Day 17-20 and Pictures!

Day 17 Sunday January 19^th, 2014

In the morning a group of us drove to Loxahatchee to help prepare for the FEI trainers conference that is happening over the next two days.
At 2PM our Dressage Sport Boots arrived so we were able to take a few pictures for their website and ads. After we had a lecture with Judy Westlake who is also from Maine, she talked with us about rider biomechanics and helped us work on the balimo stool. Judy really made us realize how crooked we all are, the stretches she showed us were also really cool.
I rode in a late lesson, I started him out really stretchy and long so he’d relax and loosen through his body then went immediately to the canter. We really worked on the transitions within the canter, forward and then right back to hopefully help the adjustability when we got to the changes.  The right to left change was good but the left to right is still messy, we did get a few decent ones though.

Day 18 Monday January 20^th, 2014

No day off for us this week! Today was the first day of the FEI trainers’ conference with Steffen Peters and Scott Hassler. Lendon thankfully worked out a deal so that by volunteering we could watch the clinic. I didn’t work at Jackie’s so that I was able to go and I’m so glad I did! I got so much more out of the conference this year than I did last year. I left the conference on the first day with 8 full pages of notes, talk about quality horses and instruction!

Day 19 Tuesday January 21^st, 2014

Day 2 of the trainers’ conference!  The changes in the horses today from yesterday were really awesome. Today Steffen placed a lot of emphasis on the pirouettes, half steps and quality movement transitions. 5 pages of notes from today! Maybe when I need a filler blog post I’ll type up some of my notes.
We were suppose to have a lecture at 5 back at the stable but the scheduling got a little messed up so it was postponed in till tomorrow.

A few friends and I went to the South Florida Fair that evening to see Craig Morgan perform. It was great to get out of the barn and man can Craig put on a performance!

Day 20 Wednesday January 22^nd, 2014

8AM lecture with Laura King the life coach and hypnotist I mentioned in an earlier blog post. Today she talked about self talk and empowering yourself instead of being negative. I learned a lot and hope (I mean I will!)  to get in practice with it! I can, I can, I can, I can!
At 1PM we had a pilates workout with Janice Dulak, anyone in the Ocala area; I highly recommend working with her, it was pretty cool. She really focuses on the similarities of pilates to dressage horses, the collection that we require in our horses is equal to the strength and discipline we need to have in our own core. Imagine doing crunches or a plank for the duration of a Grand Prix test! I dare say I had fun!
I rode on my own today. Display had two days off due to the trainers’ conference. Any time I asked him to go forward he got really hollow in his back and was a bit resistant. I think his hocks are starting to act up again so we just did some easy stretching forward and down.
That evening we attended the US PRE party. They had multiple demonstrations to show the versatility of the breed and some pretty amazing food! The PRE’s are pretty cool little horses, if you don’t know much about the breed I encourage you to go do a little research on them, they are fascinating! 

Day 12-16

Day 12 Tuesday January 14^th, 2014

We worked on the changes a lot today. They started out rough but got better, Lendon gave me a super piece of information; keeping the old bend through the change instead of pulling his head to the new bend helps keep him straighter and more balanced, who would have thought! Half halts were better but corners, not so much. We did pretty decent for a Tuesday!

Our lecture was with Sue Stickle, she’s a professional photographer and shoots many top events like the CDIs at Global and Olympics. Her main topic was about copyrights and how they work.

 Fun facts: She began professionally in 1995. Her least favorite test to shoot is the Second level tests and if your Uncle John takes a picture on your camera it is his copyright, same with you using your sisters camera.

In the evening we went to ShowChic for a talk with Olympian Carol Lavell who told us about her journey to the Olympics on a horse that no one thought would go Grand Prix.

Day 13 Wednesday January 15^th 2014

Display felt all over the place in our lesson today, being straight was definitely not on his to do list today! He was hard to keep consistent and giving, he was anticipating the changes so we skipped them for today. We did a lot of trot work, mixing lateral and lengthening together sort of like how they are in the tests.
In the morning one of the other girls and myself went to Chris Hickey’s farm on the other side of Wellington to watch Morten Thompsen teach. He uses a lot of in-hand work to teach half steps and to improve the expression in the trot, his training is very straight forward and clear. His methods are really cool and it gave me a little inspiration to start doing more in-hand work with my horse!
Our scheduled lesson got cancelled so we had a brief one with Lendon on the aids for all of the dressage movements.

Day 14 Thursday January 16^th 2014

Super ride today! I worked on keeping my hands really steady and adjusting him from my fingers and wrists so that everything was a bit quieter. We did some awesome lateral work than moved onto a little bit of pirouette work that’s in Fourth level test 2. I’m starting to feel like I can ride and keep him together a bit more, it’s really exciting!
We were invited to go to Tuny Page’s GORGEOUS Still Point farm to watch Nicholas Fyff and other top riders train. Nicholas is such a lovely rider, he showed us his PRE Stallion Fiero HGF bred by Kim Boyer, owner of Hampton Green Farm and a brentina cup horse he has in for training for resale.

All of us WITees do get out of the barn and have fun sometimes: Lendon sponsored a few teams to participate in the 2^nd annual Vinceremos Therapudic riding “Buck Off” competition.
Teams of 4 ride a mechanical bull for 15 seconds in hopes to score as many style points as they can. We all had a blast and of course did well!

Day 15 Friday January 17^th, 2014

Today we got the amazing opportunity to visit Olympian Tina Konyot’s farm. She showed us her Olympic mount Collecto, an upcoming Grand Prix horse Wyoming and her newly imported young horse Diamond. Her background is very interesting, her father Alex Konyot was a phenomenal animal trainer and worked for the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Today was a hack day so I took Display out to the front field and just did some walking and trotting to get him moving.

Day 16 Saturday January 18^th, 2014

Today was our first WIT schooling show, I rode Display in a 4-2 test. Even though I showed him Third level over the Summer this felt like a huge jump. It’s pretty funny, once Display is braided he totally goes into show mode and turns into this really awesome horse J
The test went pretty well, I don’t think I rode it as well as I could have. The first pirouette and change were good, second pirouette we got stuck in so we went off course to try it again, the trot work was decent but have to practice the extensions and mediums so that we can be bolder in the show ring.

One of the WIT girls gave her lecture on trail riding and she did a super job! Each week one of us has to give a 20ish minute lecture on a subject of our choice. Luckily I don’t have to do mine in till March!

I will have another post ready by tomorrow night, by then I should be caught up!
Hopefully the next one will have pictures too!

I hope everyone is staying warm, we started out at 45* but made it up to 70* today.

Day 9-11

Day 9 Saturday January 11^th, 2014

In our lesson today Jaime helped us with our changes, that got him pretty supple and light from the start. Also worked on pirouettes, I need to prepare him A LOT more for them to come out smooth but overall they were good. Definitely realized the need of good half halts during this ride, we are going to start working on them with a TON of transitions.  I have to start riding each change like there is one coming right after it, it might sound simple but man is it hard!

Our workout today was all about the legs! You know it’s been a good workout when you can feel the burn all day long.
The afternoon lecture was with Elisabeth Williams who is an FEI Technical Delegate (TD). A TD is there to help the rider and make sure everything goes smoothly and ethically in the warm up. Their code is: Help – Prevent – Intervene.

Day 10 Sunday January 12^th 2014

Worked mostly on my own today, on changes and pirouettes while Lendon was watching (I sound like a broken record don’t I? Sorry!). Overall it was a great ride; I was able to use my back more with a quicker response so that was exciting!

In the afternoon we went to a local Pilates studio. The stretching and exercises felt amazing but left me a little sore later on in the day!
No lecture today L

Day 11 Monday January 13^th 2014

Ready for a REALLY short day entry? It must be Monday!
I worked most of the day, did some homework in the afternoon and after work in the PM did more homework with Grace!

Big blog post tomorrow night!!

Day 2-8

Day 2 Saturday January 4^th 2014

Rode Display for the first time since arriving in Florida and he was very stiff and tight. I worked on not pulling on him so that he didn’t have anything to lean on or get heavy on.  I was a bit greedy for it being the first ride, but hopefully will settle within the next few days.

Our lecture was with Dr. Mitchell who has been the Olympic team vet for years. He spoke about the process of pre-purchase exams. I myself have never had to go through one so I learned a lot. He also talked a little bit about how tendons slowly wear down with repetitive trauma.   Proactive care is crucial!

That evening we attended a party at Hampton Green for the Horsemastership clinic and WIT kids.

Day 3 Sunday January 5^th, 2014

In our lesson Display was a bit better, still a bit stiff but a slight more adjustable. Lendon is concerned that I get him too deep without letting his neck down more. Shoulder-ins were super wobbly today so hopefully they get more consistent as we get back to work.

Lecture was with Jeremy Steinburg on the training scale, its meaning and also association to your aids. Some of my notes from the lecture were quite interesting, I’ll quote some below.
“You can’t make relaxation; it should be the result of good work.”

“Looseness is the state of a horse’s body. It’s from the development of energy”

“Collection is taking the scope of the gait and changing its angle to an uphill balance. Collection is not shortening”

“Our horses should have the grandest reaction to the lightest aids.”

Day 4 Monday January 6^th, 2014

Mondays are our “Day off” from WIT activities. This year I’m working for Jacqueline Brooks on Mondays. She’s a Canadian Grand Prix rider who has been to the Olympics multiple times.
In the afternoon I took my boyfriend to West Palm Beach so he could experience the warm Florida water. Maine ocean water never warms up above 50* so we were quite thrilled with 77* water!!

Day 5 Tuesday January 7^th, 2014

I had to drive my boyfriend to the airport this AM (He drove down with me from Maine, thank God he likes driving!).
An exciting lesson took place today! Display started out really really well, as it went on I could feel him getting more and more wired. I asked a bit too much from him to quickly and he exploded. After a rear and a half and some very impressive leaping maneuvers he managed to get me off. We set him loose in the round pen so that he could get his extra energy out of his system, even after that he was still pretty wound up so we lunged him in till he settled. Then the poor pony got to be turned out all night! :-P

The lecture was with Lisa Wallace from Dressage Sport Boots on sales horses. I think out of all of the WIT 2013 and 2014 lectures this one was my favorites. She explained every aspect of the sale horse business and gave us some scenarios and asked how we would manage it.  She encouraged us to sit on EVERY horse we could because that will give us a huge edge when we go to try or train sales horses.
Some more of my notes:
“ Make sure to disclose what the horse is all about. Good, bad, anything.”

“There is never a horse that is not worthwhile to train or sit on”

“The American market is truly for Adult Amateurs and JR/YRs”

“Let the horse sell himself to you. There is always a horse for someone!”
“Don’t feel like its Christmas morning when shopping in Europe.”

“If you’ve told 1 person about a horse or product, you’ve told 20.”

Lisa has also offered to give EACH WITee (that’s 13 of us in total) a full set of her amazing Dressage Sport Boots. This is truly amazing and I encourage everyone to go and look at her website and check them out. Lisa, this is so very generous of you and Display and I can’t thank you enough!

Day 6 Wednesday January 8^th, 2014

Display got turned out all night but I still lunged him a bit to make sure he wasn’t wired. He settled after a few minutes and we went on to our lesson.

Our lesson was pretty good. He was very light and rideable which was a change from the day before! Half passes were good, I need to lean into the direction he’s traveling in lateral work.
Also have to remember that even though he’s light and feels super he still needs re-balancing half halts to get him underneath himself and re-balance.  Collection does not mean shorten the stride it means contain the power and send it in a more uphill direction.

Our lecture was with Laura King, she is a hypnotist and life coach. Laura will be graciously donating her time to each week to help us master relaxation and the tools necessary for peak performances through self hypnosis. Everyone should check out her book,"The power to win".

Day 7 Thursday January 9^th, 2014

We started out our day with a 7AM abs workout! I’ll have a six pack by the time I come home, woohoo!

I lunged Display again before I rode him. We had another super ride today; I could make adjustments and ask for a bit more and he stayed soft and willing. Now I have to figure out how to leave him alone and do nothing! I’m starting to get him a bit too round because I’m so use to him never being quite through enough. So, less curb, poll up, A LOT more half halts and keeping the canter active, sounds simple enough right?

Lecture was with Lendon on a bunch of different topics, basically just checking in with everyone and making plans. We all discussed showing, Lendon gave me the go ahead to look at Fourth level test 3.

Day 8 Friday January 10^th, 2014

“Hack day!”

I hand walked Display today, everything was SOAKED from record rainfall, I didn’t want to chance him slipping or tearing up the footing.
After that I went back to the house and chilled for a bit, organized and puttered around.
At 2:30 we had a short lecture with Lendon on rider position and necessary aids.  Some notes:
“Your upper body belongs to you, lower body belongs to the horse.”
“Elbows should be slightly in front of you so that you have room to make adjustments, both forward and backward.”
“Indirect rein is only used when the inside leg is not active. (half pass for example)”

“Anything you do and keep doing in a rhythm that is wrong, should not become a way of life.”

Another blog post soon!! Sorry for the delay!