Ella and Midgey happily spent their last New York night in turnout at Gleneden, sparing me the pain of a 3 a.m. wake-up call. And as such, I got to have a great dinner with my aunt and cousin, who I NEVER get to see, in Manhattan, where I hadn’t been since graduating from college. I don’t regret my decision to go pro one bit, but sometimes I do get a little nostalgic for What Could Have Been, having a job outside of the horse biz and living somewhere closer to civilization.
Dang, though, if having horses like these doesn’t snap me right out of it!
Ella was fiercely, fiercely tired. She just had nothing to offer me. This trip taught me that if I’m going to do that much trailering, I need to give her more down time in between. This is good to know; part of having a horse at this level and competing on this stage means knowing how to manage her, and travel arrangements are a HUGE management issue. I’ve gotten some great ideas from COTH’s series on travelling with horses, but knowing what kind of schedule to set is all up to me, and comes from knowing her better than she knows herself.
Even still, I had a very productive lesson. We worked a little on the piaffe transitions, and while I had to help motivate Ella a LOT, I got a much better sense of how to ride them to maintain a clear rhythm and clear energy. I also had a big ah-ha in the tempi changes: Lendon saw that Ella tends to jump to the right in the change (not twisting one end or the other and losing straightness; she jumps her whole body to the right). She had me fix it by riding the tempis on the rail, tracking left, so she couldn’t jump right. Awesome. A new plan for me to play with at home.
Lendon also alerted me to the fact that Ella’s left bend isn’t quite the same as her right bend, and I need to pay attention to it. That’s one of those things I can work on when I want to give Ella an easy day but still get something done. Add that to my current “fluff day” list: centerlines, collected-extended-collected walk transitions, and the transition from canter to trot. Every lesson I take, I get a better plan on how to peak this horse just so in time for The Big Show.
Midge, too, was surprisingly tired, particularly as I can count on one hand the number of times Midge has ever been tired in his life. We made some very, very nice canter pirouette work—Lendon had me modify slightly the “box” exercise I ride a lot, instead having me ride one step pirouette, a few steps out, then one step pirouette, etc. I had to focus on not allowing him to get floaty and slow, and the turn-then-straight made him super responsive. VERY cool.
We went for a little piaffe-passage, but his passage was pretty pooped. Still, the transitions were a HUGE improvement, and I feel I really understand how and why I need to ride them more forward, and not make the piaffe so much on the spot.
We also addressed bend, something that’s never been easy for Midge, as he’s about 2 inches long. I recalled how Kyra had me ride 3-in-1, and gave it a whirl. Ta-da! Instant improvement. An exercise to add to Midge’s “fluffy day” list. We incorporated that into the trot half-pass zigzag, and it got way better.
ADVERTISEMENT
And that was that.
I was really proud of how well they both went, especially under tough travel conditions. And to make it even better, as I said goodbye, Lendon told me that I have two excellent young horses doing great things. “Don’t be in a hurry,” she said.
Yes, ma’am.
I was in a hurry to get home, because naturally everything falls apart while I’m away—horses getting weird injuries (client horse with Quarter Crack of Unknown Origins), illnesses (Choke? Really? I’ve only seen it once, in my entire riding career, and it happens while I’m gone? Oy.), cats coming up lame (poor Tuxedo, a barn cat, looks like Tiny Tim), and horses drooling (Neither of my working students has experienced the joys of summer clover-induced salivation, and they placed an emergency call to my veterinarian fearing they’d contracted Ebola.). And both the Red Hots and I spent pretty much all day in bed yesterday recuperating; I can’t recall the last time I was so tired.
But it’s back to the grindstone now. Ella and Midge had fluffy days today—Ella in the arena making transitions to make sure her hind legs made it home from New York safely, Midge loafing around in the field—but it’s gung-ho for the rest of the gang. Fender feels great, Tres is getting better and better, and I’m clear to start running again, which will be a HUGE relief. Of course, at 94* today, it’s not really such an appealing proposition, but them’s the breaks, right?…
…. Maybe I can have one more fluffy day too, just to be sure.
