No Clinic for Me

Today is a clinic with Linda Heiny and I sure wish I were riding in it. Unfortunately, I’ve contracted a nasty respiratory cold. Dave had it. Now I have it. And while I don’t have flu-like symptoms (more like sinus infection type symptoms), I’m going to stay away from the barn for today to keep the dust out of my lungs. I figure everything I can do to speed along the recovery (and not pass along my germs) is a good thing.

I may stop by the barn later this afternoon and just peek on in the ponies and make sure everyone is doing fine. They’ve no doubt been enjoying the past few days off.

 

Improvements & HHF Preparations

I just have to write that I have had some of the best rides on my mare lately. I’ve really been asking her to come over her back and engage her haunches. I’ve been riding exercises from the clinic last month as well as being very aware of NOT blocking her outside hind with my outside rein. Its made an incredible difference! Duh! Go figure. When I ride, not only can I feel her lift her back and raise me up, but I can also hear her hind feet clicking against the front feet as she swings the hind feet forward. She’s also sweating on her topline. Love it! Its amazing what a few simple exercises can do to make improvements.

And so now I’m just preparing for horse fair, which is two weeks from today. It will be Jewel’s 4th appearance there. And like last year, we are only doing the breed demos, no clinics. They actually don’t have a dressage clinician there this year, which is unfortunate. Last year, they had the Lipizzaner stallions from Temple Farms and the head trainer as a clinician. This year, I think they have an eventing clinician who is doing a day of dressage and 2 days of jumping. Seeing as I don’t currently own a jump saddle, that’s not something we’ll participate in. However I do hope to watch some of the rides.

 

A Diamond In The Rough

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of riding three of my mounts in a clinic with Linda Heiny. It was at Centerline Stables in Greencastle, IN. The facility was beautiful and boasts a 20m x 60m indoor arena with heated viewing area and bathroom. The footing was lovely and the arena was full of natural lighting. It is an ideal place for a dressage clinic and those who board there are indeed lucky!

The clinic itself was also fabulous. I started by riding Magic who is one of my training rides. He has a lot of the stiffness issues similar to Jewel. I keep some lateral flexion in order to help him stay soft. He’s pretty much a 2×4. He also can’t be allowed to hang on me anywhere. I must constantly soften him and help him to yield his jaw and poll. Part of what I learned is that I must be very conscious of the outside rein and not lifting it or bringing it across the wither. It was a very revealing lesson for me and what I need to do to help support him. The key though will to not allow him to hang on me or ignore my aids all the while, I must not be reactionary. He reacts to things versus thinking about them.

The second ride was on Jewel. This lesson was amazing! Jewel has a very hard time loosening her back. Linda helped me to see what I was doing to block her hind legs from really coming forward so that she could stretch down and track up behind. My big issue is blocking that forward motion of the outside hind with my outside rein. I have a much better understanding now of what I need to do to allow her to take longer strides with the hind legs. By half way through the lesson, Jewel had really loosened her back and was swinging over her topline. It was really cool!

One of the biggest challenges I have with Jewel is shifting the weight back onto her haunches and getting her to sit. Linda gave me an exercise to work on that will help her learn to lift and sit. Here is the outline of the exercise done at a trot:
- make a 20m circle at one end of the arena to soften the horse
- with the horse soft, come across the diagonal
- about 2 strides in, change bend and go into shoulder-in (while still traveling on the diagonal)
- from shoulder in, move into haunches in
- in haunches in, do a 1/4 turn on the haunches
- continue straight and then change bend

So for example, to start, 20m circle to the left. When the horse is soft, come across the diagonal. Straighten and change bend to the right. Shoulder in to the right. Haunches in to the right and 1/4 turn on the haunches to the right. Continue straight ahead and change the bend to the left. When done correctly, the horse shifts its weight onto the haunches, sits and raises the forehand during the pirouette (1/4 turn). Jewel’s challenge has always been to sit. This exercise really helped her figure out how to sit. Linda said that she could see her sit and lift her wither a couple inches when doing the pirouettes. This is huge for her (Jewel). I’m excited about having a tool to really help her shift her weight.

My final ride was on Roman. He came out and I told Linda that I loved this little horse. She kind of gave me this look like she just didn’t understand. As always, Roman’s appearance is deceiving. For starters, he looks like a QH. He has a giant butt, short legs and his neck is set on low. He just simply looks like he’s going to have a short strided gait. However, once he gets moving, how he looks just standing there is completely forgotten.

Regarding his movement, Roman has the most amazing natural self carriage, “uberstreichen” and “schwung” of any horse I have ever ridden — including warmbloods. He doesn’t look like he should carry himself the way he does, but he does! Unlike the other horses which needed to be ridden with some lateral flexion in order to create longitudinal flexion, Roman didn’t need interference. As Linda put it, for whatever reason, he was like a young warmblood just starting off under saddle. He has tremendous natural impulsion and just needs to be ridden straight and forward. In fact, all she had me do is ride him straight forward and comb the reins. He automatically sought out the bit and stretched down. I rode him on the buckle with is head down nearly to the ground. And although his head and neck were stretched all the way down, he was not on the forehand. He was overstriding behind by 6-8 inches. The swing and impulsion were incredible and he just floated around the arena. Linda, I and the others there watching were in amazement. It was the most amazing feeling — and so unexpected. I knew he was a good mover, but this lesson was truly an amazing ride. I can say without questions that Roman is the most talented dressage horse that I have ever ridden.

AT the conclusion of the lesson, Linda was all smiles. She was just as thrilled as I was with his natural talent. One of the things that she said that stuck with me was “if he is like this now while still with racing muscle and very little self carriage muscle…imagine what he will be like when he actually has the correct muscle! There is no limit to his ability. He is truly a diamond in the rough.” I must admit that I am quite fond of Roman. While I adored JC, I just love Roman to pieces. He is an extremely talented little horse.

On a side note, Roman showed some of his true character as well. Centerline has very large mirrors. I have mirrors at home, but they’re set up a little higher. I don’t think he can see himself in them. Every time we went past the mirrors yesterday, Roman looked at himself. He was quite smitten with himself and it was very funny. He had to turn his head and look at himself each time we rode past. It gave us all a good chuckle.

And so I am home resting today and giving all of the ponies the day off. Aside from being tired, its really chilly out. However, I’m excited to implement the tools that I learned in my lessons throughout the coming rides. Linda will be back on March 21 at Centerline and I hope to be able to ride all three with her again at that time.

 

New Video of JC

Here is a new video of JC from a clinic I rode him in on Saturday 12/13. The purpose is just to show his way of going and how very laid back he is. He ground ties and is just super well behaved. I think he would be perfect for either an experienced rider that wanted to bring a young horse along (pick your discipline). However, I also think he would be fine with a novice rider that had regular instruction to help bring him along. His temperament is quiet enough for a novice.

 

Clinic Report: Linda Heiny

At the urging of FFI president Sara Busbice, I signed up to ride in the Linda Heiny clinic that was scheduled for Friday, Nov 21, 2008. I didn’t know much about Linda except that she had given some clinics to other FFI foster horse riders and was well liked and respected by them. The clinic was held at Hilltop Farm Equestrian Center, a lovely facility on the SW side of Indianapolis. I was riding 3 horses and showed up at Hilltop around 9:30AM to have time to get all the horses settled in. I wasn’t sure if there would be auditors or how strict the scheduling would be.

My first ride was scheduled for 11:00AM. This gave me plenty of time to turn out each of the three horses individually in the arena. I wasn’t worried about Jewel as she is a pro about this stuff. But JC and Stormy had never been to a dressage clinic and I wanted to make sure that both had a chance to check out the scenery before I asked them to work. All three horses were just fine. The arean was big and well lit and none of the horses had any issue with it.

Linda arrived around 10:45 as I was tacking up JC. He was being a perfect gentleman and standing quietly in the cross ties. We had the chance to chit chat and learn about each other. It turns out that she is quite an accomplished rider and trainer. And she rode under Walter Zettl, a dressage hero of mine, for a number a years. That was really thrilling to hear! I was very happy to learn that we were on similar (if not the same) pages in regards to riding horses and training dressage horses. It was also a bit of a relief to find another local trainer that trains in a similar fashion to Amanda Pisano, my regular trainer. It was also interesting to hear about her dedication to Thoroughbreds and her life-long love of the breed.

As we were standing there talking, she asked about the horse in the cross ties (JC). I told her that this was the horse that had come off the track just 4 days previous. She couldn’t believe how quiet and well behaved he was. She said she knew that a fresh track horse was coming to the clinic and so she was prepared to have a ground work lesson. However, upon seeing him and his wonderful attitude in person, she had no problem with me riding him. And thus our lesson began.

We started on the ground and she asked me to show her what I had been working on with him. I showed her how I had been working to both desensitize him to the whip and teach him to yield to its pressure. She showed me a couple handy tools to help with this process. After that, I mounted up and she worked with his under saddle. We worked at the walk and the trot in both directions and focused on teaching him that “there is a better way” as Linda kept saying. The better way involved yielding the jaw to the hand and haunches to the leg in order to create submission and lifting of the back. This was right on track with what I had learned from Amanda. The key that Linda pointed out for this exercise was that the horse MUST step under himself when yeilding the haunches, or he hasn’t really yielded them. If the horse stops moving the inside leg either pushed out to the side or behind, the haunches are not yielded and the horse is resisting the rider.

Overall, he lacked balance and had a few drunken sailor moments where he wasn’t quite sure what direction to go, but for the most part, JC was incredibly willing to learn. And more importantly, once he figured something out and we praised him for it, he didn’t forget it. Linda was thrilled at how willing and intelligent he was. She just kept saying “we have to make sure this horse find a really nice home.” I concur!! There is a post on here entitled “A Week In The Life of Thoroughbred” which has a video of JC’s first week in his post-racing life. In it are some video clips from the clinic.

When we finished working with JC, it was time for Jewel to get ready. We took a little bit longer break and allowed her to get out into the arena and stretch her legs. I bought Jewel off the track in 2003 and have done all of her retraining. She has been through a lot in the last year and a half. We were working consistently at 2nd level dressage and schooling 3rd in the spring of 2007 when she suffered a torsion colic which required surgery. She was just beginning to work in collection again this past spring when an altercation with another horse left a deep puncture wound just above her right hock. These two incidences have affected her physically leaving Jewel underweight with a weak topline and a bit of a sagging belly. She’s 1.5 years past colic surgery and finally back to a healthy weight. We are starting the road back to collection and this is where Linda found us.

Linda started by putting us through our paces to see where Jewel was at as far as skill level. What Linda noticed is something that we’ve been dealing with since coming back to work from the surgery and injury. That is, Jewel doesn’t want to lower her croup. She frees her shoulder by lifting them, but is disconnected behind the saddle and doesn’t drop her croup. True collection occurs when the horse drops their croup to raise their front end. Jewel had figured out a way around this and I was letting her get away with it. So the majority of our time was spent at a walk and trot working on really engaging Jewel’s hind end. We rode squares in a collected walk. We also worked on slowing down the trot and lightening her contact with the inside rein through lateral flexion. Finally, we worked on extending and collecting her strides completly off my seat. I am excited about the tools that Linda gave me and I’m committed to building my mare’s hind end strength over the winter. My goal is to have a good medium trot by spring 2009. Linda commented on what a willing partner Jewel was and that while the issues that we worked on weren’t HUGE, they were a big deal if we ever wanted to successfully do tempi changes and correct extended and collected gaits.

The third horse I rode was Stormy. Stormy’s life since the track has been a little different that the above two horses. Of the three, he is the least built for sport horse disciplines. His neck is short and very upright, but its set on low, so its hard for him to work over his back. For about the first 9 months off the track, he dealt with an old hip injury. The vet guesses that its some sort of bursitis, but unless we do a thorough set of tests with x-rays and other diagnostic tools, we’ll never know. And really, it doesn’t matter what happened. What does matter is that time and turnout have made it better. Unfortunately, he is a also a pretty severe cribber, which hasn’t helped his neck any. His cribbing is controlled by wearing a collar and he must wear it all the time because he prefers to crib rather than eat. Therefore, he is also a bit on the thin side.

Stormy is currently a walk/trot horse. He is just getting to the point where he can canter more than a full circle on the lunge line. We may begin cantering under saddle later this winter as his butt and back muscle up. We’ll have to see how he developes. And so this is where Linda found Stormy and I as well.

Our lesson was primarily done at the walk and trot. We worked at helping Stormy to relax over the topline. Because of this conformation and his lack of carrying muscle, it is really hard work for him right now to lift his front end off the ground while his head is down. Plus, because of his cribbing addiction, the muscles on the underside of his neck are very large and tight. These are the muscles that he uses on a regular basis, so they are the strongest. Linda gave me a number of tips and tools to use with Stormy to help him get his head down.

The biggest tool she gave me was the understanding that with a horse like Stormy, who is very independent and willful, is that I needed to make sure that I was creating a puzzle for him to figure out in which the correct answer was the thing that I wanted him to do. In other words, Stormy is very smart, but a little stubborn. So in order for him to get to do what I want him to do, I have to create a situation where Stormy thinks its HIS idea to do the thing that I want him to do. It requires a lot more thinking on my part than working with horses like JC and Jewel who are more willing. However, once I started approaching Stormy’s training from this new viewpoint, it has actually become easier to train him. It has become a game instead of work — for both of us!

After finishing with Stormy, I was exhausted, but very proud of my three mounts. While each is very different from the other, they are all three benefited from the knowledge I gained by working with Linda. The keys for me to remember with each horse are:
- Slow down (I have a tendency to push the speed of each gait beyond what is a comfortable working gait for the horse).
- If they’re stuck in the bridle, more lateral flexion from inside leg to outside rein.
- Always ask a question for the horse to answer.

And so on that note, I’ll end this entry. I look forward to riding with Linda again in the future.

 

Clinic at Hilltop Farm

I’m taking 3 horses to Hilltop farm in the morning for a dressage clinic. I’m really looking forward to riding them. I’m taking two FFI horses: JC and Stormy. I spoke with the vet about taking JC and she thinks its a great idea. Stormy just needs to get out and get some more long and low work. I’m also taking Jewel. I figure I might as well get some insight into her needs, even though she’s quite a bit more advanced than the other two. It should be fun and I’ll report back my findings!