the base."  When approaching a jump with a steady or short distance, keep up impulsion to get the job done.  Don't wilt and take off your leg.  The horse has to jump more vertically if close to the base, and therefore needs even more impulsion than taking off from a regular distance.

2. Build up scary situations slowly, building up confidence all the way.  A line was placed strategically right up against the rail, in the shadows, and was getting lots of horse attention.  For the first time, we jumped only the last fence and angled into the rail so that they could not shy and bulge away.  Second time, last two fences with less of an angle.  Then the line became no big deal. This was much more pleasant and positive approach than muscling them through, nervous and squirmy, right off the bat.

1. Practice without stirrups.  Important GM survival skill.

Photo gallery

Did I mention it was cold? Chief Snarky and Squaw

 Sheila is an excellent S'More Sous Chef

 Start with the Christmas Tree jump, really?

 Princess is paying attention to striding

 The most welcoming remark of the clinic

 Want, want, want, so cute!

Bank with stirrups, what's with that? 

GMC Countdown

George Morris Clinic Count Down

Dec 3 and 4, 2013, UP and I will be traveling to Penryn. CA, to attend the George Morris Clinic.  First time for both of us. Background: George Morris was the Chef D'Equipe for the USET from 2005 to 2013, wrote the book (literally) on Hunt Seat Equitation, and is a demanding task masker.  So here is my countdown until December 3 to try to get ready:

10. 25% of the time, drop the stirrups. Remember that line in the book?  It was something like: Work offs are easy for my students if they involve dropping stirrups since we practice 25% of the time without them. I am paraphrasing, but would the Huns have successfully invaded Europe if all those knights had followed his lead? Those stirrups the Huns invented would not have been such a tremendous advantage.
9. Polish boots until they are reflective.
8. Stop eating.
7. Independent legs and hands, instant aids and rewards for a job well done
6. Remember the course.
5. Trust your pony. She can handle it.  I was surprised by the test options for medal classes (walking a 3' jump?), but UP is a capable mare. 
4. If we totally screw up, there will simply be no blog about that. 
3. Tuck in shirt tails. 
2. Remember any new learnings for a lifetime.
1. Have fun. 

G-Forces or Cheap Horses?

Sunday lesson. Usually low key.  HW generally does not want to open up a can of worms and leave things unraveled before the horse weekend (aka Monday).  So I look forward to Sunday lessons if feeling lazy and want an unchallenging ride, truth be told.

But why on this Sunday were we jumping big and technical?  Who knows, but it worked out well.  We did not open up the aforementioned can of worms.  But there is always the challenge of hearing what is said during a lesson.  Wind, truck, planes, going 12 miles an hour with a helmet strapped on.  Sometime I mishear comments and directions.

We finished up over a 4 element combination, then a roll top with natural branch elements, and finished over a one stride oxer to oxer combination, and had to turn in the air over the first oxer. She followed ever cue perfectly.  Good girl.

I THOUGHT I heard "blah blah blah cheap horses", and asked what are you talking about???  She was awesome.  Actually, he said, "there are a lot of G-forces when you jump the big stuff."  Princess calmed down after clarification.

Twelve

I am a little conflicted about this post.  I am bubbling with energy and enthusiasm about our Pickwick Medal Win at the Sonoma Horse Park Strides and Tides show yesterday.  But the Miss Manners training deeply embedded  in me after years of dutiful reading would guard against such boastfulness.  So I have reached an internal truce.  I will give all the credit to Princess. She did all the actual work, after all.

Hugh White got her through the Montserrat Ring challenges, with clanking wine glasses and noisy catering trucks to be desensitized to, on the open days.  I had the easier job of coasting on that experience and gently asking for the impossible, jumping 12 jumps exactly the same.

Think about the math involved.  Travelling 12 miles per hour, with 12 foot strides, and meeting each obstacle approximately 6 feet from the base, so that it is in the middle of the next 12 foot stride.  A gifted world class pro sees that they are "on stride" 8-10 strides out.  An amateur (that would be me) counts down 3-2-1, three strides out, making for coarser adjustments to meet the sweet spot.

Once in a while, every so often, the gods grant us out heart felt wish and give us 12 in a row.  Twelve jumps with equal take off points, consistent pace, prompt lead changes, even bends as if scrolled by a protractor. At the finish, we came down to a trot, and then a walk, dropped the reins and smiled the knowing smile of a job well done; it would not really matter where we were pinned.  The satisfaction of that experience would be enough.

But then to have Kelsey hear the line up and hop up and down, I figured something good happened, maybe a second?  Then she mouthed, "You won!"  And I knew Princess and I communicated at every stride, every jump, in a coordinated positive round, and were recognized for that.  Super cool. Thanks UP and HW.

Defintely Coming from a Different Point of View

Whee, those jumps look scary in the Montserrat Arena.   Princess and I just completed the HMI Equestrian Classic Horse Show this last week.  Just us and 600+ horses cozying up at this double A rated show. After the last Amateur Owner Modified 3'3" hunter classes, I was delighted to hear I made the cut for a ribbon, and therefor needed to be off my horse, saddle removed, all sweat lines smudged out, and ready to jog her across the arena, so that the judge could assure soundness in all participants.  I think the people can limp all they need to.  Our 60 year old knees can be completely worn out, and that is why we ride and stopped playing tennis.  But the horses need to be sound as the dollar used to be.

Feeling ebullient, I started a conversation with the woman to my right holding her beautiful mare.  I had seen her round, she had some super long distances (taking off dramatically far from the base of the jump) without a flinch from her, all in a days work.  "Your horse has a lot of scope," I mentioned, giving this pronouncement with great insight.

"Yes, she is a 1.45 meter jumper learning her new job."  Background, and to repeat, our jumps were 3'3", our a half inch off ONE meter.  "And imagine," sniff, "we are hanging around to jog for a 6th place ribbon."

"Uh, er," becoming instantly nearly inarticulate, "we're jogging for 7th."  The sound of silence ensued.  But I was STILL jazzed.  Thank you, UP and Hugh.

Fiona Learns to Share

Just back from the Almaden Farms July show, in Watsonville, with so many stories to tell.  Fiona was a star. Stepping up, with her junior colleague, Hanalei, to the 1.10 meter classes, she won and won and got championship too. It was thrilling to see the big eared enthusiastic powerhouse maneuver the lines with aplomb.  She brought lots of bling back to the barn every day.  But finally, she had to share the spotlight with another bay mare.

A huge transition took place this show.  Princess was a nervous distracted scooting rabbit at previous shows. She did not exude the confidence of a capable calm hunter or equitation horse.  And the result showed.  But every show was a bit better and better, with a good round here and there.  But I really felt a difference this time.  She stopped being so distracted and nervous.  The poor thing had been exhausted after the first day of previous shows.  Toe tripping tired but still wired.  Like the babies who are too tired to fall asleep.  They thrash and reduce their already limited vocabulary to a simple, "No!"

She never really said no, she did jump the jumps, but showed an extra drain on the energy which was not good.  But this time, this show, she had a compliant and correct bend in the corners, neither cutting in or bulging out as evasive maneuvers.  She also moved up when I asked, held steady when asked, and loped in and out of the ring with alacrity, able to to much more than previous shows without the slightest appearance of fatigue.  All the unnecessary adrenalin did not drain her.  It was lovely.

Of course, winning the last class I entered at the show (Adult Eq 3') merely confirmed all my suspicions were correct, that I was reading the improvement in capabilities and not imagining them.  Again, a mother analogy (having tried it once, I am of course an expert), trying to avoid the "my kid can do no wrong" mentality.

There were buddies who shared this fun weekend. Hugh had three mounts, the above mentioned Fiona, Hanalei, and Holligan, all gaining experience and doing fabulously.  Lindsey on Capote did their first 3'3" courses (you read right, pleural, as in more than one 3'3" round) and was not nervous at all! Debbie marched around on Gypsy and won her share of blues.

Antonio, Ignacio, and Jose Antonio (in training) were especially helpful, from first morning light till late at night.  Home safe and sound, this was a weekend to remember.

Santa Cruz County Fair Grounds, not our lodging

Guy talk

 First day haul

I don't see you..., or

Do these wraps make my butt look fat?

Yum

UP had a stressful day at the office.  Her mom made a totally amateur move to the wrong distance and left her no option but to try her best.  Saddled with guilt, her mom foisted extra carrots and grazing and brushing all her favorite spots she can't reach on her own.  All she really wants is someone to sit still and chill, she knows what to do.  Good thing her godmother stepped in for some retail therapy.  Oh, right, that works on people.  She got bran instead!

Got Milkweed?

I was so excited to see the blossoms of the Asclepias speciosa, showy milkweed, family Asclepiadaceae, pop open this morning as I was slurping my coffee. Enough botanical Latin for one blog?  I would say so.  These velvety leaved plants bolt up with their tight corsage bouquets of flowers every June.  Hopefully very soon, Monarch butterflies will sniff out the new growth and lay eggs. The caterpillars emerging eat leaves voraciously, chomping down sequential rows like us attacking an ear of corn.  Growing bigger and brighter and fatter by the day, one individual will have to go down to save that generation.  The "vertebrate predators," meaning hungry birds, pick one off for a breakfast snack, and quickly learn that the ingested morsel is a packet of bitter alkaloids concentrated from their diet.  Never again will that bird bother the rest of the gorging gang, who will soon pupate and metamorphosize to stunning butterflies.

The other novel thing about milkweed is that the stems contain usable bast fiber, from the phloem or inner bark of the stem.  Brilliant white, it can be collected in the fall after the plant goes dormant for the winter.  Separating these strong fibers from the xylem and outer bark is called retting, and easier with milkweed than with linen.  After about 100 years of dedicated gardening and collecting, I might be about to gather enough for a doily!

Meet the spring Petaluma surprises.  I was assuming that nothing would show up after a very light rainy season and decades of intense horse pasturing.  Boy, was I wrong.  Look at these beauties:

and check out the future orchard:

and the raspberry patch

We have sequential house guests visiting us in June.  Wonder if we can entice some serious gardening and weed pulling out of each one.  We'll supply the tools.  And Windy and Mocha will watch. 

Sunday at the Park

This is for Dad, a description of a fun Sunday.  Work all week, long hours but satisfying work, get to use the brain, challenges and some busywork,  but that is to be expected.  Then the weekend rolls around.  True, the laundry does not get done unless someone fills the washer and presses complex buttons in sequence.  The dishes are not washed unless loaded in a precise and choreographed order and more buttons pushed.  I do not have the staff of Downton Abbey and have to make due with magic boxes, the oven, washing machine and dishwasher, with obscure icons that only teenagers understand (remind me; when did a teenager ever do laundry or wash dishes?).

But then the weekend rolls around.  I escape reality and bound off to the barn. The barn can be a rough place, as in "Where did you grow up, a barn?" But we have already established my extremely high standards of cleanliness by pushing buttons, so, no, I did not grow up in a barn.

Princess greets me with, "Not now, I'm busy eating dirt off the ground since I finished my meager serving of hay hours ago and I don't feel like working and you don't ride as well as Hugh anyhow so why should I put out for you?" snarl, so fabulous to see in the morning after paying the board and training and shoeing and vet bills.

But then she agrees that I am the next best thing since sliced bread (carrots work) and we go in work mode.  She has 23 hours to laze around, one hour to work and concentrate.   The lesson is always a surprise, different mode, different exercise, always changing.  Today, we kept it small and interesting.  The last task was jumping milk cartons.  Well, not precisely milk cartons, but those plastic blocks that you can build cavalettis with, they are meant to support poles.  Hugh put two together, quite low but only 4 feet wide and no standards.  One slight step sideways and any half-way nimble horse could skirt the obstacle.  Princess trotted and then cantered over like a medal horse, perfect in every way (who is writing this???).  So a good roll is a just reward!

Princess snorts at June Bug

 They HAVE to eat the same blade of grass, in a paddock full of grass

 Has anyone told you that you are SO boring?

 Do I look cute enough?

 I don't see you...

 Maggie, where have you been?

Getting on her hocks

Plop!

Getting ready for the Full Christie

Did I tell you I was a paint?

Oh, joy!

All good things have to come to an end., 

Now, clean me up again. 

Statue pose

And clean the tack too, Ive and Rhapsody look on

Training Wheels

You remember training wheels?  You were not quite big enough for a two wheeler, but your neighbor kids are riding away independently, and your parents are already worried you are falling behind.  So they get you a bike with training wheels.  You can go chicken-shit slow and cautious, definitely not fast enough to kick in the stabilizing gyroscopic force which protects the aforementioned athletically endowed neighbors.

Well, clever trainers can create training wheels for us amateurs.  Get a horse straight and balanced and confident and they can jump the world.  So, we were instructed to go through the gymnastic, downward transition to a working trot, then downward transition to a sitting trot, get the bend and flexion, get COMPLETELY organized, straight to the fence, pick up the correct lead, and go jump it.  Afterwards, on the straight line, downward transition to a trot and repeat, several times.

When the lesson was done and over and our ponies got a well deserved walk back to the barn, a roll in the turnout and a second grooming, we could not resist measuring the efforts.  3'5", 3'6", and 3'9". Really really really.  I know there is a big difference between doing this exercise and keeping it together over an entire course, but totally appreciate the training wheels!  

Old Lady Learns Work Off Test

At the very last minute, I joined members of the barn at the Brookside Premier Show this weekend.  I had the fabulous opportunity to ride Princess and Capote Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday, the first round was uneven but okay.  Then,we hit a lick in the round for the Foxfield medal class, 3'3".  Those optimistic enough to think they made the cut for the work off casually milled around the arena.  Anthony, the back gate starter (tireless job, he always performs this with humor and grace) announced "158, 130 and 250 stand by to work off."  Hmm, I was wearing number 250, Ding Ding, I made the cut.  There was one more round to go, so technically I could have been displaced, but so far, so good.  The last rider finished and I was still in the work off.

Jumper riders learn their jump off course before they start.  It is posted with the first course and can be walked to plan precisely.  Medal class work off tests are done completely differently. The judge decides on the test and lets the starter know.  The starter announces the jumps to jump by order, basing the numbers on the original posted course.  We jump the humps in the original direction, but in the new order.  The instructions were to enter the ring at the walk, pick up the canter and jump fence 5, then 2, then 7, then 1.  Halt and exit the ring at the walk.

Thank goodness there were only 4 fences.  It is like memorizing a telephone number, 7 is the max because most people can't remember more.  Then you had to visualize the new course without using the posted course as a cheater sheet.  2 bending lines, not done previously so no distances known, and a very tight roll back.  Fun!  Were were first to go, therefore third in the standings and did fine.  The standings remained and I got a third!  Princes got her first medal class pinning.  Cool.

I cannot finish off the self-congratulatory accolade without adding the bone-headed move I did the very next day.  Off course in a hunter course?  You have got to be kidding.  Seeing the oxer backwards was the tip off.  I graciously circled before committing the error and finished the course and will never do that again!  Perfect Capote round, too, bummer.

Wait, that's not me.  Hugh in the 3'3" Performance Hunters. No photos of me the entire show, Deb was always on the other arenas! But she looked the same, I shaved.

Thermal in Translation

Here we are at week V if HITS Thermal Horse Show.  Who, precisely, is "we"?  Hugh, Sheila, Debbie, Lindsey, Connolly, Brenda and yours truly.  For the ponies, we have Hooligan, Gypsy, Capote and Fiona, Otto and Fan Fair, and Princess for me.  There are some first impressions that need translation, which I am happy to render, accurate or not, but as near to actual events as I can recall.

"It is not that far"  should translate to: "Not as far as driving to Patagonia and somehow crossing the Panama Canal which re-breaks the land bridge between North and South America."  Lindsey and I trundled down faster that the speed limit, two beater bikes on the rear bumper and made the blistering driving time of eleven hours.   Next show will be close, real close.


"Our barn is not that far out" should translate to: "Any further our we would be beyond the Coachella Valley and into the San Jacinto Mountains to the west.  Hugh measured the round trip form the barn to as close  cars were allowed to the show rings at eight tenths of a mile. Do that round trip 5 times a day and you have your training for any 5K around.  The terrain was flat, but dodging steaming piles of horse dung and loping though deep sand should count for some increased degree of difficulty.

"No one was left out"  should translate to "Everyone got a prize and rode awesome!"  Unbridled enthusiasm here, beware.  Fiona managed to bring home 4 blues by going clean within the time allowed.  This did spice up our ribbon rack.  All the others managed to get pinned at one time or another.  Always a thrill to know you did the course safe and sound and forward and positive and rewarded for same.  When Princess was lead in for her trot, (8th place, but a place nonetheless),  she was distinctly confused.  Did she think it was my turn to jump the 3'3" jumps I just asked her to maneuver over?  Connolly got a second in Eq over fences, Lindsey a 4th and Debbie got a 7th in their respective classes of Eq over fences as well. I am counting 28 ribbons for the two weeks with one trailer full of horses.

"It's not that hot/cold/windy/early/late/sunny/dark/dry, dirty and dusty" should translate to "It's not hot/cold/windy/early/late/sunny/dry, dirty and dusty"  We had it all, all climate zones and time zones compressed into the week.  The Sonoran Desert seems to jump from deep winter to mid summer in one overnight climatic convulsion.

Capote's tail, braided by yours truly.  Hoping to enter him in the Marin County Fair, new division, braiding on a live object, children excluded, but I don't think he would stand in the exhibit hall for 5 days, or 5 minutes.  The End. JP

Making Headway

Just a thought post from the lesson today.  Tried some new things and they seems to work out.  Connolly, Lindsey and myself looped out way through an honest 3'3" course.  That, of course, is laughable to the pros. I just finished reading iJump on the Grand Prix wins at Thermal.  They warm up higher than 3'3".

But that is where I am and where I will probably stay.  Princess and I can start out steady and paced and supple but then get faster and faster, not a pretty picture.  So today. I tried something a little different.  After the fence, I gave her a stride of two of relaxation and freedom.  But then half halts with me sitting more upright and with a more supple spine, literally sinking into the saddle, with a negative energy of "Whoa, girl." She came back almost too well, had to go forward in a steady oxer to oxer five stride.  I cannot remember when the last time that happened.

It is a little hard to describe the move.  But getting stiff gets one bouncy and that activates the horse.  This felt like picking up sleeping cat up from the middle, its body draping off either side, or like a sand bag in the saddle doing the deceleration, not the heavy hands or rein aids.

Anyway, it worked.  Shew was a doll.  And the 3'3" felt easy.  No panic, and a blast!!!!! Thanks, Hugh, great lesson.

Two Halves of the Circle

If you are perfect, and your horse is perfect as well, at a clinic, you learn nothing.  Save that fantasy time for the horse show.  Princess and I had an instructive weekend with Linda Allen, judge and Olympic course designer.  Saturday was low gymnastics with different striding and one very cooperative horse.  Sunday was a little different.  Distractible and spooky, definitely more of a challenge.

Add to that the technical challenge of the course.  Lots of roll backs and oxer to oxer bending lines, then trot into a short gymnastic, all the variation you need to get through a big course.  In the circle before the first jump, she suggested moving up and collecting three to four times, could be barely perceptible, but definitely to have them listening.

Princess has more challenge with tight right turns.  A little more stiff, does not get her feet under her and she therefore gets stressed and stiffer.  There were lots of right right turns.  The more successful ones were jump, half halt and balance and slow down for the turn and get this done BEFORE the half way mark.  Then move up to the fence.

If you are still half halting and trying to slow down 3/4 the way through the turn, you have one stride left to the jump.  Either it is tiny dorky decelerated hop from the base, or you are gunning it in one stride and lucky if they get enough impulsion to get the job done.  Either way, not elegant.

So one practical suggestion is canter on a circle, extend for half the circle and collect for half.  Then extend for a quarter and collect for a quarter, like 12-3-6-9 o'clock on a clock.  Today we did just that and Princess got it!  Now we have to get it on the landing side of a jump.  Always something to learn.  Oh yes, and don't lean and keep your shoulders even with the direction you are going, or more precisely, keep the line through both shoulders perpendicular to the direction you are going,

Joan and Princess studying hard for the next challenge.

Capote Caper

Our barn is a little unusual.  If a horse needs exercise, out of the stall, head clearing trot and canter, then we can ride each others horses.  This is different from schooling, or actual training, which is reserved for Hugh's hands.  But if you are equal in proficiency as the owner, and the same owner is working or away, then you can rise one, two, or three horses after your lesson. More time in the saddle, extra conditioning for me, always a treat.

Yesterday, I got to ride Capote.  This is the middle of winter, and he is clipped.  Sort of makes him look like a Marine recruit, with a new crew cut, the icy air directed straight to the unaccustomed scalp. Energizing to say the least. He was on his toes, perusing the horizon for anything alarming, any excuse to act genuinely scared, basically any excuse to buck me off, to be frank.

But we managed to keep our cool, cadenced trot and lovely canter, settled down until he felt truly relaxed and got his wiggles out in a safe (for me) manner.  I returned him to the barn and proudly told Antonio, "No loco" in my limited Spanish. I thought I was super horse whisperer in training

Deflation time.  Antonio admitted he lunged Capote that morning.  Deflation, not a horse whisperer but regular amateur dreamer.  But dreaming is fun too.