[Finzean]

Wow I don't check in for a few days and the next thing I know everyone is moving, horses arriving...an exciting start to 2013!

[Finzean]

Pancakes - <3! Enjoy the charcoal...all too soon they morph into that impossible to keep white grey. My greys love to stand on their heads in fresh green manure...it's their special gift!! LOL

[Event4Life]

Thanks for the congrats everyone! My classes are online at the moment (but the actual teaching practice isn't haha, scary - I'll actually be in a school soon!), and going through the orientation information is kind of surreal. The fact I'm a graduate student still has not sunk in!!! I'm going to be itching to get to the barn soon, I can't believe it was only yesterday I had my last lesson (for now) on the lease guy. Going to miss him and his antics.

Tiger Horse I will be looking for your lesson update! What helps me most is looking ahead between the horses ears. Focus on something still (a fence post is best) if you have to. When we were little my trainer would stand in front of the jump, obviously not directly lol, holding up fingers and we'd have to shout them out as we went over it/through the combo etc. If you look ahead you'll have an easier time "feeling" the horses movement - remember to release, grab mane if that helps! As an experienced rider already I think you'll find it easier than you're thinking you will right now (if that makes any sense at all!).

[Tiger Horse]

Thanks event4life and congratulations! As usual I am probably way over thinking!

[ParadoxFarm]

Thinking can get us in trouble. Well, thinking can get ME in trouble.

[Tiger Horse]

So, I survived my lesson - in fact it was a blast! After we warmed up, we took a few cross rails. I guess we did OK because then we did a little course. Had a pretty nice round, then we worked over an oxer several times, getting a bit wider each time. My trainer wanted me to feel how it felt when he rounded his back. It was amazing! Trainer took some video, as did a fellow boarder - as soon as it's posted on Facebook, I'll add the link. I'm over the moon - have I said yet that I love my horse!!

Here's the video

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3742078885377

[ParadoxFarm]

Great job, Tiger Horse. Sounds like a very fun lesson. Can't wait to see video. Glad you had fun.

[jaslyn1701]

Good job, Tiger Horse!

[Dewey]

Great video,Tiger Horse. You and your horse look great!

[Event4Life]

Go Tiger Horse! You look great :-D

[Pancakes]

Good job Tiger Horse! He looks like a forward, though responsive, ride. You did a great job staying with him and keeping him from rushing! Glad you had fun most importantly

Finzean - thank you, I love the grays too! I'm loving the charcoal too, and hopefully he won't gray out *too* quickly. He's going to be 5 in the spring, so I hope he'll be a gorgeous dapple gray by the time he's 7 or 8, when I hope to have us both at top form

I'm so excited for my new guy to come tomorrow! I promise I'll take pictures. I can't wait. He's so sweet and lovable and I can't wait to hug him and show him off. He's got a trot and canter to DIE for. I have a video from when I tried him but I'll try to get a better one next week once we settle in. He still has to recover from his gelding, so I won't hop on and do much until next week.

[Tiger Horse]

Thanks everyone! Lots to work on, of course, but it's a start. Pancakes - he can be very forward - but, I have learned to appreciate it rather than fear it! The good thing is, that if you point him at it, he will jump it, which is a real confidence boost for me. Plan until my next lesson - live in two point and shorten my reins!!

[MILOUTE55]

Wow, so many things going on! Great!
I hope everybody has a great start at 2013.

Loving my new life in Florida, but of course I'm back to being horseless since my big boy stayed in France where he's receiving great care from my dad (who gave me the horse-loving bug) and being regularly ridden by friends. I miss him a lot but it feels good to be back.
Florida is great at this time of the year... I'm dreading the summer heat and humidity, we shall see...
If anybody is in the Tampa area, send me a PM, I literally don't know a soul around here so it would be good to make new friends!
Amandine

[PaintedHunter]

Tiger Horse, you look great, and can I say how lovely your horse is?? Love that canter.

Pancakes, I'm dying to see photos of you and your new guy! I am Team Grey too Ollie was 9 last year when I got him and was a LOVELY dapple grey, but I hate how much whiter he has become in just 7 months! I'm sure living outside doesn't help, but I think his days of dark legs and dark substantial dapples are over SIGH. Now I'm hoping for flea-bitten!

[Event4Life]

Thanks everyone! Lots to work on, of course, but it's a start. Pancakes - he can be very forward - but, I have learned to appreciate it rather than fear it! The good thing is, that if you point him at it, he will jump it, which is a real confidence boost for me. Plan until my next lesson - live in two point and shorten my reins!!

Forward horses can be scary, but can also be confidence givers depending on how you ride them...You guys obviously have a great grounding in flatwork, and it definitely showed in the video o/f. One suggestion my trainer had about releasing over fences on the more forward ones goes along with your resolution to shorten your reins, because with shorter reins you'll find it much less scary to put your hands further up his neck.

2 point practice over poles on the ground really helps too. One exercise we did ALL THE TIME when I was a WS was to change the position of our jumping position in all gaits - so you'd go from standing almost straight up in your stirrups and closing the angle a bit for every "position" - there were 5 different ones. I think this is more of an eventer exercise but useful for helping figure out your balance whatever discipline you fall.

[Tiger Horse]

Paintedhunter - Thank you, he is the horse of my dreams! I have had Dodger 4 years, purchased him from my trainer, and although the first couple of years were pretty frustrating - I'm glad I stuck it out.

Event4Life - thank you so much for the suggestions - I better stock up on the Advil!! (Although I'm not as sore as I though I would be today.) Our main focus, the past four years, had been dressage and it did really help last night.

A fellow boarder is going to a mini-event this spring . . . she's already trying to get me to go along!

[quietann]

I need to vent a bit, folks... hope you don't mind!

Feronia and I have not jumped since she went lame in October. She's perfectly sound now (with new shoes and heel support, as it appears she may have had mild laminitis sometime in the past) and I may be back to it as soon as tomorrow

But. I am stuck. My two trainers are fed up. Every ride (except the "extra special spicy Morgan" ones) starts with a big fight to get her forward and through (remember I am more focused on dressage.) This is the stuff I should be able to deal with in warm-up, before the lesson (both trainers expect their students/horses to arrive ready to go to real work.) I know what to do but it doesn't work so well when I am not being coached. In fact the trainers are fed up because we're spending at least half of every lesson on it. Once we're there -- usually after I've whaled on her a bit and she knows I'm serious -- she's awesome. But getting there.... ugh.

She's fine physically, saddle fits, been tested for Lyme and came back negative, etc. She's got her usual routine for winter aches (she has arthritis, just like me.) Put a good rider on her, and she caves within 10 minutes. With me, it's constant "do I haf-ta?" until I can get her to decide that yes, she has-ta!

We're trail riding a lot, which is good for us, but to some degree is an avoidance strategy for me. I get a little bit of attitude heading out, and once again it can take a while before she gets that she has-ta. She doesn't do anything horrible -- no whirling and trying to return to the barn, no planting her feet and refusing to move; the worst she does is turn her head back slightly while slowing her walk. But I am working way too hard in the meantime.

This is a very, very smart mare, and yes she "has my number" to some degree, though it's much better than it used to be (if constant nagging questions are better than explosions, that is.) Putting a target in front of her -- ground poles or a little jump -- helps, some.

just venting. She's really quite awesome, an angel on the ground, and very fun to ride when she's decided to cooperate.

[ParadoxFarm]

I can understand your vent quietann. I know it can get frustrating. I do think, however, your trainers are being too impatient with you and your horse. I think they should be willing and happy to work on whatever you and your horse needs. Obviously you want the coaching during the rough spots and I think that is when the trainer should be willing to work with you. Is it possible to find a trainer that wouldn't mind working more on the warmup issues? Good luck! You'll get there.

[ParadoxFarm]

Milloute55, welcome to the States. Are you originally from the States, or is this your first time here? Sorry, I'm not in Florida. I used to live there and really wasn't a big fan. Way too hot. I'm in TN and it's still too hot in the summertime. . Now, I would love to go to France.

[Tiger Horse]

I can understand your vent quietann. I know it can get frustrating. I do think, however, your trainers are being too impatient with you and your horse. I think they should be willing and happy to work on whatever you and your horse needs. Obviously you want the coaching during the rough spots and I think that is when the trainer should be willing to work with you. Is it possible to find a trainer that wouldn't mind working more on the warmup issues? Good luck! You'll get there.

quietann - I agree with what ParadoxFarm said! What are lessons for but to tackle problem areas - whatever that may be. Or, have you tried warming her up on the lunge line in side reins? A fellow boarder found that very effective with her mare - who sounds like she has a very similiar personality to your mare. Best of luck to you!