Not-So-Speedy Dressage
From Endurance to Dressage
This past Friday afternoon, the ranch owner had to say goodbye to one of her horses. Archie was an imported Irish Draft. He was her granddaughter's jumper in his younger years, and a steady trail horse in his senior years. Archie had been in good health until fairly recently when he mysteriously became incontinent. It seems that he could no longer feel the need to urinate. He was given a cross your fingers type of treatment for a month, but it was unable to reverse the damage caused by age. Given that he seemed quite withdrawn and was no longer living a life of ease, it was ultimately decided to let him go peacefully rather than wait for a day when he was unable to rise on his own. Archie was in his 30s. Thank you for your years of generous service, Archie. You will be missed.
Let's start the week off with a hilarious PSA. Yes, it's an ad campaign aimed at those who don't like wearing helmets because they're perceived as uncomfortable, uncool, or unmanly, but it's funny whether you wear a helmet or not. It's funny if you like viking stories, funny if you think (some) men are idiots, and it's especially funny if you know that it's women who really run the show (said with a wink). For what it's worth; wear a helmet. If not for your own head, then do it for the person who will have to change your diaper when you're paralyzed from the neck down. With that said, thanks goes out to the FB friend who shared this over the weekend, and how funny is this video?
Pretty damn funny! Like clockwork, the day after the winter solstice, Izzy lost a few hairs from his coat. Not many, but just enough to show that his body knew that the daylight hours be increasing. When I went out the barn yesterday, I finally saw that Izzy's winter coat is shedding and his darker summer coat is peeking through. Izzy always sheds the hairs from front to back. His barrel are rump are always last to lose their shaggy winter hair. Yesterday, I had to keep emptying the brush as it quickly filled up with hair. While I love the Schimmel brush all winter, shedding season is when I really appreciate how well it gets the deep down dirt and hair off. I both love and hate shedding season. What's waiting underneath is worth it, but getting there means a lot of itchy noses and a lot of bad hair days.
Izzy's about to get all kinds of ugly! Some days I get off Izzy and swear that I have to be the world's very worst rider. But then there are days like this past Sunday where I am positive I am the worst rider. Until I watch a video. Then I see that what I feel is not anything like what it looks like. Thank goodness. If it looked as bad as it felt, I would have been through with this dressage thing a long time ago. Just because I am not the worst rider ever doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement, a LOT of room for improvement. In my defense though, Izzy does not make it easy. We've passed the gate corner at least a million times in the past six years, and that is no exaggeration. And yet, I still get this ... Not five minutes later, I got this again, and while it looks like the exact same video, I promise you, it is not. As painful as it was to watch this latest Pivo recording, I found myself fast forwarding while I looked for the disastrous moments. I had just ridden, so they were very distinct in my mind. As I scrolled through the video, though, I just couldn't find the ugly that I was sure had to be there. That's not to say we presented as a lovely pair, but it's not the rodeo that I think it is. In fact, as I watched the following minute of what they hell?, all I saw was a pretty balanced rider tactfully riding a tense and braced horse. She even pats him kindly when he loses his balance/spooks in the downward transition. That is not what the world's worst rider would do. While Izzy isn't easy, and that is a huge understatement, I continue to learn whether I want to or not. Over the past few weeks, my focus has once again centered around issues of control. Those spooking moments in the first two videos only happen in that one particular corner. There is nothing in that corner that he hasn't seen a thousand times before, but it is his way of attempting to take the control away. I am learning to ride with a lot heavier contact than I would prefer, but Izzy seems to need to feel manhandled. I would rather Izzy just go along with the flow, but that isn't who he is. He's a big, strong guy that wants to bully his way around the playground while feeling dejected that he doesn't have any friends. Be a little more of a team player, dude, and more kids will want to play with you. Sheesh! I hope Izzy knows that his life could be a lot worse.
He could have met me back when I was still endurance riding. Speaking of tack rooms ... Last week when I volunteered, the head trainer at M.A.R.E. agreed that I could help with one job in particular in the recently re-ororganized tack room. I was excited to help, but it seemed like such a small job that I figured it would already be done by the time I arrived on the following Wednesday. When I walked up to the barn last week, the head trainer met me and picked up right where our last conversation had ended. Not only did she still want me to do the job, but she had a clipboard and a recording sheet in hand. Since the arena is still not quite finished, the trainers and other volunteers are looking for stuff to do. For the head trainer, that means getting into MA.R.E.'s nooks and crannies for clean up and maintenance. When lessons are going on all day long, there isn't much time, nor space in the barn aisle, for overhauling entire rooms. Since the arena redo has forced the facility into downtime, the tack room has been a priority of sorts. The head trainer has already done most of the work. From what she explained, the tack room had been a hot mess. Not long ago, after reaching her limit, she threw everything out into the barn aisle and started from scratch. Now, there is a clear and logical system. Volunteers will grab a numbered saddle with its pad, the right sized girth, the horse's bridle, a leading rope, and reins. All of it gets laid out on a cart for easy transfer to the cross ties. Most of that system is already in place. The one exception was the matching saddle pad and half pad. The head trainer had numbered all of the saddles and attached a number to the saddle rack, but the pads with the saddles didn't necessarily match. That was the job she wanted me to finish. And since I was organizing the pads, she asked if I would also do another task. With more than thirty saddles in the room, the head trainer decided it was time for an inventory. The head trainer handed me a clipboard with a chart. She wanted me to write each saddle's brand and type along with its seat size. She didn't know it, but that kind of job gets me giddy! Organizing is one of my super powers, and when that is combined with a list, I am unstoppable. The first thing I did was to pull all of the pads from all of the saddles. I piled anything fleecy in one pile and put all of the waffle pads in another pile. What the head trainer wanted was for each English saddle to have a waffle pad and a fleece pad while the western saddles would get their own felt pads. Once I could see all of the saddles, I pulled each one off its rack and found its brand, if there was one, and noted it on the chart along with the saddle type - dressage, jumping, all purpose, western, or tiny child. There were two of the cutest 12" dressage saddles you've ever seen! After I had noted the saddle make and style, I measured the seat size and wrote it all down on the chart. Once I had recorded the data for a saddle, I dug through the pile of pads to find the appropriate half pad or fleece and then I found a waffle pad that would work. Before, volunteers simply used any type of fleece with a square pad. Since the panels of a dressage saddle and jumping saddle are different in shape, it's better to have the right shaped pad. Matching the pads to the saddles took longer than identifying the make and size of each saddle. The first ten went quickly, but eventually the job lost its novelty. But, with organizing as my super power, I kept at it until I had finished all thirty saddles.
The center has saddles of all shapes and sizes as well as a few non-saddles. There are western, dressage, jumping, and all purpose saddles. There are also some specialty saddles like a treeless model and an English style saddle with a lot of blocks and handles for rider support. There are also vaulting rigs, fleece bareback pads and saddles sized for toddlers. After finishing that task, I blanketed a few horses, scooped a load of poop, and signed out for the day. I don't think riding lessons will be going on today, so I will likely be sweeping, cleaning, or sorting something. I truly welcome any task and only want to be a help. There are a lot of dirty jobs in a barn, and as a volunteer, I already expect them to be mine. I am looking forward to tonight's job, whatever it is. |
About the Writer and RiderI am a lifelong rider.
I began endurance riding in 1996 where I ultimately completed five, one-day 100 mile races, the 200-mile Death Valley Encounter, and numerous other 50, 65, and 75 mile races. I began showing dressage in 2010. Welcome to my dressage journey. About Speedy GSpeedy went from endurance horse to dressage horse. After helping me earn a USDF Bronze medal in the summer of 2020, he is now semi-retired. Speedy is a 2004, 15'1 hand, purebred Arabian gelding. His Arabian Horse Registry name is G Ima Starr FA.
About IzzyIzzy was started as a four-year old and then spent the next 18 months in pasture growing up. I bought him as a six-year old, and together, we are showing at the lower levels. He is a 2008, 16'3 hand warmblood gelding. His Rheinland Pfalz-saar International (RPSI) name is Imperioso.
National Rider AwardsState Rider Awards
State Horse Awards
Working Towards:
CDS Sapphire Rider Award Third Level: 63.514% Third Level: 62.105% Fourth Level: Fourth Level: 2023 Show Season
Show Rating (***) CDS/USDF/USEF (*) CDS (s) Schooling (c) Clinic (r) Ride-a-Test Clinic 2023 Show Schedule
TBD 2023 Completed … Pending 2023 Qualifying Scores
Regional Adult Amateur Competition (RAAC) Qualifying Training Level 3 Scores/2 Judges/60%: Score 1: Score 2: Score 3: Archives
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