. Of course, It's disappointing, but I am biel

So I went and  rode Kerm a few more times, and as beautiful a creature as he is, and as much as I want it to work out, I had  to walk away. Sometimes riding and  training styles are just not compatible, no matter the effort, talent, or perseverance of the parties involved . At the end  of the day, if I can walk away from something saying :" I LEARNED from this" and of course, everyone is happy and the experience left no hard feelings then that is the most important thing to me. And  that's what happened. Of course I am  disappointed, but I am a firm believer that If you do things the right way, with a smiling face, and are helpful and cheerful, The right opportunity will find you. It's always happened to me in the past, and I never usually have to wait that long. 

But, just for fun, here are some photos :)

   

    

\\



I have also just started training a really lovely friesian x holsteiner mare who has had some training in the past, but very inconsistent and probably less than 60 rides total if you gather all the sporadic fits and spats together. . She is 7 or 8 years old,  HOLY dOOdLE IS SHE AWESOME! (sorry guys/gals My laptop is on it's way out and the "d" key broke about a year or so ago so I have to always find a "d"  somewhere on line, copy it, and then press "ctrl 'v'" to paste it every time I need it. If I need an upper case "d" I either don't do one or I go try to find one somewhere to copy and off I go, lol. It's a decent system, as in, It has a 50% success rate. Half the time I get so frustrated I end up calling the person I am trying to email or message  which is SO. MUCH. EASIE

R.  (And I lived through the most impressive technological revolution this world will ever see!

Back to this mare. Cute as a pig in sh....wamp water. Her ability to reach with her shoulders and remain in balance is incredible. Even on the longe, she is so balanced, like when you hold a dressage whip on the palm of your hand trying to find it's balance point, her unless she is running over tempo because she's still getting used to a rider on her back, is so clear and easy, she always puts herself in that correct balance. It;s very rare to see a green broke horse, or any horse, have such a naturally balanced movement and be able to maintain it within transitions. She seeks the contact so I just let her be as round or as high or as low as she wants for how, as long as she is not in my face, or too low or too round. She gives me a lot of very nice contact. She is really cool. If I had the money, I would buy her in a heartbeat. But I am having fun so I hope she stays for a while, LOL.

 did I mention she was awesome? cuz she is. Seriously freakin' awesome.

Seriously.

So I was all ready and paid to take Lerm to the Touch of Class show at Thunderbird this past weekend, but of course, someone threw a  wrench and I had to scratch because I separated my shoulder. On the bright side, I got to groom for a wonderful group of people, and I had a nice time anyways. Turns out, the last time I separated my right shoulder which was in 2009, coming off Pia Fortmuller's young horse (who is now at GP, yay!) it should have been surgically repaired, because it healed separated, and scar tissue has been holding it stable, but it's been chronically separated for the past 6 years. So, I have a choice to make, can I get the surgery now and take the 6 months to recover or manage the pain with injections until after the next Pan Am Games (our goal) .

It's always something, right?

So I have organized a really nice clinic with my coach, Leslie Reid, to come up to teach at the very beautiful Sun Meadows Equestrian Centre at the end of August. I can't wait! Her eye is so amazing, and her teaching is second to none. It's going to be wonderful - I arranged for a mobile tack store to be there on site, as well as we are having a used tack swap, a BBQ dinner, and then a potluck lunch.

Instead of me taking up two lesson spots, I will do one lesson on the first day, and then just a quick 15-minute in hand demo with me in the saddle and Leslie on the ground.

So, this is my very first ride, in a half a foot of water, in the pouring rain. (I didn't realize my right rein was all jammed up as I normally don't hold my reins like I do here, but the owner asked me to so I obliged, which is why the contact was so unsteady - I couldn't figure it out for a while.)

So this horse is very large, very long both in front and behind the saddle, and is a wiggly worm. It is going to take a long time for me to get to know him and to connect all his body parts into one cohesive unit, but boy, is this a nice horse. and what a mind!

Thanks guys, comment away!
Jamie

New Adventures of Old-er Jamie

Well, you can beat e'm down, but you can't keep down for ever! Is that a saying? I feel like that's a saying. Some of you are shaking your heads. Ok, well, maybe it isn't. "Anything's a possibility." as my best friend's almost-husband always says. It's my new favourite and least favourite saying. It inspires hope, but at the same time, a bit of despair. Chew on it for a few minutes. I'll come back to you.

Anyways, You're probably wondering where I went since my last post. There were a lot of changes in my life since then, some good, some not so wonderful. All of them have led me to where I am now, and I am happy so that is all that counts right? RIGHT?? The wonderful mare I had in training for sale, which I wish I could have purchased for my own, sold a couple months ago and is now being owned and loved by an AA who will give her a nice quiet home. I wish them all the best! It's the greatest feeling, as a trainer, knowing that you took a horse who was so offended by the bridle, and the aids, that no one wanted to ride them, let alone an AA go anywhere near writing a cheque for them, to having someone be able to hop on, and do 2nd level movements in a nice soft connection with bend and contact and be able to test out the gears.


So anyways, without further ado, I present my newest ride, a coming 6 year old, 17.1 hh branded Andalusian gelding by Competitor (Kianto). His name is Corazone de Leone. He is owned by Tisha Rowe of Barnhartvale, Kamloops, B.C who has done all of his training, and continues to do so until I find a rental suite closer to her facility. I have so far only ridden him twice, and he has just a lovely temperament. Tisha has done an incredible job with him so far. He is a very large, long horse with a massive neck, and as I am smaller, It will take some time for us to get coordinated with each other and synch our timing and strength to the fine-tuned level it needs to be. I am bringing him to school to Thunderbird Equestrian Center for Touch of Class Dressage Show next weekend and have started to arrange plans for July and August to take him down to Leslie's for one weekend each month for a few days of lessons with fellow dressage rider and friend Brittany Moore. Short term goal? Become a partnership. Long term goal? Debut at 3rd this fall, then PSG next spring.  For now, here are a few shots of where we started at! Enjoy :)

So, after 18 years of riding, 3 open back surgeries, 36 epidural spinal blocks, 9 MRIs, 2 bilateral full-level lumbar rhizotomies (32 injections each) and 1 passion for horses, the only phrase that comes to mind? "Anything's a possibility!"

Wednesday;s ride was great - I had a bit of a lightbulb moment with her about my habit of tensing my seat when we go from freewalk to medium walk - every time I gather my reins, she tenses and jogs off, past my seat. It's my bad, because I tense up in anticipation of this mistake.

            So, instead of just doing the same thing over and over and getting the same result (definition of INSANITY) I put her on a 20 m circle, and practiced only picking up one rein at a time, and looking anywhere but at her. I tried to completely dissociate my brain from what I was doing with my body, and I concentrated on BREATHING! Guess what? Only 3 reps of alternating gathering first one rein, then letting it back out, and then the other, and back out, I was able to then keep the first rein, gather the second, and there wasn't a hint of tension or anything from her. This may take a few weeks to solidify, but I think I may have found the tool that does the job for this horse.

Also, I was able to both get her to stretch over her topline, and then FINALLY push on her in the trot and for the first time ever, I felt her back round up underneath me and her hind legs come up, under, and push with power. It was a great feeling of what is to come with this mare.

Last night's ride was different - she was pretty much ready to go off the bat - very supple laterally and just a dream in the contact. I got some stills from the video to show how she's coming along.

Update and Introducing Carerra!

So It's been a while, I know. I took a couple years off riding completely to see if  it would make a difference with my spine and slow down any progression of future herniations, or pain or whatever, and it hasn't so as long as I am careful about riding, not getting on silly young horses or riding in unsafe situations I should be ok. I am no longer very brave, since I have 3 active herniations - at L3-L4, L4-L5 and L5-S1 with compression on the S1 nerve root. Just a bit of a status update on that. It's pretty much constantly painful both in my lower spine and my left leg, and my left foot is often pins and needles or numb in areas. Oddly enough I don't notice any pain when I ride, because I am not focusing on it at all I suppose!

I wanted to introduce Carerra. She's a 16 hand Warlander mare (Andalusian x Friesian) who's about 8 years old. she's pretty green in that she only knew basic w/t/c and at that, had pretty inconsistent, choppy rhythm and horrible contact when I got on her about 3 weeks ago. I've ridden her about 10 times including tonight, which I will post about after I ride.

My biggest challenge with her has been so far getting her to relax, both mentally and through her body. I started her out on the longe before I ever got on her back and I noticed right away that she kept everything bottled up up high. She holds her breath, doesn't chew on the bit, and keeps her shoulders and tail tucked up and really tense. it takes lots of trot/canter transitions and making sure she stays in a good slow rhythm but mixing in transitions as well to get her to relax, breathe, and let go of that tension through her top line so that she swings, chews on the bit, licks her lips, lets go of her tail, and drops her neck. 

This longe work is important so that once I get in her saddle I can do lateral work and I don't have to do more than breathe sideways and make sure my outside aids contain her angle and voila! she moves with me. If I don't get her to loosen on the longe, I really have to push, and it's a struggle to break up the tension in her body. So why even go there?

Also, as she's part cart horse (friesian!) she has a bit of a knee-ful, choppy stride, which I have to slow down and make her swing through instead, and eventually add cadence and suspension to, THEN the knee action will be welcome back in a sense,  but right now I want her hind legs to slow down, push, carry, and spend more time on the ground. lateral work like leg yield along the wall or on the circle (as long as she is going forward to the line along the ground!) is helpful for this. I know what you're all saying....

so here is a bit of a teeny tiny video from one of our first rides. sorry for the crappy. This is pretty much what I consider "before"

I'll let you know how tonight goes. Comments are welcome!

Jamie

I just took nearly a week off to rest my back again. It rained pretty hard yesterday, so I figured the Mosquitos would be pretty bad, and boy was I right. Cello had welts the size of my face in a couple spots. Poor dude. Anyways, I warmed him up with walk leg yields on the wal again and he was a bit sticky on the left. I don't like to bug horses on one particular thing, so I just super him a bit with my left leg and rein and just left it like that. When I picked up the trot it was the first time he felt super swingy and soft from the start. He didn't wantto just rush off which both made me happy and a bit shocked at the same time. May e some time off is good for his mind.

I just did some super stretchy trot work, leg yields, osome forward and back transitions, and some calm, quiet canter work. He's still a bit tricky in the canter, especially going right. It feels more uphill and engaged, but I really have to ride him in shoulder fore and keep both legs on. It's a struggle, though I'm sure it looks fine if you're watching. It's coming.

I'm also cooling him down and incorporating the half steps and some collected trot work. He has extreme ability to collect, but he gets tight and tense if he thinks he's being shoved into it. So basically I keep my reins long and low, and just focus on keeping his neck mobile and supple and round. Then when I shift both legs back and cluck a bit, he sits his little butt down and really gets lift and cadence.I barely have to do anything. he has a good half step coming and quite a good passage, for the very few steps I ask him for. I praise him a lot and give him sugar after three or 4 steps. I just k ow that when it comes time for him to get serious about piaffe and passage, I would rather have him familiar with the aids and the rhythm. That way it's not a big deal or a big adjustment, and when he's string enough to do it for real it's not going to be an issue.

After the ride we went out on the trails and he enjoyed looking at all the grass and flowers in the fields.

My YouTube account is called JamieDeanne91...or click on this linky!  YouTube account

I have added some clips from yesterday - lateral work, counter canter work, and some lengthened stride trot work. It's hard work, this dressage crap...