Thwarted plans

I should never have cleared that terrace from snow.

During the week the temperature started to drop again, and we were down to the -20C/-4F again.
Then the snow came.

At Thursday evening, when I was to have my first training for Jimmi, it was windy and snowing.
Jimmi arrived late from Denmark, so I did not have my training until 10.20 pm.
As the stable closes at 11 pm, we just had to have the session at home in the outside arena. Jimmi was stoically shouting in the wind, slowly covering up in snow.
I was frantically trying to hear what he said.
My hearing has not improved over the years. Hahem.
Still he was happy with the progress from last time, which was nice to hear.

I was to have two more trainings, on Saturday and Sunday.
I had even booked my daughter as a photographer, so I would be able to illustrate this blog post with some pictures.
It is not easy to photograph oneself when training, and as there have been many photos of surroundings on trail with parts of a horse head, or some ears in the foreground, I guess a change would be welcome.
I was really looking forward to the training.

But I had not calculated with the weather.

During Friday both the wind and the snowing increased.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, it was as close to a snow storm as you will get in the lowlands here. Nothing like in the mountains, but strong wind and heavy snowfall.
And in addition -12C/10F.

I called Jimmi as I had a hunch that he would prefer to have the training indoors that day.
Funny enough, he thought that would be a good idea.
(And that is how you cannot see any photos of Fame and me doing upper level dressage. It would, of course, otherwise be filled with piaffes and canter pirouettes left and right.)

I wrapped myself and Fame up in layers, and started the ride of half an hour to the indoor arena.
The wind and the snow were beating against my face, and I drew the scarf even tighter up towards my eyes, bending my head against the snow so the rim of the helmet took off for most of it.
Fame heroically trudged on through the snow and the wind.
When we reached the forest, it took off for some of the wind and it was a bit easier to see where we were going.

I had calculated a bit extra time to get all the layers off once we got to the indoor arena, and to get Fame accustomed to the arena again.
When we got inside and reached her spooky corner at the short side (where I cunningly had planned to undress), the wind and the snow were beating against the wall that was partly covered with some plastic, creating an eerie sound.
My horse immediately turned into an antelope again.
All her suspicions were confirmed.
That corner had bogey men inside the walls.
*sigh*

I started to warm up, and even if Fame relaxed better on the circle around Jimmi at the other side of the arena, she was still somewhat tense.
I guess Jimmi could see the little black cloud hanging over my head.

So we marched over to the scary corner and played Ghostbusters until Fame finally relaxed and accepted that the tigers in the wall would not attack.
Which took most of the training session.
*sigh*


When I woke on Sunday, the weather had calmed down.
Then I got a phone from my friend who told me that they would be keeping the show jumps standing in the arena that day.
I was not happy to hear that.

Dressage riding in between jumps is not the same as having the arena to work in.

*sigh*
I conferred with the rider I was to share my training session with, and we concluded with “if you can’t beat them, join them” and put on the jumping saddles instead.

Now, Jimmi is every bit as good a trainer in show jumping as in dressage, if not even better.
But when we came down to the arena and told Jimmi we could just as well jump, he was a bit befuddled and said that we could work a bit at the circle and casually asked at the same time if we had jumped anything before?
I believe he was a bit worried about middle-aged dressage ladies etc – you get the picture. ..
I could fall off in the middle of a tiny jump and due to brittle bones have multiple fractures in arms and legs and such.
And the blingbling on Fame’s brow band could get dusty.
Now I have to admit I have not been doing much show jumping the last year as my trainer got pregnant, and I have no ambition in SJ except to have some fun, but we do pop a jump from time to time.
I have even done a bit cross country training, also just for fun.

So Jimmi started out very cautiously, with a super low X-pole jump.
When he saw that we managed to hang on, he gradually included more jumps and also raised them somewhat off the ground.
My horse loves to jump, and got going with great enthusiasm.
And I must say I find it fun as a change to the dressage work too.

In the end Jimmi had a big grin on.
He told me he had been impressed with me twice that weekend; first time with the sandwich I had brought him on Saturday (at which time he was ravenous, so that doesn’t count much), and second time with the show jumping (in which his expectations where close to zero).
Thanks mate.
What about the dressage?????

I have to get home and have a pep talk with Fame about that piaffe.

Could you spell that? P-i-a-f-f-e?? Must be some foreign language....

Jimmi training again

Jimmi arrived on Thursday, so Fame and I have been working hard this weekend.

On Saturday I was really tired, and contemplated an Absorbine-bath.

I thought an update perhaps was in order before going into details about the weekend.

Last time Jimmi was here, Fame was tense, a bit too high in the neck and not round enough over the back.

The problem had been sneaking in on me, and when working her the week before Jimmi came I had problems to get her to relax enough to have her to work as I wanted.
We concluded after the last visit that this was the main issue to work on, and I was a bit worried that it was something physical bothering her.

I thought it over, wondering whether to contact a chiro or try to solve it through the riding.
At the same time the details of my job change was clarified, and with some extra time on my hands I had a discussion with my trainer Annie.
We decided that she would ride Fame a couple of days each week for the upcoming 3-4 weeks.

It turned out to be a very good solution.

After just two sessions Fame was much better, so there were not any large problems.

What has been nice is that when Annie has been riding, she has also been commenting to me what she was feeling and doing, so it has been kind of a kinderegg solution – I have got my horse worked through, I have learnt more about what issues to address, and Annie knows my horse better and will be able to help me better when I am riding myself.

Nice, huh?

I feel that Fame is now working with a better hind leg activity both in trot and in canter, and Jimmi also thought she had improved since last time.

I was very happy that he confirmed what I felt.

I still feel that she is more antelop-y though, in general.

I have been wondering why.

I got a comment on an earlier post that lower temperatures sometimes can get the horses more agitated.
I thought about amount of hard feed.

I am not convinced it is any of the two.

I have asked more from her in the work lately, maybe that is a factor?

We have now a new riding hall 25 mins ride from us, light and nice and with a super surface.

A treat to ride in!

It was ready just this week, and Fame had only been there once before the Jimmi-training started.

Fame saw some ghosts of course. And as a funny coincidence, as she grew tired, the more ghosts she saw.

I reread a book of dressage by Carl Hester a while ago. In it he describes his horses.
I remember that he described one of them as a bit pluggy as a youngster, but it turned into a much more lively horse as a 6 yo due to the work and increasing strength.

Maybe something similar is happening to Fame?
Fame has never been pluggy, always lively – maybe it is just a bit too much liveliness coming out through her ears?

I was looking at her the other day when tacking up.
I believe she has put on some more muscles lately.
When you see your horse every day it is not easy to tell – but she looks larger.

Still, I hope the antelopiness is a passing stage.

I like a lively horse, but I also want to keep her with me.

Back to the “with-you-ness” we discussed in an earlier post.

I dressed her up before the work on Sunday. All orange!

So what did we work with this weekend?

Basics.

Fame has to build strength to be able to do some more collected work in the time to come. I would also like her to further improve the quality of gaits.
When she gets stronger, she will be able to show some more expression.

So we worked with transitions within the gaits, and between the gaits.

Lateral work; leg yield and shoulder-in in trot and canter.

She is weaker in her left hind, which earlier gave me problems when asking for a left canter depart.
She tensed up, and wanted to float a bit outwards to the right.

She now gave me nice round departs within the frame, which made me happy.

We have another problem though.

When collecting canter left, she sometimes changes canter with her hind legs.

Jimmi said that we just have to keep working on it, stretch the limits, tap a little on her hind when asking for collection and ride out of it when I feel that she is tensing up.
Keeping her relaxed in the work, but asking for a little more day by day. I have to feel how much we as a team can handle.
Sounds good to me.

I believe I have to have some calm training sessions on my own with Fame, and concentrate on how I sit, and how I use the aids.

I earlier thought that the problems was my fault, but as she has been doing the same thing with Annie I believe it is (also) an evasion on Fame’s part, due to her weaker left hind.

In Sunday’s session we were a bit tired, both Fame and me, and the ghosts multiplied.

One of the corners was scary right from the start.

It contained a large opened door to the outside, and there were some jumping obstacles stored there. One could not see what might hide behind them.

As tiredness grew, the whole upper end of the arena turned scary. Tigers can jump far.

Which made the shoulder-ins a bit difficult to ride…

But I have a cunning plan.
When we are to ride there in the weeks to come, any break will be in the scary corner.
So, scary corner=place of rest.
*evil chuckle*

I must boast a bit in the end.
My daughter won the regional cup in dressage this autumn, class LA.

As she is not quite well she has not been able to train as much as she wants.
She was in second place before the final, with one counting show less than possible as she had been sick.
She managed to do a good ride, and get enough points to win.

We were all very happy for her.

Her pony Charlie is a sweetie, he is there for her when she needs him.

He got his carrots.

Autumn joy

My daughter has taken the photo above.

I think it is such a beautiful autumn picture; the clear azure-blue sky, and the yellow leaves.

It is so beautiful outside now, and we have had some sunny days.

The temperature has dropped though.

On my trail ride last Saturday I rode in a t-shirt. Now, I have had to find my chaps and thick jackets.

After two days of intensive dressage traning, I took Fame out on a relaxing ride today in the beautiful weather.

Tomorrow the weather forecast says sleet, so we better take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.

The disadvantage with many horses around is that the soil is washed away, and the stones creep up.

Fairytale forest, don't you think?

(Cabruze - no bugs, just moose!)

Calm and low water in the creek.

But on Wednesday and Thursday we worked hard!

Jimmi, the Danish trainer is here again.

On Wednesday he scolded us as he found Fame tight in the topline.

That is something that I always have to watch with her. She likes to work in a too high form which renders her tight in the back if "left alone".

I am aware of it, and work a lot with supplying exercises, keeping her in a low and round form.

But we had not done enough apparently!

He helped us through it, also riding Fame for a short while.
At the end of the lesson, she was much better.

She has been a bit more "antelope-y" lately though, I thought about it when hacking out today.

As I was riding bareback it was extra obvious...
I might have to adjust on her hard feed.
It is nice to have some energy, but if the energy is directed into spooking for about all and everything and getting tense instead of working, maybe the octane level is too high.

I will set her down a bit on the pellets and see what happens.

When we started out day two she was much better right from the start.

We continued with supplying exercises, and Fame felt good in the contact and with an improved hind leg activity. The trot in particular felt better than normal, and I was happy with the work.

Jimmi is a good trainer.

The things he comments on always feels right, and I feel Fame is working better.

The trainer can say nice things, deserved or not, but the horse never lies.

Now I am looking forward to two more lessons during the weekend.

It is very nice to get such an intensive training once he is here, as it will be a month or more until he returns.

My daughter also had a lesson this morning.

I had to act as translator as she has problem to understand Danish.

In the afternoon Siri and Hjalmar also had sessions.

And Jimmi was so lucky as to ride on a quality horse!