Thole Farms: the Warm Up

It took us twelve hours to do one schooling show: more than an hour to load and unload tack, six hours of driving, and four hours at the show itself. I think I got my money's worth!

Best friend and I loaded Izzy up at 6:30 a.m. for the nearly three hour drive to Thole Farms in the Ventura area. He loaded without issue and unloaded just as quietly. He stood lazily tied to the trailer and even munched the hay hanging in his hay bag. We both stared in amazement; in just two months he's figured out the trailering part of showing. Best friend and I headed down to the show office without a backward glance.

Thole Farms - office is around the other side.

When I first started in dressage, I went to every show alone. Now that best friend is retired, it is amazing having her help. While I am dressing or grooming, she's right there ready to lend a hand. She hands me water bottles, dusts off my boots, holds my horse, fetches whatever, and cheers me on when I am discouraged. She teased that she is now Izzy's human goat - his comfort companion. When I said that she could take photos as well as video, she insisted on a raise.

While it doesn't look like it right now, he really does like her.

Izzy has now done four schooling shows. For the first show's warm up, he was very quiet, but he was also alone. For the second show's warm up, he was a fruitcake. He was somewhat better at last month's show, so my goals for this show were twofold: have a relaxed warm up and no 4s at the walk for the tests.

It's not a great video, but here we are in the warm up. 

We also did some trotting, but I focused entirely on softening his poll and neck. I kept everything super slow and never let him jig or get heavy in the bridle. When he tried to brace or lean on my hands, I half halted until he softened to the rein. Sometimes that meant that the trot became a walk and the walk a halt.

Here's another video clip - look for the trotting horse and rider.

I was actually really pleased with the walk work. The quality wasn't fabulous, but he actually walked! That's a huge improvement. And while the trot work also has a lot of room for improvement, he kept his marbles in the jar and listened to me the whole time.

Well, there was one little moment ...

It looks sooo dramatic!

It was actually the silliest spook. We were walking along quite nicely and then we weren't. Here's the video (if it starts from the beginning, scroll forward to about 40 seconds):

Silly boy! Aside from that goofy moment, most of the warm up went quite well, if a little slow pokey. Eventually, we'll be able to get in there and actually do some real work. For now, this is the kind of warm up that an Introductory Level horse needs.

I am feeling so encouraged!

Tomorrow: Intro A and a talent for piaffe!