Cowgirl Spirit Rescue Drill Team

Last night Mollie and I had a most excellent lesson with my trainer. We worked on connection to the outside rein, being in front of my leg without rushing, half halts, and then the almighty canter departs.

So many ah-ha moments last night. We worked so well together, and really got some great work under our belts. Probably one of my biggest accomplishments was figuring out that Mollie wants a very quiet canter request. She does best from the sitting trot, and a very quiet canter cue. I was asking with a much louder cue than I needed. Once she’s on my aids, a very light cue works just fine.

So this past weekend, we took Mollie to her first dressage show, and I rode her in Training Level test 2 and 3.

Thought I’d give you a little break down of how *I* thought it went

Overall, it was a great experience. I was really nervous- beginning the evening prior to the show through the morning. My brain kept wanting to forget the tests, and I wanted to throw up. I think I was nervous because Mollie is so green, and I was afraid of making fools out of ourselves. But once I got to the grounds and in the saddle, the nerves melted away and I got down to riding.

Mollie was on her most excellent behavior – we had no issues in warm up, no crashes, no spooks, no nasty behavior- and it was kind of crowded in there! She was 100% focused on the task at hand.

She was nervous, though. To be expected. She tried her little heart out. And she kept it together- I never felt like she was going to lose her cool.

Test 2:  she hesitated slightly when i pushed her on into the test arena – but onward we went. Initially, she was pretty tense and wanted to break to canter a couple of times – but she did slowly work out of it and got into the groove of the larger arena and figures. Still not as relaxed as she is at home – but for her first show- she did great! We even got our canter leads.

Test 3: she entered with much less hesitation. We did miss our left lead, but were able to correct it on the circle. She was tired, a bit harder to bend and keep going in a balanced way – really felt like it was a fitness issue more than anything.

So – lots to work on, but we have our starting point. Things like being more precise in our upward transitions, and developing a relaxed trot and engaging the hind end. This all comes with time- both in fitness, but relaxation from rhythm which takes time to develop. She’s been doing this for 3 weeks, and is already so different – I think if given the chance (months of this type of work) she’d really come around.

Picture time!

Mollie and I had another nice session yesterday. I changed up her tack a wee bit, and put her on the longe to make sure everything would stay in place. She was moving really well on the longe, that I didn’t feel the need to work her much more in that manner, so quickly mounted up and got to business riding.

The core of our workout was improving our canter – both transitions, picking up leads, and the quality of the gait. Mollie is such a great little horse- she really does try to learn as much as she can. Her leads improved by leaps and bounds (pun absolutely intended!).

That said, no horse is perfect, and I don’t want readers to think Mollie is without her faults. Her list of abilities is quite long, while her list of opportunities is short, and pretty common to young horses who just need more miles.

Things Mollie is Great At Doing:

• Quick to learn
• Steady horse- not very spooky
• Curious – will explore new things and ideas
• Great in hand- both during ground work and longeing- will w/t/c halt and reverse on cue.
• Great to bridle and saddle
• Stands for mounting, dismounting from ground or mounting block.
• Very rideable- easy walk, trot, canter, steering halt, back up.
• Very smooth gaits
• Beginning lateral bending work
• Fun in the arena, and out in the open
• Can ride alone or with other horses present
• Bathes
• Ties- cross or single tie
• Can be sprayed with spray bottle, fine with mane, tail, forelock grooming.
• Accepts syringes in mouth
• Hauls in straight or slant load
• Can be stalled, pastured, paddocked – individually or in group
• Safe to ride & handle- no bite, no buck, no kick

Opportunities to Improve:

• Continue to work on clipping abilities-  though MUCH better than she was!
• Continue with left-ear desensitizing
• Needs long warm-up (15-20 min) to loosen up and relax body. Will offer all she has after she gets that warm up!
• Will test her rider to see if she can be boss or not- will go her own way unless fairly directed otherwise
• Wants to join other horses when present- will try to float away towards them
• Needs to relax when handling hind hooves- she has never tried anything bad- she’s just nervous about it. I have been working with her to relax when hooves are being handled.

All of Mollie’s opportunities are really pretty mild – and she gets better with them each day. Overall she is a fantastic little horse, and I’ve really enjoyed my time with her. Whoever ends up with this little horse is going to be very lucky indeed!

Mollie and I had a great ride tonight. It kicked our butts- but we’ve both got large ones and can use the exerise.

I wasn’t left thrilled with our ride yesterday, and I came to the barn determined to have a better one than yesterday. Apparently Mollie felt the same way because she did GREAT.

After warming us both up, I did a lot of circles, serpentines and even a bit of shoulder in. I played with testing our connection to the outside rein. Once I felt like we were both reasonably on it, I asked for canter departs – this time with NO voice cue. Mollie is so freaking smart she jumped right into it. I can say with confidence that she knows the cue for canter without the support of my kissy/smoochie cue.

So, we spent the rest of our time working elements of each test. like the loops, the circles, the canter cues, transitions, free walks, blah blah the list goes on.

I then rode Test 2. It was better than last night, but still not as polished as I’d like. Good news is, I have time -one week to go- we can do it!

I must remember on saturday that we have to get there early to have a nice long warm up- Mollie really needs a good warm up to be really on her game.

Oh one other fabulous update: I was able to clip Mollie’s bridle path COMPLETELY. It took a few moments of desensitizing to the clippers- but really, in Mollie time- it was lightening fast. Huge progress. She also let a random boarder massage her ears – hello.

Well, looks like Mollie’s show career is about to begin on July 23 at which point she and I will be going to a local horse park to run through dressage tests Training Level Test 2 and Test 3.

Last night I set out to memorize my tests. I do this on foot, all the while committing the movements to the pattern. Once I got that down, I got Mollie out, warmed up, and set out to ride the tests.

L.O.L

It always makes me laugh the first time I ride a test- woooo talk about rough! But, we successfully ran through both tests, didn’t end up completely turned around.

That said, i have a laundry list of things we need to work on, and i have a week to git er done. These include, straightness from X to C after the halt and salute…kinda looks more like a drunk man spiked our punch and walked away laughing. The other biggie: canter cue by seat, not by voice – there is no talking in dressage tests. Hmm, and perhaps I should add the left lead onto that list.

Our stretchy circles actually weren’t bad, and changing rein was do-able as well.

Now, I’m not expecting some high, olympian level scores…in fact, I’ll take anything in the high 50′s to low 60′s. Shooting for mediocrity…and for staying in the arena and on the horse.

Mollie and I had another great ride yesterday. This time we shared the arena. She was soft, attentive, and really forward, and had a beautiful walk, trot, and canter. We even stepped over some trotting poles.

Afterwards, we went out with our friends to walk in the Big Scary World- aka the track. The track has houses on the infield, with horse pastures. flanking the sides is busy Woods Creek Road, a nursery, more houses…so it is not just a quiet stroll through the land. And true to form – on one side we had 2 colts that rushed the fence – bucking, rearing, galloping around at the sight of us- and on the other side- a few dogs barking, people yelling, motorcycles revving…and we survived. Mollie definitely looked in both directions, and was nervous, but never placed a foot wrong. She championed through.

Mollie has been doing so well with me, I just had to get another rider’s assessment. I wanted to see how Mollie would handle another rider, so I asked a friend to hop on her. She boards with me and is a former Cowgirl Spirit rider, so is used to potentially naughty horses. She hadn’t seen Mollie go in a couple of weeks- so I thought she’d be perfect to do the test ride.

I was also able to snap a few photos of the event- which is great BUT my camera battery was on its last leg and almost all the photos came out terribly fuzzy. I did manage to get this one, though

The rider’s assessment was the same as mine- great, smart little mare, tense at first, but  relaxes into work just fine. Super smooth, very easy to ride. Gonna make a great horse- show, trail, cows, dressage, hunt seat- basically any and all directions.

So, there ya have it- another opinion beyond my own. Mollie was very good, too – on her best behavior, and dareisay, she even liked all the attention fawned on her this afternoon.

Haven’t posted in a few days- not really much to report. Mollie and I continue to work and play together – and everything is going really well.

On Thursday I had a few moments to play with Mollie, so I figured we’d play a bit with transitions. I didn’t really have time to tack up and ride, which was just as well because Mollie was grumpy. All the horses that night just seemed to be in an “off” mood – I attribute that to the pounding rain showers- they did not move around much all day when they were outside.

In any case,  I took her into the arena on the longe line, and let her spunky self work it out without involving myself much – which is important for a mare like her. Mollie is the type of horse that has an automatic shield when it comes to people- the second she feels something negative she automatically assumes its because a person did it to her. Horses like her, they play the victim. It is important for her to see she is in control of a lot that happens when we are together – she brings on the good, and the bad. I am careful to be there as her teacher, as a positive energy in her life- but will also let her work stuff out on her own when she needs to. And that night, she needed to. Had I immediately begun with my own agenda- she would’ve likely done it- but sullenly, and with a lot of opposition. That is not the kind of partner I want Mollie to grow into, so I had to be patient and wait her out. A few squeals and a couple bucks later, she was ready.

Once she was feeling better, i started engaging her brain with some new material – canter departs from trot, and then from walk. Mollie is one smart little cookie. She LOVES to learn new things, and gets bored with the same old, same old.  We played a lot with this concept of transitions, and she really got into it.

The next day, yesterday, I took her out again and could see immediately her attitude was much brighter. So we saddled up and went to the arena – where she showed me how well she processed her canter transitions on cue- very nice, Mollie!

Riding-  we worked on a lot of the same concepts as before- forward. Mollie always starts out a bit tense, but after 5-10 minutes she relaxes and gives such a nice ride. We worked on transitions (gettin them a bit more snappy), bending – begin with shoulder in, and bending on serpentines- changing the outside rein.

I really like how she’s developing – definitely becoming more in front of my leg, and feels much more stretchy. My barn manager, who hadn’t seen her in a couple of weeks also commented that she’s looking much more fit and generally moving much better. That is always good to hear!! Go Mollie!

Mollie and I played on the ground today. We dabbled in a lot of areas  – including over a tarp, low jumps, sidepasses, etc. She was great. Areas to work on: hind quarters- she wants to move too quickly. When I ask for 1 step I get 3, and she positions herself to try to move you away out of your asking zone, basically blocking you. So we’re working on responding appropriately to the request.

My biggest impression – what a neat little mare! I really enjoy working with her. I may be way off base saying this as I am a dressage and jumper rider, but I think if you turned her on some cows she would have a field day. I just get that sense about her- she wants to play.

I still stand by my original assessment- she is going to be a neat little horse for someone who wants to go out and have a good time! She’s soaked up just about everything I’ve thrown at her, and she seems to really enjoy it.

Drying off after her bath

Mollie and I had such a worthwhile ride today. Everything started off pretty normally for us, routine even. When I brought her in the arena, still, normal.

What struck me the most about Mollie when I first met her was the tension that runs through her body. She’s a tightly wound rubber band. She walks, trots, and canters like that- there is very little freedom in her gaits. She also has this fake headset and does not trust hands on the bit. All of which is normal for a green horse – some are just like this by nature.

While I havent been ignoring this with Mollie, I also haven’t been directly focusing on it, either. For many horses- when you want to work on something like tension, you have to do it indirectly, otherwise you just get even more tension. So, since I’ve gotten Mollie, I’ve basically just worked on the basic rules that I expect her (and myself) to operate by. Consistency with these rules has given her something to trust in me – which brought out such a great ride today.

Like I was saying, it was all very normal to start. But then she tried. I asked her a question – can you seek my hands? And at first, she said No.  So I let her be, quietly holding the reins, and pushing her forward, and started doing some 50 ft circles, then figure 8′s – changing up as often as I could. Then she tried. I felt her whole body stretch maybe 1 inch or 2.  She got tons of praise- and figured out right then that it was ok to relax into my hands to continue the work. Soon, 2, 3, 4, 6 inches.

From there, I asked her to canter – and she automatically tighted up again – but we worked on it together, and soon had a nice canter going.

We did a lot of transitions and figure 8′s. A lot of thinking activities. Mollie was very engaged and willing.

Afterwards, I gave her a bath (which she LOVED), and a good rub down with a terry cloth – not really sure which part she loved more!!  I also applied some diaper rash cream to her face to help heal her pink nose. Mollie was exellent, though not really sure what to make of the smell, LOL.

I  am very happy with Mollie, and think she is a great little horse- what a great partner she will make someone!