Not too much to report today, since we had a theory lesson, and the weather was much too unpleasant for me to stick around for the “open house” evening starting after our lesson (and which was the reason we switched to a theory lesson for this week). Hopefully, they had some people show up anyway, but it was not the best day for it weather-wise.
We talked about the order of priorities when riding, and ended up getting rather caught up discussing pace, rhythm and length of strides. One of my weaknesses, since rhythm and I aren’t on speaking terms. Its always helpful for me to sit down, from time to time, and discuss various terms and concepts, because sometimes the way something was described can make all the difference. Our instructor is quite good at trying to fit the explanation to the person.
Its fascinating how much of riding is a mental thing.
Good lesson, but still, ‘bah’. Didn’t get Murphy (got Gamir), and what’s worse, someone else got him. I watched jealously. ;P Its a bit lik watching someone chatting with your boyfriend/fiancé; even if its nothing serious, you kind of wish they wouldn’t get along. At least I do, heh.
I did, however, have a pretty good lesson myself as well (I was concentrating on my own riding whenever I was actually doing something other than just waiting for my turn). Gamir is a very well-schooled jumper, and he is of course far superior to Murphy for me to work on my own technique on.
We were supposed to have another week of dressage, but we ended up switching around a couple of classes to put in a theory lesson earlier than planned. So, this Tuesday we jumped, and we’ll do the same next week. I am hoping for Murphy then, though Gamir was pretty well suited to the exercise we did this week.
The setup was pretty simple, just a fairly easy three combination down one side of the arena. Since we were doing this in relation to the canter work done during the dressage lessons, the focus was on getting just the right canter for the distacne between the obstacles. She had it setup so that it didn’t quite fit most of the horses unless we either shortened or lengthened their strides.
With Gamir, that generally means lengthening, because he’s not a long-striding horse naturally. But since I knew from the get-go that this was the focus, we didn’t really have any problems with the distance. Well, not once we actually jumped at a canter. To start with, we came in at a trot and were supposed to get a canter only between obstacle two and three. I suck at that.
For the most part, though, I managed to avoid some of my common problems. I didn’t work too hard, and I managed a pretty good pace and a decent length of stride. However, we kept getting the wrong canter after the last jump. But, my instructor felt I was approaching it just right, and that Gamir just wasn’t responding correctly. He did feel a bit stiff at the start of this lesson (and he had looked hopelessly uninspired during the class before ours), so I think he may have been a little off physically even though he felt perfectly limber once we had warmed up.
Another week of galloping on Gamir, and my legs are feeling it. Actually, they’ve been feeling a little less useful than usual these last few lessons. I am not sure if I have strained something or been lazier than usual with exercise between my lessons. Neither quite seems to fit, but my legs start feeling heavy and worn out a bit too quickly of late. But, enough complaining. ;)
From Fleur last week to Gamir this week (or rather, Gamir last week and Fleur the week before that, since I am late again). I suspected that this meant we’d be focusing on cantering (since Murphy’s canter isn’t exactly the best, and Sammy is getting a little too old to do canter-focused lessons), and that turned out to be the case. Gamir has a very good canter. In fact, he’s almost a little too easy to work with, but it gives me plenty of room to concentrate on my own problems.
Yesterday we were at a show at a working dog club not too far away from here, for Ringos début in the open class since he is now past 2 years of age. Boxers were, for once, not the first breed to be judged in their ring, so we only had to get up at 7 am to be there at 9 am. Quite a difference from getting up at 3 am for the last show.
Ringo started the morning by being very lively. He clearly knows that early mornings with the whole family getting ready means a dog show. Didn’t help my nerves, of course, that he decided to be pretty feisty. The judge for the show would be one that previously had given him a 2 for quality, in large parts because he really misbehaved. So, I was not expecting more than a 1 today and that only if he managed to behave.
Yesterday’s lesson was interesting in several ways. There was a slightly surprising change of horses, as we stayed with the circles theme, but I was still moved from Murphy to Fleur. This time of the year, though, she’s pretty good. Not as lazy as during the summer, and not as skittish and full of energy as when it gets really cold. Not that it was warm yesterday, especially not as we ended up riding in the paddock to have a lot of extra room. But after feeling chilly initially it ended up being quite refreshing, actually.
After an agonizingly long wait (okay, two and a half weeks, but it felt like years ;P) we finally got Ringo’s X-ray results today. And he’s got excellent hips and knees, whee!
Oops. I forgot all about last week. Though, we didn’t actually ride, so there wasn’t that much to report. We had a theory lesson which consisted of our instructor riding one of the regular lesson horses. She discussed (and demonstrated) obedience and preparation (mainly for corners, circles and other curved paths), and also gave some tips on how to ride a dressage program, since that’s part of our goal for this semester.
It was very interesting to watch the change in the horse’s movements and carriage as the lesson progressed, and also to see just how many things he would ttry to see if he could get away once she put more demands on him. Remaining consistent in what you ask of the horse, even when it tries all sorts of tricks to avoid work, is one of the hardest things. Especially for those of us who just ride lessons once a week. Getting the right feeling for how much pressure to apply, and whether you are doing it right and the horse is being contrary or if you’re actually doing it wrong, is darn hard.
And that sort of played into today’s lesson, at least for me.
This week there was a small revelation. Hands. Specifically, their position. It matters.
I mean, I knew that before, but I thought I had mine at an okay height. Today, my instructor had me raise my hands quite a bit above my default position, and I found it made a big difference when it came to doing what she wants me to do with my shoulders (that is, getting them back and getting them relaxed).
I am not sure if she noticed it because I was decided to try Murphy without the help reins (actually, I forgot them, but I had been thinking about skipping them since during my last private lesson I rode without them and she suggested they may have been hampering me), and that changes his head position and my hand position a bit.
We continued to work on circles, and while it was a bit of a struggle at first, I did find I got better results without the help reins. Especially once I got my hands raised up a bit. I feels to me as if Murphy is easier to get into a proper form without the reins, and he also feels more supple. However, the form is less steady, perhaps because he’s so supple.
Once we were done with the warmup, we did the same exercise for most of the lesson, just varying the direction. We’d start by trotting on the long sides and then walking on the short sides, which included a 10 meter circle. Then we’d switch to walking on the long sides and trotting on the short sides and through the circle. Plenty of transitions between straight and curved paths to pay attention to, and transitions between walk and trot (sometimes at the same time as the straight to curved or vice versa transitions). Just the thing to make Murphy nice and supple, and towards the end he was getting kind of liquid.
So, now I have another body part that I need to get used to having in a different position. I’ll have to be careful not to overdo it, though.
Today Ringo finally had his knees and his hips x-rayed (a bit late, as its usually done between 12 and 18 months, but we wanted to make sure he’d finished developing). This is a standard procedure for boxers, as the breed has some minor issues with their knees and some more major issues with their hips (hip dysplasia). Knees without any negative remarks and hips of at least type A or B are required for any dog used for breeding. You also need the same result to be allowed to get the title of KORAD which is given to dogs who pass a mental evaluation and a conformation evaluation done between the ages of two and four.
So, now we’re in for a nervous couple of weeks as we wait for the results (the x-rays are sent off to be analysed by the Swedish Kennel Club), though the vet who did the x-rays seemed to think it looked pretty good. That is, she first did a set she wasn’t happy with (the positioning of the dog is very important, and small deviations can change the final result), but when they redid them she seemed to think they came out fine. However, that’s far from a guarantee of anything, so I am telling myself not to take anything for granted.
I’ll start this week’s lesson report with a daaaaaaaaarn. Not about the lesson, but about that jump off in the Olympic show jumping yesterday. If only that pesky last fence would have stayed up, feh. A shared gold would have been just fine by us (though I suppose it may not have been exactly the same time for both riders if the fence hadn’t come down), since we don’t have one yet, and I would have loved for an equestrian sport to be our ‘saviour’ in these Olympics. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson is also a great example of how you don’t have to be filthy rich to succeed in show jumping ... just filthy talented. ;)
Anyway, with that out of my system, what about the lesson? Well, no Olympic-level jumping for us, that’s for sure. Or dressage, for that matter.
Today is Ringo’s 2nd birthday. We got him some ice-cream cake (well, he didn’t get the whole to himself) and a new toy. The cake was served at the kitchen table (he loves sitting on the chair there) and he managed to eat off a plate without making too much of a mess. The new toy, a long-legged turtle with two squeaky and two rattly legs, proved an instant success. Which, of course, meant it wasn’t likely to be long-lived. In fact, he tore up one leg and cracked open one rattle within about 5-10 minutes. Hopefully, the little monster didn’t swallow too many of the tiny little steel balls in the rattle.
I think I am going to start a business making boxer-proof toys. From kevlar. That might do it.
But he sure had fun, at least.
After a few days of resting my arms and hands, I am finally up to writing a report about our trip to this years Swedish Boxer Championships. Ok, maybe that’s a little bit of an exagerration, but I did get quite worn out by handling Ringo for a whole day around a lot of people and a lot of dogs.
It began with a very early start (we left at about 3.30 ... am), and while we didn’t stay for the whole thing we were still away until about 5 pm. By which time I was quite knackered. The weather was rather cold and windy for most of the day, and Ringo was not as well-behaved as he has been for most shows this year. Outside of the ring, he was pretty stress-free (but he was very excited to meet his brother again, and his brother’s ‘girlfriend’, aka the breeder’s gorgeous new puppy girl from Italy), but inside he was a bit of a handful. Not as bad as he has been in the past, but enough to up my heart rate quite a bit.
Yesterday marked the beginning of a new semester at the riding school. As usual, that meant a weigh-in, and to my surprise I found myself much lower than expected. At 59 kg (minus clothes, which I do usually wear when riding ;P), I was almost light enough to add a few more ponies to my list of allowed horses. I guess the limit is at 60 kg, whereas the limit I have been worrying about (aka the Murphy-riding limit) must be 65 kg. I had actually thought he was at max 60 kg and the other ponies at max 55 kg, so that’s a nice surprise. Of course, it makes me tempted to try and drop another kilo. That is starting to get a little lean, though.
Either way, what matters right now is that my lessons for this autumn got off to a great start on Murphy. Whom, btw, seemed very happy to see me and seemed to be in quite a good mood in general. So glad to see he was fine. This was in fact the first time they had had a summer when all horses stayed injury free. Hopefully that won’t lead to a mass of injuries now. :P They did have to put one horse down, Amadeus, but he had been lame for a long while now. Quite young, but also quite large, and he was clearly developing a chronic injury. They also sold one pony who didn’t like it much at the stables, and got another one to replace it.