Deb Rosen Clinic: Cross-Country (what we've all been waiting for, right?)

After the dressage and stadium portion of the clinic on Saturday, we hauled to Pine Hill for XC schooling on Sunday. The two-hour drive was uneventful, and we arrived in plenty of time to tack up and have another zoomy warm-up session. Unfortunately, the rest of the group wasn't quite so on time, so we started about 30 minutes late.

We trotted and cantered an X to warm up, then moved on to a small log. I focused on keeping him rhythmic and balanced up to the jump in both the trot and canter, and any time he locked up on the left, I was to flex him left immediately. After a few times over the log, we practiced coming out of the starting box and jumping a different log. A lot of horses get REALLY amped in the start box (Cash was one), so we just walked out and then picked up the trot.

My first mistake of the day was when we moved up to a slightly larger log - I started leaning at the jump and got loose in the tack. That combined with Paddy's giant leap made for a not-so-classy landing, and I didn't reorganize well enough so he stopped at the following fence.

This brought us to three giant take-home points:

• Before every jump, you need to have a conversation with your horse so that he knows what he's supposed to jump. It's different with every horse, but you can feel the moment when they "lock on," and you know they're with you. I remember Cash used to "lock" on to fences 10+ strides out - he was totally point and shoot. Well-trained horses do this almost automatically, whereas green horses like Paddy need more help and time - even if that means coming down to a trot 15 strides out so he can see it and focus on it. Getting that "lock" doesn't mean you can stop riding because they are going to jump, but it means you're on the same page. If you don't get that "lock," you'd better be prepared to ride hard, because your horse is probably off dreaming of carrots, or staring at the jump judge. Paddy never understood that we were jumping that second log, and I didn't ride him positively enough, so we didn't make it.
• If approaching at the canter, sit UP and put your butt in the saddle. Pretend like you're riding canter in a dressage test - no two-point, no half-seat... SIT DOWN. Ride up and forward to the jump, keeping steady. This works shockingly well.
• I cannot be a passenger and hope that he jumps. He's bold, he's forward, and that's great, but forward does NOT mean that you're going to go over if you're not really riding to the fence. Early on, I felt like I was riding OK but was definitely not pushing him to the fence, but toward the end of the ride, I kept my body up and back, my leg on, and rode all the way to the base. The difference was AMAZING - I KNEW we were going over, because I felt him lock and I rode him all the way there. I have to make that the "norm" instead of the occasion if we want to jump All The Things on the first try. 

Haffies are so awesome they can jump with their eyes closed! Also, my equitation got a ton better after I started riding for realz.

After that little discussion, I really got after myself. I got focused, I kept my leg on and out in front of me. I made sure HE was focused too. And damn if it didn't work. We hopped over a little white coop, blasted over a roll top, went through the water and over another log, and finally took a tiny ramp. I swear he splashes more than any other horse I've ever ridden - I was positively SOAKED after three trots through the water! We ended by doing a small course of 5 jumps, and I was very pleased with how I rode him and how he went. 

I swear I'm jumping that fence like it's 4' high. Maybe we should just go find a 4' fence already?

Overall, it was a great clinic and I'm really glad we had the opportunity to school one more time before our first event next weekend. I wish we'd had more time and could have schooled more jumps on the course, but again, it's hard with a group. 

EPIC XC schooling with Lauren & Andrea

Yesterday, Andrea from Project Runaway,  Lauren from SheMovedToTexas, and I all met up at MeadowCreek Park for a day of cross-country schooling. I'd been planning to go schooling at MCP for a while - I hadn't been there in years but they have a really nice course - if you don't count the train that goes right behind the XC field about every 30 minutes. Going XC schooling was on Lauren's "30 things to do before I'm 30" list, and I'd managed to sucker talk her into coming along with me and taking Reddums. MCP is about equidistant between me and Andrea, and it wasn't hard to talk Andrea into bringing O schooling. Sometimes things just work out perfectly, and this was one of them!

Flying Attack Haffie!

We'd had a "snowstorm" and freeze two nights before, and there were a bunch of jumps with snow on them, as well as snow patches in the shady areas. It was kinda strange - I've never schooled XC with snow on the ground, even when I lived up north!

Yes, there is snow on that jump (!?!?!?). No, we did not jump that one.

Paddington was fantastic. I'm not gonna lie and say that every spot was perfect and every fence was awesome, but he jumped everything I asked him to. We are having really bad issues with falling in on the left shoulder (seems to be getting worse, and we are gonna work on that more in our next dressage lesson) so I focused on keeping him straight and not letting him duck left. Lauren made us an awesome video of the awesome parts of our ride. You can see the train going by at :19, O blasting by us at Mach 8 around 33 seconds (note that Paddy doesn't bat an eyelash at this), and my FAVORITE part - the water - at around 1:00.

 It's funny what you learn from videos - apparently I say "good boy" after every fence! Who knew?

Rockin' the baby ditch.

Haffie in the water! Last time in a water jump he just sort of trotted through it, but this time he really attacked it. Progress!

And just to keep it real, here are our bloopers. Note that they are rated R, for adult language. ;)

I obviously didn't ride the log very well - he was flat and strung out on the approach, and I didn't ride him straight. The ditch at the end was something I shouldn't have asked him to do - I think it was too much for him. He jumped it like a deer the first time, but then refused to go over it again. Eventually I got off and Lauren and Andrea helped me lead him over a few times. He wasn't happy about it, but we made it work. However, since he was a superstar for everything else, we'll just pretend like that never happened!

This ditch has alligators AND lava in it. JUMP FOR YOUR LIFE!!!

Afterwards, we played musical horses. Lauren rode Paddy, then Andrea wanted to try Paddy out too. You'll have to visit their blogs to see vids and pics of that, but they both did awesome and Paddy was very good.

Andrea on Paddy, Lauren on Reddums, and me on... O-Ren?!?! Yep, Andrea let me ride her and she was AWESOME! What a cool mare!

All in all, it was a great day and we all had a ton of fun! It was nice to have such a confidence-building schooling session just two weeks out from our first schooling Horse Trials at Pine Hill on Feb. 16. Hopefully I'll see Andrea at an event, and maybe next time we can convince Lauren to bring Simon out. Woot!!!

I think there are bugs in our teeth!

Thanks to Lauren for all the awesome pics and vids! And be sure to visit both Lauren's and Andrea's blogs for their stories about the day. No spoilers from me, but there are some funny stories to be had. :)

Screamin' hot cross-country school

And when I say that our XC school today was screamin' hot, I mean literally. The high today was 107. We are certifiably insane.

MC and I rolled out this morning at 5:30 to head to Pine Hill to school. It's where I took Reddums this spring to show, and they have a lovely course with lots of teeny-tiny jumps (well, and giant Prelim jumps too) and good footing. We made the two-hour drive safely, unloaded, and tacked up. We'd arranged to meet Toni S., an eventing trainer whom I've worked with before, for a lesson. We were on by 8:30 and headed out to the stadium arena to warm up.

Echo was, per usual, looky but not spooky. Toni was very impressed with how well he held it together and how little the stuff in the arena bothered him. He started off very rushy (understandable, as I have not worked him much this week due to the heat) and she gave me a really good exercise to get him to release his poll/jaw. She made the point that racehorses are taught to pull against the bit, so the last thing I want to do is put even pressure on both reins. I practiced softening him at the walk and trot by moving my outside hand to my inside hip, then immediately giving when he softened. (We also did inside rein to outside hip.) 10 minutes of this and I had a very soft, attentive horse. WOW! So awesome when you find something that works!

We did some trot poles to get going (he was brilliant), trotted an X a few times, then headed out to XC. Toni rode on a Gator, which I thought might be a problem, but Echo never batted an eye at it. Unfortunately, what he DID bat an eye at were the other horses coming near him. In fact, he got downright naughty about Red coming toward him, and another horse cantering within 100 feet of him. Both times he tossed in a few bucks and thought about taking off, but I growled at him and he knocked it off. We really need to work on riding in traffic - I can't keep him away from other horses in a show situation forever, so we're going to have to learn to deal with it.

Our first log was a bit of a flub - came in at a good forward trot and I forgot to ride him all the way OVER the fence, so he sort of petered out in front of it. I smooched to him and kicked and we hopped over it, so no refusal, which was good. We trotted that one a few more times, stopping on a straight line after it. He started to get the idea and we moved on to a tiny brushbox (with no brush). This time we walked up to it, then trotted a few steps out. He was super good over it several times, hopping it and stopping nicely after. Awesome!

Next, we went to a big manmade hill that has some T/P jumps on it. Here we just walked up and down the hill, and he was balanced both ways. We had a momentary fit when Red trotted off up the hill and Echo was "left", but I asked him for some bend and we got back under control quickly. After that we went on a walk through the woods (he neglected to spook at the rabbit that zipped across the path, but we have those at home), and then came up to a small bench. Toni asked if we wanted to jump it and I was a bit nervous, as it was funny-looking and bigger than anything else we'd done. But I put on my big girl panties and trotted up to it - and over he went, cantering away nice and balanced as you please. WOOHOO! What a good Baby Racehorse!

From there we went on to do a teeny bank up/down, and that went so well that we tried the BN bank up/down. Up was super easy and he was very confident, but he took a moment to look at the down option. He stopped about 2 steps out, and I let him take a moment to figure it out. Then I closed my leg, sat up, and let my reins slide - and he stepped off like he'd done it a million times. We did it a few more times, and then we went up the Novice bank! He's now officially a pro at banks.

For our final stop, we headed to the water. Unfortunately, Echo seemed to have forgotten that he loves water and refused to get in. He wasn't even interested in taking a lead from Red, so we were on our own. We stood at the entry for perhaps 10 minutes without making much progress, and finally I turned him around and backed him in. I think he was a bit surprised when he first got in, but then I turned him around and let him stand for a moment and he was fine. We walked around in the water a bit and then trotted through it no problem, but when I went to trot him out he stopped dead and WOULDN'T LEAVE THE WATER! We figured out pretty quickly that he didn't like the change in color of the footing (water was grey-green, sand was reddish where it was wet), but it took several tries to get him to leave the water, at which point he leapt out. We turned around and came back in, and this time trotted and cantered through the water, then went to leave - same problem. He just didn't want to come out! What a conundrum - I didn't want to let him stop in the water (afraid he'd roll) but I was getting tired keeping him moving and he was tiring quickly too. Eventually we managed to make a glorious leap out (eeek!) and then I trotted off to finish on the BN bank up, to end on a super positive note. We ended up cantering up to that one, and he thought about popping his right shoulder, but I smacked him with the bat twice on his shoulder and he went to it straight. We were up and over and called it a day!

All in all, we had a great day. He was a really good boy and I think we are really starting to click. However, we have a lot of work to do to be more confident out there. I'd like to shoot for GAG at the October schooling show, and I think we're going to need to school a couple more times for that to be a confident possibility. We've also got to work on the traffic issue - maybe some group jumping lessons? Something. Lots to think about.

Of course I have exactly zero pics of the entire experience. I had my camera on me, but was worried that as soon as I took it out to snap a pic (even an ear pic!) he'd find something to be silly about and it would all be over. So you will have to make do with the one I took after we were done...

Post-ride snacking.

Every ride should be this much fun!

Hubby and I went roading with the hounds again today. They were short on whippers-in and the MFH was traveling, so instead of staying out of the way of the huntsmistress and hounds, we were actively encouraged to help set up a perimeter and discourage the hounds from leaving the property in case they caught the scent of anything. It was a good thing too - they flushed three rabbits, and we were actively engaged in holding a perimeter twice.

Saga now knows exactly what's going down when we unload him at the huntsmistress's barn. His ears were on high alert as we tacked and groomed.  Fortunately, he was pretty chill once I got on, and was cool to hangout chatting. Naturally, Oberon just looked around for more foods.

The hunt started off going counterclockwise from the kennels. As we made our way down along the northern fenceline, the hounds flushed a rabbit, which headed straight for us. The leader of second flight and I got there first, and did our best to stop the hounds, but they were quite keen on their quarry and didn't listen to our shouts of "LEAVE IT" and "GET TO HER". About half the pack made it past us before the whippers-in and ATV got there, and there was much excitement as they laid about with rat shot and hunting whips (note, I've never seen anyone hit a dog, it's just used for noise to distract them). We were in among the hounds and the ensuing chaos, and I remember thinking that Saga was being SO GOOD about all the commotion. He went where I asked, didn't flinch at all, and just sort of waded in and did his job. He's such a good boy!

After that excitement, we rounded up the hounds (well, I got out of the way while others rounded up the hounds) and got them back to the huntsmistress. We continued our ride over to the southern fenceline, when another jackrabbit popped up between us and the hounds. The rabbit was downwind of them and I'm not sure if they saw it, but when we started yelling "rabbit" and got into position to potentially head the hounds off, they figured it out and started going after it. Fortunately, it was much too fast for them and they left off the chase pretty quickly.

Because the hounds were cueing off of things that move instead of scent, they were put up for the day. As usual, we got to go play on the XC fences. I'm still sticking to the smaller ones, but I'm definitely feeling much more confident over them. Saga is staying much more balanced under me for longer, and I can tell he's getting more fit. I, unfortunately, can't keep up with him. He's getting really strong when there are horses in front of us, and the waterford that I'm using just doesn't give me enough brakes. I'm thinking of bitting up to a kimberwicke, or possibly a pelham with a converter on it. One of the other riders even commented that I'm so little and he's just yanking me around. It's embarrassing not to be able to stop your horse, you know? It's also way embarrassing to have to pull off because you are gasping for air. I HATE jogging, but I'm going to have to do something to get more fit. Sure, I can buck hay with the best of them, but that's clearly not going to be enough if I want the fast ride up in front.

Anyway, the XC fences. We did our usual little logs, and did the training-level doghouse into the water with a log coming out. There were a couple of other training fences that I wanted to try, but there was nothing really straightforward (that is, not funny-looking, and either on a flat area or uphill) that caught my eye. Next time. ;)

Oberon is also getting more confident, and for some reason today was really putting forth a lot of effort on the jumps. Well, OK, some of the time. This one 2'6 log pile he cantered up to, broke to a trot about 2 strides out, walked about 1 stride out, and then delicately hopped over from a walk. It was quite tidy, he didn't touch a thing, but he was clearly going over it in his own time, thank-you-very-much. Goofball. He also launched off the bank (normally he just drops down), although his effort up was less than stellar (more of a climb than a jump, really). I think he just needs more time and more miles - this is really only his 15th or so ride over fences, so I'd say he's doing pretty damn well all things considered. And he takes good care of hubby, which is really the important part.

Oberon and hubby on the final jump of the day - a coop on a fenceline. Not too shabby!

Next weekend is more roading and possibly some trails... we'll have to see what the plan is. I am SO looking forward to it!

Screw that show stuff, let's bust out with some XC

After the hunter show on Saturday morning, I repacked the trailer so that we could head out Sunday for some XC schooling. I had contacted the hunstmistress with Independent Foxhounds to see if we could join them for roading (since Oberon has never seen hounds before), and instead she invited us to come school on her private XC course. She has about three dozen jump complexes from BN through Training, including banks, water, ditches, trakheners, nice bendy lines, coops... you name it. It's a super nice course on rolling hills with a path mown through it - just perfect.

We pulled in around 9 am Sunday and tacked up, then headed out with the huntsmistress, hunstmaster, and their three working students. We somehow lucked out with the weather - it was in the mid 80's, cloudy, with a nice breeze. For Texas at this time of year, that's FANTASTIC! I was a little nervous to be out on course, so Saga was a little jiggy, but settled down after the first few jumps. Hubby followed me on Oberon for every fence - since Oberon had never seen a solid fence before, we wanted him to have extra incentive to jump it.

Both horses were complete and total rockstars! Saga never batted an eye at anything, and the huntsmistress commented on how nicely he jumped and how tidy he was with his front end. I remembered to look up and count "one... TWO... one... TWO" in front of the fences so I wouldn't screw up the rhythm. I made sure that Saga was going the rhythm I wanted and not bolting at the fences, and for the most part it really worked out. Hooray!

Naturally there aren't any pics of me, since I was the one with the camera, but I did get some video of hubby with Oberon.

First up, the log pile. This was actually Oberon's best jumping effort, despite an early attempt to go around (not caught on video).

Oberon over Log pile

Next up, a mini-trakhener. Hubby had to learn to balance him since it was coming down a slight hill and he tends to get long and cruise-y if you let him.

Oberon over Trakhener

And then of course, the Ditch of Doom. Oberon followed Saga over it with no problem the first time. When hubby tried it on his own the first time, Oberon hit the brakes, but he turned him around immediately and tried again:

Oberon over Ditch

Finally, we did the water complex. Oberon once again followed Saga in the first time and then cheerfully trotted through. This was the second or third time they went through - jump in, jump out. Not bad for a horse who has never been XC!

Oberon in the water

We finished up our day by doing an entire course. Unfortunately by then, Saga was pretty done. When he's tired, he ends up being a train wreck, sprawling along on his forehand. He can't balance himself and I can't balance him, so he just runs faster and longer. I pulled him up after the second fence, when it became pretty clear that I had no brakes and minimal steering. He had been a really good boy all day, so I can't fault him for the bit at the end. Oberon was still going strong, and hubby followed the hunstmistress over about 7 fences. I think there was a fence or two where Oberon decided that going around would be easier than jumping, but hubby turned him around, set him back up, and got him over.

On the drive home, hubby and I enthusiastically recounted the highlights. We were both really pleased with our horses - for never being out on course before, Oberon was a total star. The hunstmistress really liked him and said he seemed like a good match for hubby, although she did laugh at one point and called him a "minimalist" when he cleared a jump by about 1/2 an inch. At least he gets the job done! Saga was he usual bold self and carted me over everything. When I rode him steadily he gave me great jumps. I do need to get more used to riding at speed though - I'm spending too much time in the arena going at hunter speeds. Luckily, we've been invited back every Sunday, and starting August 5th they'll be riding out with the hounds on course.

Gee, it's just TOO BAD that the Sunday foxhunting stuff coincides with those hunter shows, don't you think? I wonder which one I should do... ;)