asb_own_me
Jun. 21, 2009, 06:20 PM
A little background....
Atlas is a 4 y/o American Saddlebred I purchased through the Tattersalls Fall Sale in October 2007. A good friend of mine helped with his selection and did some background checking for me. This horse is bred to be a show horse - he was an embryo transfer foal, sired by a WC/CH 5-gaited stallion and out of a good 3-gaited mare by another WC/CH 5-gaited stallion.
Atlas lived out in another friend's pasture from that fall until we moved him out to our farm the following June. I started getting on him sometime in August, put about 10-15 rides on him, and after that only rode him about once every three weeks or so until early this year, when I started riding him out on the rock roads and through a friend's property. He got some good "brain" experience hacking out with me, a girlfriend of mine and one of her horses, so we took him to our last two foxhunts of the year. First time he'd been ridden in a group, and he was great. We ran first flight minus the coops and he was fabulous.
I purchased him as a sport prospect, mainly dressage, so this spring I was thinking it's about time to do something along those lines :D We had our first dressage lesson on May 1, with a really fun lady who has Arabs and half Arabs as her personal horses and several WBs in training for clients. That first day, she asked what goal(s) I had for Atlas, in the short term. I told her that one, I wanted him to learn that he has four feet and to *remember* that he has four feet; two, that I wanted him to learn to stand still; and three, that I want to take him to the St. Louis Charity (Saddlebred show) and enter him in the Dressage division that they have started there, in the Intro I and Intro II tests.
We've had 5 or 6 lessons now, and Wednesday she tells me that there is a schooling show on Saturday and I should go. Okay. I'm game. I've taken him to a few little county shows to get him out and exposed to different things. He's super sensible, I'm not worried about taking him anywhere. I'm just thinking that we've NEVER even ran through a test and it's in three days. We run through both A and B, it goes fine, even smoothly. He shows marked improvement each time. Cool.
I find out at 8pm the night before that Mr. asb_own_me can't go with us...had to go to work. Okay. I'll go by myself :D
So we go and he gets to see mirrors for the first time, viewing windows for the first time, the people behind the viewing windows (that's what he was concerned about) and the white dressage arena rails for the first time. We warm up in there, he does a lot of sidepassing, he gets over it, the show starts.
Here's the video from Intro B:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piTlAtt5FLM
Please don't be too terribly hard on him...he doesn't know much yet!
I was so proud of him. We scored 62% in Intro A and 66% in Intro B, 2nd place and first place, of five entries. We had some really positive remarks from the judge, and he was better in the second test than the first. He's a good egg.
Comments:
Intro A - "Naturally balanced horse needs to develop confidence enough to take longer steps into a steady, soft connection. Horse often curling behind contact."
Intro B - "Very talented horse needs to develop more confidence (he appears worried) and a steady, solid reach from hind legs thru swinging back to contact. He sucks back from connection at times."
Nothing I didn't expect - I discussed his tendency to curl with my instructor at our last lesson. He's taking contact much more at our lessons, where he's comfortable (familiar surroundings) and I knew we would be docked for that. It's physically easy for him to curl his neck, and he was worried about those viewing windows! I'm so glad we went. I have entered him in the Iowa Games that are next month, at this same facility. I know he'll do so much better then, having seen these "scary" things once already. You show this horse something once and he's usually good after that!
I can't say enough about his attitude. He remembers lessons and is not so *reactive* like my mare....he seems to process and think through things that are worrisome. It's great for me that he doesn't need a ton of repetition, considering I'm lucky if I make time to ride him 2x/week!
Atlas is a 4 y/o American Saddlebred I purchased through the Tattersalls Fall Sale in October 2007. A good friend of mine helped with his selection and did some background checking for me. This horse is bred to be a show horse - he was an embryo transfer foal, sired by a WC/CH 5-gaited stallion and out of a good 3-gaited mare by another WC/CH 5-gaited stallion.
Atlas lived out in another friend's pasture from that fall until we moved him out to our farm the following June. I started getting on him sometime in August, put about 10-15 rides on him, and after that only rode him about once every three weeks or so until early this year, when I started riding him out on the rock roads and through a friend's property. He got some good "brain" experience hacking out with me, a girlfriend of mine and one of her horses, so we took him to our last two foxhunts of the year. First time he'd been ridden in a group, and he was great. We ran first flight minus the coops and he was fabulous.
I purchased him as a sport prospect, mainly dressage, so this spring I was thinking it's about time to do something along those lines :D We had our first dressage lesson on May 1, with a really fun lady who has Arabs and half Arabs as her personal horses and several WBs in training for clients. That first day, she asked what goal(s) I had for Atlas, in the short term. I told her that one, I wanted him to learn that he has four feet and to *remember* that he has four feet; two, that I wanted him to learn to stand still; and three, that I want to take him to the St. Louis Charity (Saddlebred show) and enter him in the Dressage division that they have started there, in the Intro I and Intro II tests.
We've had 5 or 6 lessons now, and Wednesday she tells me that there is a schooling show on Saturday and I should go. Okay. I'm game. I've taken him to a few little county shows to get him out and exposed to different things. He's super sensible, I'm not worried about taking him anywhere. I'm just thinking that we've NEVER even ran through a test and it's in three days. We run through both A and B, it goes fine, even smoothly. He shows marked improvement each time. Cool.
I find out at 8pm the night before that Mr. asb_own_me can't go with us...had to go to work. Okay. I'll go by myself :D
So we go and he gets to see mirrors for the first time, viewing windows for the first time, the people behind the viewing windows (that's what he was concerned about) and the white dressage arena rails for the first time. We warm up in there, he does a lot of sidepassing, he gets over it, the show starts.
Here's the video from Intro B:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piTlAtt5FLM
Please don't be too terribly hard on him...he doesn't know much yet!
I was so proud of him. We scored 62% in Intro A and 66% in Intro B, 2nd place and first place, of five entries. We had some really positive remarks from the judge, and he was better in the second test than the first. He's a good egg.
Comments:
Intro A - "Naturally balanced horse needs to develop confidence enough to take longer steps into a steady, soft connection. Horse often curling behind contact."
Intro B - "Very talented horse needs to develop more confidence (he appears worried) and a steady, solid reach from hind legs thru swinging back to contact. He sucks back from connection at times."
Nothing I didn't expect - I discussed his tendency to curl with my instructor at our last lesson. He's taking contact much more at our lessons, where he's comfortable (familiar surroundings) and I knew we would be docked for that. It's physically easy for him to curl his neck, and he was worried about those viewing windows! I'm so glad we went. I have entered him in the Iowa Games that are next month, at this same facility. I know he'll do so much better then, having seen these "scary" things once already. You show this horse something once and he's usually good after that!
I can't say enough about his attitude. He remembers lessons and is not so *reactive* like my mare....he seems to process and think through things that are worrisome. It's great for me that he doesn't need a ton of repetition, considering I'm lucky if I make time to ride him 2x/week!