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Years ago, I needed more intentional feedback from my coach or trainer. Am I really making progress? Be specific, please. These days, I know for a fact that progress is being made, even if it's not slow. I'm greedy, I can't help it. Anyhoodle, the reason I bring this up is because "J" has been back on schedule riding Speedy, and I hear that same need in her voice. Are you sure I am getting better? People say I am, but am I really? I know what she's looking for. I've been on the path she's traveling, and in fact, I am still there. I may be a bit further ahead, but struggle is struggle no matter your riding level. She wants to make sure she's not wasting her time or mine. No one wants to struggle week after week if there isn't any progress.  He's adorable, and she really likes him! The last time she rode, two weeks ago, she had a pretty big breakthrough. It's the same one I once had with Speedy. He's such a diva that he cons everyone into going gently with him. None of his riders ever want to take hold and insist. Halfway through J's last ride, I had her get off and I got on. I showed her how much insisting Speedy could take. When she got back on him, I saw a new level of determination on her face. And you know what, he snapped to and started working for real.
When she came out this weekend, we were able to work on some lateral movements because she finally took hold and asked. She asked so well that Speedy started to anticipate her aids which meant we had to remind him that J could also whisper. I had J think about a completely mental aid, one that is simply the thought ... canter. If Speedy couldn't hear a whisper, then the ask aid - lifting a seat bone. And finally, if he really wasn't listening, the I mean it! aid which might come with a sharper kick. Wouldn't you know it, Speedy started to look fancy. And I mean hot stuff fancy. The dude is well into his eighteenth year, but you wouldn't know it. So when J asked if she was getting better or not, I told her that the way to know is to pay attention to the kind of lesson you're having. Is it the same thing you've been working on month after month, or are you learning something new? If you're learning something new, you're making excellent progress. With that kind of thinking, I am making progress too, even though it doesn't always feel like it. "J" is back on schedule, so she and Speedy were hard at work on Saturday. J only moved to our area a year or two (maybe 3?) ago. In that time, she has begun building relationships and joining in with the dressage community in BVS. Lately, she has been riding a few dressage horses for people like me, riders with an extra horse. She has been pretty excited about the opportunity to ride more than once a week, and it has been quite gratifying to hear that she has been getting very good feedback on her seat and ability to work with new and different horses. With riding multiple horses in mind, I suggested we focus on her ability to feel when a horse is ready for a transition. Any horse, not just Speedy. J told me that one of the horses she rides want to run into the transitions instead of lifting the belly and pushing from behind. Speedy is the perfect horse for this type of lesson because his transitions are total shite if you let them be. Set him up correctly though, and he'll give you a lovely transition every time be it walk, trot, or canter.  One of the things J is working on right now is sitting up and back. She still has a tendency to perch a bit - how many of us also fight that same habit? Wanting to "give" too much has the effect of pulling us forward. I had her really focus on sitting and pushing out and up with her belly while not hollowing her own back. When she would get it right, Speedy's own tempo got super quiet and regular. Long ago, I asked Chemaine Hurtado, owner and trainer at Symphony Dressage Stables, whether to teach the rider what the horse knows or whether to teach the rider what she doesn't know. Chemaine's reply was quick: teach the rider the basics first. Since Speedy is schooled through Third Level, he obviously has a lot of buttons that a lower level rider might enjoy pushing, but Chemaine stressed that every rider needs a solid foundation before asking for more technical movements. Knowing this, I thought it would help J to do some walk to canter transitions to help her get a better feel for asking the horse to lift rather than run into the transition. It took her a few tries, but eventually she was able to ask without letting Speedy's energy squirt forward. I always think about the walk to canter being something like a plane taking off. You don't want the plane to keep rolling forward; you want it to lift. That means you need a half halt to say not forward, but use more thrust to lift the shoulders and push from behind.  It was pretty exciting to see her be able to put it all together. Speedy always gets sassy in the walk to canter transitions. You can see it in his tail in the photos. He also flips his ears backwards. He's not upset. Instead it's his I'm a badass mofo so get out of my way!
J will be back this Saturday. It's been blistering hot in the afternoons, so I don't know if she'll have been able to ride after work, but I hope so. I am eager to hear whether she was able to apply any of these ideas to her rides. That just now made me wonder: have my own trainers been eager to hear how it went over the week for me? I am always excited to share with my trainer what I've accomplished. Maybe they're excited to hear it. Any trainers out there who can confirm or deny? Just about the time that you think your 18 year-old, semi-retired, school master is D-e-p-e-n-d-a-b-l-e, he gets lit up and makes you glad you're not the one riding him tomorrow. A possessed, big brown horse is enough for me, thank you very much. Good luck, "J." She'll be riding him on Saturday.  While we are having a very mild summer, our afternoons have been in the 100s which means all of the horses have been pretty lethargic lately. I pulled Speedy out for a quick shower followed by some grazing in the yard on Wednesday. As soon as I let him off the lead, he gave me that devilish head toss of his and took off down the fence line. He slammed on the brakes, circled back, and threw himself down in the sand to show me what he thought of being all wet.  He then proceeded to rip around the yard, bucking and kicking up dirt. I sat in the shade laughing at his antics until he headed off behind the barn.    Since Izzy swapped places with the stallion last month, this is the first time that I've been able to let Speedy wander around the yard freely. I had put Izzy in the grass alley in front of Speedy's paddock because I don't let them both out at the same time. I don't need that kind of a headache. Once Speedy headed toward the barn, I followed his dust cloud and saw that he had sneaked into Izzy's much larger paddock; it's just shy of a quarter of an acre. As I looked over the fence, there he was ripping around like a two year old. Oy vey! As I walked into the paddock, Speedy flew past me kicking up his heels. I've known him for a very long time. There was nothing I could do to safely catch him, so I went and stood in the middle and waited for him to come to his senses. While he'll always let me catch him, catching him too soon just means I have a spooky, flight animal at the end of a string. It's always better to let him wind down a bit on his own. It only took him a minute or two to settle down, but even then he piaffed his way back to his pen.  Now that he lives next door to a very quiet old man, Speedy doesn't play hard every day with Izzy. I had thought he appreciated the quieter neighbor. I guess I was wrong.
It seems that Speedy still needs to let loose every now and then. Guess what? "J," Speedy's rider from last year, is back! When I took Izzy up to the Tehachapi show last month, I was delighted to see that she was feeling better and was ready to get back in the saddle. While Speedy isn't in very good shape, he is plenty fit enough to play around with J. It's a good combination because she needs to rebuild her riding fitness so my fingers are crossed that they'll be able to help each other out. Speedy is truly a rockstar. He's been ridden maybe three times in the past six months. In May, I rode him almost eight miles in a halter. Before that, I rode him bareback around the neighborhood. In March, a friend who needed some horse time came and rode him for about 45 minutes. And before that, the last time he was ridden was in the fall of 2021. Despite zero work, he behaved like a perfect gentleman each and every time. He does live turned out, and he and Izzy play quite vigorously several times a week, but still, that's a lot to ask of a fellow.  This horse just melts my heart. While I finished up my ride on Izzy, J groomed and tacked up. The ranch owner later told me that Speedy slurped up the bit on his own while J was trying to bridle him. Once we were up at the arena, I directed J to ride some ten-meter circles at the walk to work on her own balance and to give Speedy some time to stretch both directions. I really didn't know how fit she was going to be, and I didn't want J to feel over-faced by asking her to do too much too quickly. I needn't have worried. I am no trainer, so I don't really know how well riders come back after a hiatus. I am pretty sure J has more natural talent than most because she picked up pretty much right where she left off. Her fitness wasn't quite there, but her aids were very good. We kept things pretty simple, mostly for Speedy's sake, so all I had her work on were balanced transitions - I didn't want Speedy to be too strung out for fear of him falling on his nose.  J remembered how to ask for transitions within the gait - we started with the walk. To prepare Speedy for the walk to trot transition, I wanted to make sure he had his hind end underneath himself. Once she could feel that he was volunteering a trot, she gave him a quiet aid, and he picked up a soft trot without popping his head up for balance. They did 20-meter circles both directions and then worked a few minutes on change of directions from one circle to the other. When Speedy seemed well balanced and warmed up, J prepared him for the canter. The canter transition was something we hd worked on quite a lot back in the summer. J learned how to get a canter that was quiet without letting Speedy "run" into the gait. As I was reminding her what the aids were, Speedy stepped into a delightfully quiet canter that was fairly balanced for an 18 year old that hasn't had any work in the past six months.  The left lead was better than the right. To the right, he was falling in a bit, so after a quick walk break, I encouraged J ask for it again. For the second attempt, I suggested she add inside leg to push Speedy out on the circle, and suddenly, his canter was much improved. And that was it. They worked for a solid 35 minutes. By the end, Speedy was a little sweaty but not out of breath. Nor did he seem particularly tired. J was smiling broadly as was Speedy in his own way.
Unfortunately, I will be out of town for the next two weekends, but I've let J know that she is welcome to come down and ride him on her own if she feels like it. I hope she'll come down. Speedy will enjoy it, and sometimes, it's nice to try things out on your own without a coach or trainer eyeballing your every move. Hopefully, J is back for more than just a ride or two. Speedy's hooves are crossed. During my week long spring break, I had a little more time than I usually do to spend at the barn, so I hopped up on Speedy. It's been months and months since I last rode him, and since the end of October, he's only had a rider up on him two or three times. Even so, I rode bareback with a halter. Speedy is that dependable. As we headed out into the neighborhood, I settled in for what I assumed was going to be a lengthy ride. I wasn't sure we were even going forward. Speedy's walk was so slow that time was traveling faster than we were. Since the ride was about changing Speedy's view, I figured he could do it as slowly as he wanted to. And then we got to the Haner Family Farm.  Bareback and a halter; that's the way we roll. Mr. Haner is a very nice guy, as is his wife and now very grown up children. When I first moved my boys to this neighborhood more than ten years ago, I would often see the Haner kids playing outside. I always stopped to let them pet whichever horse I was riding. I don't think they are kids anymore. When I rode by last week, the Haner dog came streaking across the yard straight for Speedy's hind legs. On the other side of the road, Mr. Haner's neighbor's two horses came charging up from across their pasture. Speedy tucked his hind end deep underneath himself and prepared to launch. Since I was bareback, I slipped right and then left but managed to hang on. I got control and promised Speedy that it was all okay. Mr. Haner called off the dog and apologized profusely. I laughed. "He's just doing what dogs do." I replied. And it was true. Mr. Haner always keeps some kind of herding dog because he has a farm full of animals. He keeps pigs, geese, turkeys, ducks, sometimes bees, and anything else that can be butchered or harvested.  The Haner Farm stretches across the top of my loop shown on the map. By the time we left the Haner's place and made the turn toward home, Speedy was on fire. As quiet as the stretch was going up the neighborhood, the long side coming back was bustling. There was a pack of loose dogs, workers pouring cement in a driveway, horses working in an arena, and flowers blooming. At one point, I almost jumped off to walk back on foot. While there's no traffic, we do walk on the asphalt, and I was worried about Speedy spooking hard enough to slip and fall. Instead, I sat squarely on both seat bones and collected Speedy into a little prancing ball. One neighbor we passed gasped in delight. "He's beautiful!" she shouted. I waved and laughed. If she only knew that riding that kind of "beautiful" comes with a Lord, don't let me die prayer. While Speedy was a handful, I never doubted that he would be mostly sensible. He was just super excited to be out, not stupid.  Hate to see you go, but love to watch you leave. When we got back, I unclipped Speedy's reins and let him go. He's so sassy; he gave me a look and then marched himself back over to the mares. Apparently, they are more interesting than I am.
You're welcome, Speedy! |
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. 
Photo by Lori Ovanessian
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.
July 2020 (PC AJSK Photography)
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.
March 2021 (PC Tess Michelle Photography)
Bakersfield Dressage approved!
My favorite breeches!
FOR THE SMALLER EQUINE ATHLETE
I love her stuff!
Watercolor Artist and Friend
National Rider Awards
USDF Bronze Medal - 2020
USDF Second Level Rider Performance Award - 2018
USDF First Level Rider Performance Award - 2015
USDF Training Level Rider Performance Award - 2013
State Rider Awards
CDS Ruby Rider Award - 2018
State Horse Awards
Speedy G - 3rd Level Horse Performance Award - 2020
Speedy G - 2nd Level Horse Performance Award - 2018
Working Towards:
CDS Sapphire Rider Award Third Level: 63.514% Third Level: 62.105% Fourth Level: Fourth Level: 2022 Show Season
Show Rating (***) CDS/USDF/USEF (*) CDS (s) Schooling (c) Clinic (r) Ride-a-Test Clinic (Q) Qualifier 2022 Show Schedule
pending ... 2022 Completed … (*) Tehachapi 5/22/22 (*) Tehachapi 7/24/22 (***) Tehachapi 8/28/22 2023 Qualifying Scores
Regional Adult Amateur Competition (RAAC) Qualifying 3 Scores/2 Judges/60%: Score 1: 62.115% Score 2: Archives
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