Sunday Sept 13

Cool, rainy, lazy day!  Bring horses in for the day as usual for this time of year.  Normally, the barn is cooler and less buggy than the pasture, plus Andy must avoid the afternoon sugar spike in the photosynthesizing grass because of his metabolic problem.  Today, though, bringing the horses in keeps them dry to help avoid skin issues.  Watched movies with my husband for most of the day.

Monday Sept 14

After work at my full-time office job as a Senior Financial Advisor with a bank, I head over to teach a student at her farm on her 4 year old mare who is just starting to work for a living.  We have been working together for 8 weeks and the mare is learning to leg yield and briefly canter.  I hop on for about 20 mins near the end of the ride to help reinforce her correct response to leg aids.  She is calm and cute but can bulldog her way around when challenged, so I'm careful to end the session on a positive, relaxed note by stretching her neck down long and low in a low-key trot.  We plan for me to warm her up next time so her owner can feel the difference.

Tuesday Sept 15

Lunch with a good horsey friend.  Stories, plans and a little gossip.  Dressage Day for Ludi after work.  It's hot so he feels like he has 'no air in his tires' today, but he'd had 2 days off!  At least he's relaxed.  We leg yield, play with shoulder-in, and I insist on him carrying himself properly in canter.  We do a big wild lead change both ways to finish and I give him a cookie. Our session is under 30 minutes and I trail ride him through the forest around our property to cool down, but he trots part of the way home anyway.  In the 10 minutes we're gone, my friend drops off a bit for me to try on Ehren and I miss her!

Wednesday Sept 16

Jumping Day for Ludi after work.  I've set up a new jumping exercise to try out:  The cavaletti to the vertical will warm him up.  The tight turns between the individual fences will help to package his canter, and I can test this by ensuring he comfortably canters the line in 4 strides.  If he charges, I can use the vertical to the trot poles as another exercise we've already learned from previous weeks.  My husband 'spots' for me and tells me when he thinks it was a good round.  It's hot again.  I give Ludi a shampoo bath afterwards with so he'll be somewhat clean for our training session with Ron on Friday.

Thursday Sept 17

The vet is coming!  Morning off work to see Kathleen check up DiMaggio, Andy and Ehren.  I get up early to get some housework and laundry done, and get all the horses groomed before she arrives.  DiMaggio gets a glowing review and an optimistic outlook.  Andy will need some more special hoof care, but from the 'hooves up' he's looking good.  We're waiting on the results of his ACTH blood test.  Fall is upon us and he'll be at high risk of another health crisis because of his Cushing's disease.  Ehren gets his soft palate scoped to see about his mild cough.  We decide to treat for allergies and I will try some different bit and noseband combinations to make him more comfortable in his dressage work.  His puzzle is starting to make more sense.  

The arena builder stops me to pick the color for the siding.  We settle on 'coffee', which I happen to be drinking at the time. I get the barn ready for my husband to bring in, feed and turn out the horses later. 

Rush to work and blowdry my hair by speeding down the highway with the windows down!  Scheduled to teach after work, but student is suddenly ill so I school her horse instead.  This gelding is all the right kinds of draft cross: easygoing and calm but very athletic and intelligent.  We warm up with stretching trot and move into serpentines and leg yield.  His owner is smaller than me and finds he can be strong in her hands, so I insist on him being more elastic & light, and that he responds to my leg signals to maintain his balance.  We finish with some simple changes in canter lead through serpentines and we both feel great after the workout.  Have a nice chat with the stable owner and head home in the dark.

Friday Sept 18

Precious day off work.  Training day for Ludi! But first, I have to pick up the truck from the mechanic and pin up the trailer.  Arena builder stops me and says 'Tea, right?' then he laughs and drives away.  Lud is covered in mud.  Tidy up, load up and head to Ashton, ON for noon.  We ride outside and I use a headset for the first time.  Lose both earrings in the ring.  Ludi is more fascinated with the turned out horses than in his dressage but overall Ron says we're better than last time, and are headed in the right direction.  He shares a few stories of difficult horse phases he's gone through himself.   Haul home to unpack, get another load of laundry on the line, bathe Ludi again, drag the ring before it rains and take Ehren for a trail ride.  Get it all done before rain starts!  Frank the barn cat king tells me it's time for deworming.  Gross.

Saturday Sept 19

Full day at home!  Supposed to rain a ton.  Groomed the dogs.  Get out early and trail ride DiMaggio, who feels fantastic!  Dogs come along and are full of burrs again. Dressage school Ludi.  My intent was to just give him an easy, stretching ride and to check his responsiveness.  I try riding him with smooth-roweled spurs and a softer bit this time.  He makes me school him a bit harder than I'd planned, but we go for a nice easy walk around the grass field while he grabs huge mouthfuls of grass.  Dressage school Ehren in the new bit and really focus on keeping my reins long, barely on the lacing near the buckle.  I haven't schooled him in a couple of weeks and he is eager to show me all he remembers.  He is such a happy, eager guy.  

I feed the horses early and putter in the garden while the rain starts.  Plant new phlox, pull weeds, put down some mulch and trim back the flowers that are done for the year.  Turn out the horses and get the barn ready so it's easy for my husband to do the chores for me tomorrow.  I even bake muffins afterwards. 

Sunday Sept 20

Show day at Preston Rosedale in Perth, and I get to be the judge!  Leave the house at 5:30am for show time starting at 8.  Miss my turn off but have a Plan B and am plenty early.  Weather feels freezing after the heat wave last week, but I manage to dress just about right for it.  Tuck into a comfortable booth with a lovely scribe, Sandra, and judge Training, First Level and Prix Caprilli classes at this fantastic schooling show until 4:30.  My ring finishes right on time, which is much appreciated by everybody. Take my original route home through Lanark, which is a scenic drive in my grandmother's country, and get home before 7 to a nice dinner and a beer or 2 with my husband.  Stretch on the yoga mat before bed; sitting all day is no good for equitation.  

Coming this week:  Teaching 2 nights, the farrier visits, working late one night and testing a Rider Level Candidate this weekend.  Hang on!

Back in July I received a message from Sherry Hill, whom I've mentioned in a previous entry.  Sherry runs a jumper stable in Georgia, but she's from Northern Ontario and visits every summer, which is where we met back in 2010.  Turns out, she has a boatload of family right here in Pembroke, too, and was driving through in early August.  As it also turns out, she was bringing her buddy Jill Henneberg.  Jill happens to have won Team Silver at the '96 Atlanta Olympics in Eventing.  Would we like to host a clinic with Jill while they're on their way through?  Hell yeah!

CLICK HERE for a terrific biography about Jill 

We filled a day with lessons and structured it so that riders could take a dressage lesson in the morning, and then a group jumping lesson in the afternoon.  I brought out Ehren first for a semi-private lesson and he was perky & polite.  We worked on obtaining a steady contact by keeping him busy with transitions in gait and bend with a consistent, slightly longer, rein length.  Ehren felt happy to work and ended the ride beautifully loose and swinging.  Jill suggested a change in bit and noseband that I am experimenting with now. 

Ludi came out swinging and promised to give me a wild ride.  We cantered around for a while to try to settle him but it was to no avail.  I was glad to have Jill's eyes on me to help work through the situation, since she's obviously familiar with high-energy horses.  Lud's going through a phase this summer; a phase I've seen called 'The Wonder Years' as in: "I wonder why I'm putting myself through this?".  I'm keenly aware of a few things: my previous entries talking about how wonderfully he has been coming along till now, how I set an example as a competent trainer to my students, how we've regressed somewhat from last summer's open-field group trail rides that I wouldn't dream of taking him to now.   But one great thing about the internet is that it is very easy to find lots of stories about these phases in so many other horses, other horses that have turned out spectacularly with time and patient resilience, and so I keep on keepin' on in his training.

I quickly hosed him off after our dressage ride and changed tack for jumping.  We hadn't done much of it this summer but I had a ton of fun playing over wee jumps.  Lud still tried to control the ride a few times; he loves to zoom through a 5 stride line in 3, which is dangerous once the jumps get higher, so we schooled some hard stops with a stern 'WHOA.' to help keep me in charge.  He certainly gave me the feeling that he enjoyed this session and I was really impressed with his form in the photos.

Jill's ability to school riders in dressage and jumping is very compelling to me to get her back again.  I enjoyed the variety of exercises, her focus on the riders, her ability to 'walk the talk' and ride a strange horse to school and demonstrate, the way she gave lots of positive feedback but also firmness of tone when necessary, and a sincere interest in her students.  All in all it was a fantastic day with great people.

The jumps have stayed in the ring so we can keep practicing.  I have worked hard over many years to earn my "Dressage Queen" reputation, but there is nothing quite as exciting and satisfying as executing a challenging course of jumps on a game horse.  I have been very lucky to have had some very good coaching in jumping, and  Lud's DNA says there's lots of ability within him.  I'm reminded of my past training with Andy where the dressage work improves the course work, but jumping can help to truly collect the canter and even school the flying changes.  Many horses seem to understand the visual aspect of jumping versus the intangible 'feel' of dressage. 

I called this entry "Cross Training" for the dressage & jumping lessons, but I also wanted to talk about riding out of the ring.  I have been 'riding the range' with Ludi, Ehren and DiMaggio just as much as we have been schooling.  Hacking around on the trails we've made here has so many benefits: a bit of tricky footing here and there for challenge, a bit of grazing in the sunny field for relaxation, marching along a shady trail to condition & loosen muscles.  I hold the reins long, 'on the buckle', and feel calm in nature.  We look at the plants and animals around us and cover some ground.

Equestrians who participate in Eventing, like Jill, know all about cross training.  I spent most of my teenage years riding at a stable called Terelisa Farm that had school horses who were athletic enough for me to try Eventing with.  Riding 'out' was just as important to keep the horses fit and fresh as the schooling.  As my older horses age, jumping is no longer important, but long walks on the trail is the first way to get them fit before we school dressage.  As my younger horses come along, I think they deserve some basic jump schooling to make them versatile and to help develop their talents.  It's up to me to stay versatile, too.  So, we cross train.