Rolex Dressage 2011 (Quick Pics)

 Diana Burnette and Manny lookin' gorgeous

 Michael Pollard and a gorgeous Icarus

 Michael and Icarus flyin along!

Allison Springer and Arthur

Last Post Before Rolex!

Tomorrow after school I'll head out to the barn, then leave for Kentucky!  Can't wait!  I really have to get my ! usage under control.  Anyhow, Cadence and I had another jumping lesson today on which we worked on the harder less fun more frustrating side of her jumping right now: cantering fences sans placing poles.  Two cross-rails on a circle.  Easy, right?  Not for my little 5 y/o ball of fire.  First she decides that she'd take what she learned yesterday and jump the one x like it had a big scary barrel under it.  Then she decided to continue along on that train of though, and just not go over it.  Grrrr!  I picked up a whip after her third run out, and didn't let it happen again.  however, I really had to ride every. single. damn. fence.  That's something that I don't like doing, and am not very good at.  However, I suppose now's the time to start.  Anyhow, my coach'll ride her twice whilst I'm down in Kentucky (partially so she can ride in the Childeric :P) and sort out her canter o/f.  Oh, I forgot to add that when we did jump 'em, she plowed over the fences.  No respect, running right through me, and barely lifting her feet even @ 2'6.  That's why we never should have showed her that there were bigger more exciting fences out there... what's done is done I suppose.

I didn't have any nice pics of Cadence being ridden... and I still don't.  These are just screen shots from our youtube vid.  However, at least it's a picture.  Or 4.  The standards look really small in the pics... however, today I walked past them today and realized they were up to my shoulders.  I was impressed, because at 5'9 my shoulders are sorta high up!

Badminton XC Results

I've been lucky to get live radio from Badminton on a friend's iPod :)  For my Canadians, Selena O'Hanlon and Stephanie Rhodes-Bosh will go in about an hour.  Hawley Bennet-Awad just finished, with 1 refusal at a skinny.  They didn't say which.  She (Hawley) did overtake someone on course.  Not sure how that happens, but apparently it can.  I just finished listening to her interview at the end of the course, and am writing this because the announcers left to have ice cream :P
Update: Selena O'Hanlon and Colombo are clear through the Shotgun hollow!  Go Selena!  I also found out where Hawley messed up.  She had a refusal at the caner reaserch hillside. Selena O'Hanlon clear through vickerage hillside... took a long way.  Pick it up Selena, you've gotta do well for me ;) 

Selena has just had two refusals.  Oh well.  Her refusal was at the first picture, and Hawleys was at the second.  However, Selena's going home strong despite the extra 60 penalties (since both were at the same fence)

Update 2:
Wow, note to self: if you want someone to win, don't cheer for them.  Out of my riders, Steph didn't finish and Selena did, but with two refusals.  The horse I was rooting for, Gin and Juice, had one refusal.  Pippa never made it to XC, and Karen & Mandiba didn't finish.

   Selena and Colombo

Hawley Bennett - Awad

Stehpanie and Port Authority

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter a day early!  Aren't those eggs pretty?  I want ones like that. 
Recap of things since I last posted:
Tuesday- Dressage school.  Cadence was a little rushy all in all, but especially on her left lead canter.  Rode through Entry test 1.  It was beautiful!  We rode in the draws
Wednesday-Dressage school.  Better throughout the majority of the ride, but the dressage tests were worse than Tuesdays.  Jigged after free walk, rushed transitions, etc.  Rode without the draws
Thursday- Lunged and spent forever de-mudding her
Friday- Flat lesson.  Cadence was great, but tired!  Wierd, I know!  Especially since we just had a w/t lesson to prep for her first show.  We're planning on doing the walk trot tests, and maybe one training test depending on how Cadence feels that day.

Saturday- Jump lesson!  Cadence was great!  Definitely had a ton of energy today!  lots and lots of exclamation points!  Anyhow, I made a quick video, so I'll let it speak for itself.

We're on Youtube!

Cadence now has her own YouTube channel, since I got sick of attempting to upload videos directly to the blog.  It takes forever!
On another note, Badminton still doesn't have their ride times up yet.  Rolex does, but Badminton doesn't and it starts in two days!  I'm also not 100% sure about live streaming the event either, but luckily for me I'm off good Friday till Easter Monday.  The only bad thing is that at 10am in the uk, it'll be 5am in Canada.  Here's hoping that none of my riders'll be going in the am!  Speaking of riders, all my faves will be at Badminton!  Selena O'Hanlon and Colombo will be there, along with Stephanie Rhodes-Bosche and Port Authority.  Unfortunately, my favourite pony (Henry Jota Hampton) will be missing.  I fall in love with Henny because of his big ears.  Sort of pathetic, I know but he's still my favourite!  Plus, I always love rooting for the underdog :)  Anywho, Badminton this year is going to be phenomenal.  The field is fantastic, and the course looks great!  I can't wait to see how the Canadians fare across the pond :)  We wish our whole team luck from the great white north... even if they have been down south all winter -_-

Written Sunday... Posted Monday

We have good news, and we have bad news.  Let's start with some good, morph into some bad, and end with some exciting.  Sound good?
Today I went over to see one of my friends ride the pony (17.1hh Hano x TB gelding... perhaps 'pony' doesn't fit) she's been part boarding since like October.  I felt terrible that I hadn't met him yet, but no use dwelling on the past.  He was a total cutie!  Big puppy personality.  He's an eventer, competed up to prelim with his owner.  Why is it that the biggest horses are always the sweetest, and the little ones are evil?  Anywho, I then brought my friend over to meet Cadence.  I'd been debating as to whether or not I should flat or jump.  The decision was made for me when I saw that our BO had finished our standards!  We now have 3 sets of nice light single post standards, one set of barrels, one set of stools, and one set of killer heavy standards we borrowed from a friend.  We mostly just trotted a 2'6ish (a little under maybe) vertical, and then cantered in once or twice.  She was great for our warm up, but was rude and grabby afterward.  Grrrr... I thought we'd conquered that.  Apparently we hadn't been jumping enough.  Her canter fences are a lot nicer now, she's getting nice spots as well!  Alright, my gushings over.
Thebad news was her grabby rudeness is back.  The exciting news is that my coach and I discussed a show schedule for cette ete.  For those of you who don't speak french (or don't recognize the words w/o accents) cette is feminine singular for this, and ete is summer.  Learn something new every day!  I digress, we were discussing horse shows.
Cadence's first ever horse show is set for May 22.  It's a nice bronze dressage show, in a great low-key facility.  Exactly what we need!  Down side: it's almost 2 hours away.  Oh well... hope I can catch a lift with a friend.  We're going to do both w/t tests, and although she'll be ready for the training tests, I'd rather keep it as relaxed as possible.  We can school her canter in the warm up ring, and leave it there for her first show.  Later on in the month, our local Hunt Club is hosting a hunrer show, so we may pop in there and trot around a course.  The only down side to that one is that my coach already has a show booked in then, so she wouldn't be able to join us.
June will be dedicated totally to schooling.  Riding different places, starting her XC schooling, doing some jumper schools, etc.  All of which will take place off property.
In July, we're planning on heading to a combined training competition up at Equus, and schooling over their XC course while we're there.  There are also two local jumper shows (@ the same location) in July that I'd like to go to.  They offer courses ranging from 18" to 2'9, so it'd be a great first experience for her.
However, it's in August that the real fun starts.  August 13th, we head up to Glen Oro HT,  then we're back in the area on the 27th/28th for Woodwind HT.
Then we have the first three weekends in Sept off, before heading up to Equus on the 18th, and Glen Oro again for the 24/25th of Sept.
Our season will end with Grandview Fall HT on Oct 2nd.  There will probably be some more shows scheduled in there, and some removed but it's a good tentative outline to work from.  In other exciting news, our first outing may be occuring as soon as next Monday (25... Easter Monday).  My coach was thinking of heading to a local show farm where they have like 20 outdoor rings, and full hunter jumper courses.  Fun fun fun!  However, we'll have to get control of that rudeness before then or we're toast.  Odd expression, eh?

Wow, it's snowing

Yuck.  The worst part? I haven't even ridden yet.  Ewwww!  Anywho, I rode Wednesday then came home and crashed.  Thursday I had to attend a thingy for my younger brother.  Fun, but I'm not too fond of getting dressed up and smiling a lot when I feel like crap, and look like Rudolf.  Friday we attempted to utilize the roundpen... but it has grass footing.  The footing was dry, but she kept trying to eat it.  Her old owner/breeder had a reputation for going XC with grass hanging out of her horse's mouth... and apparently her lack of grass restraint has been drilled into Cadence's head.  She doesn't get that every time she sees that glorious green stuff she can't just eat.  Grrrr... another habit to break.  Our actual ride went pretty well, she was just having a little trouble maintaining a relaxed swingy trot.  She may be a TB, but she sure likes to try and embrace her inner Standardbred.  She was also a little resistant to come onto the bit.  Yesterday however, she was awesomeness personified.  Well, I suppose personified isn't the right word, but horseonified doesn't have that same ring to it ;)  Either way, her canter was fantastic.  I need to remember to completely give my inside rein when we're going into canter, and not take too much on the outside.  It's hard, since now when we head towards the wall she's like Oh My God!! WE'RE GOING TO CANTERRRRRR!  Yeah.  We then proceed to do lots of serpentines, at the trot.  She hates that :P  Anyhow, her actual canter's gotten really beautiful!  She can sure pack a lot of punch into one stride, but we've re-slowed the stride down so it's a lot more relaxed.  The only bad thing (save the serpentines) was our attempt at doing center lines.  Even her trot stretches were better than the center lines!  She apparently doesn't think its worth halting if you're only going to trot off again. Silly mare.  We quita fter one good one.
Sorry for this rambling mess of a post...

Sick,.... Again

Mehh, I feel a little like going on a why me rant, but I think I'll refrain.  Brief synopsis:  I started to feel off (sore throat/runny nose/sneezing) Sunday.  I'd had the traditional signs of an oncoming cold since Thursday, but chose to ignore them.  Bad decision.  Monday and Tuesday were spent bedridden.  Thankfully, our BO saved my butt and lunged my horse for me.  I'm back with a little fever this morning, a cough, and a rudolf-esque nose.  Not too much to deal with.  Two days was the max my school work could wait, with midterm nearly upon me and Rolex looming in the not so distant (YAY!!) future. 
Cadence's old owner came down Sat to watch my lesson.  It was nice to chat with her, and she offered to groom for horse shows over the summer.  Score!  Sunday the mare and I jumped.  She doesn't respect jumps under like 2'6 at all, so we worked a little on that.  Her ability to canter jumps is improving, so courses will be in her near and foreseeable future!  My coach is pleased with her canter transitions, both up and down.  I think the canter itself needs to be a little more settled, but we'll see how it goes.  These things come with time, I suppose.
Saturday my coach is coming over for dinner, so horse show planning will also occur!  I can't wait to see how she'll react to the whole showing environment.  That and XC schooling, but we have to wait for things to dry up.  It's hard to believe we just got rid of the snow, it's sunny and 48 today!  While some may think that's chilly, I've been walking around in a tee all day.
I'm off to ride the mare now. I'll (hopefully) try to update tonight, but a nice warm bed may win the war in the end.
Cheers!

The Saddle Saga: The End

Well, great news on the saddle front.  The lady who owned the Childeric dropped her price, so I am now the
proud owner of not one, not two, but three saddles.  Wow, my babies are spoiled.  Cadence has her dressage saddle and her jumping saddle, and Arty's got his pancake.  It may not be comfy, but it's made to last.



Cadence and I had a lesson today that went really well.  Her upwards canter transitions are a lot better now, so my coach has us working on the movements in the training tests.  I can't wait until she's show ready, she'll be a riot.  I suppose I'm even more excited about taking her out to school XC.  She's such a fantastic jumper...ah well.  We still have a lot to do before then, like learn to jump scary jumps. 
On another note entirely, if anyone has an iPod touch, or an iPhone, download the Badminton app.  It's cool, and its free!  All of my favourite Canadians are riding there this year, so we'll miss them at Rolex.  Ah well, I'll just move to England.  Problem solved!

Oh Me Oh My Oh Where Does the time Go?

Busy busy week. Luckily for you, its 2:45am my time, so I'll keep this short.  Monday Cadence was silly and difficult.  Opinionated mare in heat.  Yay!  She was great w/t, but after we cantered it was like trying to bend a plank of wood.  For a half hour.  Tuesday she had off because of the farrier.  Wednesday we jumped, she was better.  I miss the comfy Childeric.  Apparently the people don't want to go lower on their price, so it doesn't look like I'll be getting it.  I digress.  Thursday we jumped (again) because she's happier when we were jumping.  Not as good as Wed.  Friday, I had a lesson (thank god).  We popped draws on her, and she was good w/t but got really frazzled in the canter.  My coach hopped up, knocked some sense into her, and agreed that we'd split the lesson on Sat.  She'd ride for 1/2, I'd ride for 1/2.  I think she was a little worried by Cadence's regression since she'd gone into heat.  She was pleased when she rode her Saturday, and everyone left pleased.

Cadence's canter issues:
She has been having issues picking up the correct lead.  I'm a little displeased because this wasn't really an issue before.  We've taken a step back and aren't focusing as much on the working over the back, but instead are making sure she thoroughly understands the aid (the issue seems to be that she doesn't) and can connect the aid with it's corresponding lead.  Apparently its just a green + green issue, but I'm still a little frustrated with myself.  I'm still scared I'm gonna ruin her.  Anyhow, I should be off to bed. I have to get up at 6:30, and I'm so not a morning person.  Especially with 4 hours of sleep!

Update: 
Good note: Thanks to all 16 followers, it means a lot!  
Bad note:  It snowed tonight.  Again.  And last I checked, it was sticking.  -_-