Dressage

Hello, everyone! I've taken a few Dressage lessons in the past few weeks, and I must say, i'm quite enjoying them! They're improving my riding rapidly, and Constable is really working a lot better. Since i've been away so much this summer, Constable and I are both rather out of shape. Now that school's gone back in and i'm home more, i'm hoping to change that. Luckilly we'll be able to use our neighbour's indoor this winter. Today's post is really short, but i'm hoping to blog more in a while, when i've got more time. Talk to you later!

Training :)

Well everyone, the story of today starts at about 8:40 in the morning. Usually Saturday mornings I go for my lesson at my Trainer's house, however she called us and informed us that she was ver sick (migrane, etc...) and couldn't teach today. So, I decided to just go for a ride. Constable was pretty good, however we're trying him without his running martengale, so he's flipping up his head a little on occasion. I'm convinced that this will stop soon enough. We worked some on our excersise (mentioned in the previous post) and did a lot of transitins. I also worked on leg yielding, and out walk-canter-walk transitions in particular. He's pretty good at picking up the canter, but coming back down to walk is still in need of a lot of work. Anyways, I was done that by ten and was occupied untill 2:30 in the afternoon (Running around in town, vet appointment, etc...) at which time me and my mom took out Java to work. Unfortunately, Java seems to have a bit of an eye infection, and so we took care of that, then decided against riding her. Instead, we groomed her and clipped her, and banded her mane so it would all stay to one side. Once that was done, I took Athena out. After doing some work with the clippers (she's still not comfortable with them) I took her out for what was her third ever lunge, and her first in about a month and a half. She doesn't seem to mind the saddle or girth too much, however the concept of a circle is still a bit new to her. For the most part though it went well, except for once when she threw a couple of bucks in and tried to gallop off. Not as dramatic as it sounds, by the way. She was just being green. Anyways, i'm very excited because monday I have a Classical Dressage lesson with a lady who teaches at the place in behind me! I think i've told you that already. Ah well.... I couldn't find a picture for this week, but i'll take some more! Talk to you later!

Cross Country

Recently, Constable and I have been schooling some Cross Country. We went out first with our Trainer and a few other girls she teaches, and schooled some of the Pre-Entry jumps/ water. Constable was excited to be out there, but we managed just fine. He really seems to like the water, and he wasn't scared of any of the jumps. He did everything pretty well. The next week, Constable and I were entered in a Cross Country Clinic, which went for two days. That was really good. We did some work in the ring before we got to the Cross Country, and that calmed him down a lot and ensured that his brain was all there. The first day of Cross Country was really good, we schooled over quite a few different jumps in the Pre-Entry- Entry range, and rode a little 7 jump course. Constable was really good, I was quite impressed. The second day, we rode through water some more, and introduced Constable to Ditches. I have some video thta i'll try to post at some point. We finnished off with another course, but a bit longer this time. I was quite happy with how much we'd learned. The Clinician gave me an excercise to do with Constable to improve turning/moving off the leg. I've tried it, and last lesson with my regular trainer I could really feel a difference. Especially in the canter. Last lesson, we did a lot of flat and then finished up with a series of three bounces. It was good. Grids and bounces and stuff like that really helps Constable and I, because our straightness over fences isn't that great. Anyways, this Monday i'm taking a dressage lesson from another trainer who teaches at the place in behind me. I'm going to take one probably every two weeks. She seems really knowlegable, and I know she's more than qualified. I'm quite excited, the girl who introduced her to me says that her riding has really improved after taking some lessons from this girl. I'll keep you updated.

HELLO EVERYONE!

Well, it's been a long time. Things have been going well with me and Constable, and i recently took him to a schooling show where we entered a few hunter classes and then the jumpers in the afternoon. Things went really well! We got fifth out of about 20-30 in out 2'3'-2'6' hunter class, and then shortly after that managed to get first in the 2'6' class! There were only five people in the class, but it was still good. We entered the 2'3'-2'6' jumper class, and went double clear! Unfortunately i messed up the jump off course, and took a jump beside the one i was supposed to. It was so fun though, it honestly didn't matter. We then entered the 2'9' jumpers class, but by that time Constable was very tired (as was i) and after about three jumps, he got really cranky and the course didn't end too well. I didn't fall off or anything, just a series of bunny hops and a refusal later, we were done for the day. Next time, I'm only going to enter the Jumpers. The problem is, there's so many people in each class, it takes literally around an hour and a half-2 hours to get through the classes, so he gets tired really quickly. We are planning on going to our first ever event this August, which is really exciting. Things are going really well. I'm off for a week (hollidays) but when i get back, i'll be sure to keep you updated. Talk to you then!

Sorry for the lack of updates!

Hey everyone! So sorry i haven't gotten around to posting lately, life's been buisy. Anyways, last time i told you about the jump courses that we may or may not do. Well, we did them, and things went very well. We didn't do anything really high, just cross poles and the 2-2'3'. He did great for his fist time jumping courses in a show, and he even got most all of his lead changes! Things have been going well, Constable's getting muscled up a bit more and we're getting pretty confident over fences. He's got such a huge jump, i really should post some video on here soon. We're planning on getting my trainer to take us out to the cross-country field pretty soon, and that will defidently be something to post about. Java's coming along nicely, we're just getting to the point where she can be ridden around the field a bit at the walk. Trot should be coming soon. Athen'a been started lightly, just longeing. She's been on the longe three times and already going walk trot whoah pretty well. It shouldn't be long berfore i can hop on her! Yay! Show season's pretty much here, and i have a few shows next month that i intend on entering. Meanwhile, i've got Constable moving off my leg a lot more than he used to and it's sure making a difference in riding him. I'll try to keep you all more updated from now on.

:)

Hello everyone! It's been quite a while. I am sorry to report that Constable managed to bruise his knee a little bit, so we never did go to the eventing clinic. It's fine now, but we gave him a week off to make sure nothing came up. We had a very good lesson today, working on roundness and suppleness. Things went very well. We started by warming up, (i spent my usual ten minutes teaching Constable that one end of the ring isn't actually a monster and therefore cannot eat him) and then we schooled some circles and transitions before moving on to a dressage test. It was fairly simple, and Constable and I had some fun with it. Our flat work is really coming along, i can feel it improving. Anyways, we have a schooling show tomorrow. We may or may not enter in a few small jump courses, i'll just see how things go. I'll be sure to post lost of pictures!

Our first show!

Hello everyone! I have exciting news. Constable and I went to our first
schooling show yesterday! We did great! Our first two classes were
Equitation and Pleasure, and we got first in both of those. Next was
Hunter, and we placed fourth. we then went in Hunter Hack x poll, and
came in second out of eight. We finished with a fifth in two ft Hunter
Hack. It really was a good day. Constable was all braided up, and
pretty clean considering he's a grey. Me and my mom gave him a bath the
night before, but he managed to get a little dirty overnight anyways.
We got most of it off. He behaved very well, and the only slight
problem we had was when we were going over a few jumps before our
hunter hack class. He gave a few little bucks after a fence, but
nothing major. Next weekend we're going in a cross country clinic, so that should be fun. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Until then, everyone have a good week!

HELLO EVERYONE!

Hello! I haven't posted in a long time, so i have a lot to write about. As you can imagine, I've been very busy with Constable. He's dong great, and ill get some new pictures up as soon as possible. We're working on getting him to move off my leg more, because he's not as responsive as we'd like. I've been moving his front end around his back end, and vise versa. I've also been doing spiral circles and other exercises to get him to move off my leg. He's really making progress. I've got him under himself and on the bit more, and he's going into a pretty nice frame now. I ride him as much as possible, usually four or five times a week. He's jumping nice too, lots of scope. I'm going to be very busy in the next little while, because Java needs re-starting. I'm going to try and start that within the next week or two. Luckily Athena doesn't turn two until May, so I'm going to wait until then to start her training. I've noticed that Athena is getting more playful, and she's fiddling around with stuff whenever she can now, as opposed to the quiet little thing she used to be. On the other hand, Java is playing around less than she used to. She's actually standing nicely to be brushed now, instead of trying to eat the rope. Speaking of eating, Athena gave me quite the scare yesterday. I was out cleaning her paddock, and i left my gloves on the fence. That wasn't the best idea. Athena picks up the glove, and runs off with it. At first, i just thought "oh great, now i have to go get the glove out of her mouth." But no, it could not be that simple. Instead of just waving the glove around like a flag, today she decides she wants to ingest it. She started eating the glove. And when i say eating, i don't mean chewing. I mean trying to swallow it whole. I tried to get her to come over to me, so i could get the glove out. I thought she was going to get it stuck in her throat and choke on it! I couldn't catch her though. She kept running around the paddock. I rushed inside to tell mom, but by the time the two of us got back, she had spit the glove (which by now looked more like a big dirt clod) out and onto the ground. I picked it up, and resumed cleaning. I'm not going to be leaving any clothing on the fence from now on. Anyways, i'll try to keep you guys more updated from now on. Have a good week!

WE FOUND HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All right! so everyone, it's been a while since i've last posted, mainley because we've been very buisy looking at horses. And after going to look at 18 different horses, WE FOUND HIM! His name is Constable, and he's a 15.3 hand high Trakehner gelding. He arrived on Sunday. He's seven, coming 8 years old. He's Registered with both the American and Canadian Trakehner associations. He's super cute, and not spooky or anything. I've attached some pictures, he's the gray. There are also some older pics of Athena and them playing in the snow. I rode him yesterday, and my friend Melissa hopped on for a bit as well. Unfortunatley, last night it snowed. The people behind us have an indoor though, so we're going to ask them what their drop-in fee is. Constable is a bit out of shape, so i'm going to have to get him muscled up a bit! I'll blog more when something exciting happens, which hopefully will be soon. I seriously dislike winter, it's very cold out right now so our pipes are frozen! We have to fill buckets up with water and truck them out to the horses outdoor waters. Oh well, a little cold never killed anyone! Have a good week!