Malibu Lights

Yup, Malibu lights. That's the latest scary monster for Piper.

This weekend, we put Solar powered Malibu lights around the outdoor arena. Lights at each letter. It looks pretty cool!

For many years, I have ridden Jeddien outside in the dark. I find that riding in the dark, with less visual stimulous, it is easier to focus on balance and feel. We have done many hours of training after sunset. But Piper's night work was limited to walking up and down the driveway...

... Until tonight.

Leading him down to the arena, he was calm and happy. Horses can see better than us in the dark and he knows the lay of the land. Lunging, all was going well at the walk. But trotting must have gotten his blood up. Suddenly he "noticed" the light at B, stopped dead in his tracks, spun, and started backing up. And so began the real training.

Time and work progressed nicely. To one direction. Then, since horses are unable to reason that what was safe to the right will be safe to the left, he spooked all over again going the other way. So we worked some more.

When he was completely and utterly calm on the lunge, I got on. With a bit of insistance on my part, we got past the last couple of spooks and then did some very nice 20 metre trot circles and trots along the long side, passing each Malibu light as if we'd been doing so for years.

Next, our new judge's canopy styled screen tent goes up. That's gonna be exciting!

The Debut

After one more successful training session with Piper, the weekend arrived... the weekend of his show debut.

Saturday, Jeddien competed first. With blowing winds, flapping judge tents, and a snapping flag overhead, she managed to put in a good showing. We won the 3rd Level Test 3 class with a qualifying score and came third at 4th Level Test 1 with a score that gets me a step closer to my USDF Silver Medal.

Sunday, the wind continued and the warmup was busy. So I decided to avoid the big warmup area and warmed up in the quieter staging area in front of the 4 arenas. Piper was a little star! He was coping much better than we expected him to. And he stood quietly at the end of our arena, watching the lovely coloured cob mare and her rider who rode before us.

But when it came time for him to enter the arena, he was having NOTHING to do with it. He was totally panicky over the idea of approaching the judge's tent.

After elimination for failing to even reach X for the initial halt, we moved to the big warmup area. The FEI horses were warming up. Horses were passaging and pirouetting while we walked, spiraling closer and closer to the end of the area where the concessions were placed. More tents.

It took an hour. But by the end, Piper was coping with the environment. And so, instead of risking having our second test result in another failed entry, we decided to end the day on a very good note.

Horses are interesting creatures. In demonstrations, Piper has happily walked over and even worn large blue plastic tarps that would scare even the calmest of horses. But, that is because he was slowly introduced to tarps over a period of 15 or 20 minutes. Given time and space, Piper learns to accept things.

But in a show situation, horses have only a couple minutes to accept a new dressage arena setting. They need to accept that the rider is putting them into a safe environment. This is where work with Piper needs to continue.

We learned a lot about Piper at this show. And, with exception to his panic attack, he actually was a pretty good boy. But there is lots of room for improvement. :-)

Party Time Approaches

Sunday looms. Piper's first competition.

At this point, after a couple more sessions and satisfying work at home, my expectations for the Sunday competition at NEDA's Spring Dressage show are quite simple.

Get there. Cope. Survive the warmup. Present our tests. Use the show stabling without stress. Get home safely.

No, I'm not looking for certain scores. I'm not even terribly worried about whether we get all the transitions and movements called for in the tests. No. I just want a pleasant debut experience.

The final result: I want Piper to be okay with the whole first experience so that we can go out again and again throughout the 2008 season. THEN we will start to give the competition something to worry about. :-)

So for for now, we are just going to a party!

Frequent Flyer Miles

At this early stage in preparation for competition, Piper simply needs to do time working. Not hard work. And not overly stressful work. But he does need to put in his.... Mileage.

With Jeddien, my dressage partner of over 12 years, the last thing she needs is long haul mileage. Oh sure, like all horses, she needs a careful warmup of the muscles and suppling exercises. But after that, ring work involves reminders of what is expected of her. Her brain knows the work. Her muscles quickly remember the work. And even when she has had a month or two off, a good rider can climb on board, ask for, and get reasonable work from her without too much difficulty.

However, that is not the case with Piper. He does not have the experience, nor the miles of training that Jeddien has. He has not done thousands of transitions. He doesn't do 20, 15, and 10 metre circles in his sleep. He doesn't halt squarely and in balance out of sheer habit. And he does not yet know that he should be paying full attention to his rider until the segment of work is complete.

These are things that Piper, and all green dressage horses, have to learn as part of their dressage education towards competition.

For the rider, this is where patience and a good sense of humour comes in handy. Sure. When Piper is good, he can be wonderfully good. But, when he is acting like the less experienced green horse that he truly is... well.... it just makes one's eyes roll.

Lots of patience, lots of work, and lots of miles. It will all come together, in time. It always does.

More Canter Work

Tonight, Piper and I worked more on the canter. In nearly each session we have, he gets a little bit better. But tonight, we hit a nice little milestone...

...I could get after him for losing the canter without him getting upset and having a reaction OTHER than getting back into canter. And with each correction, he got better and more consistent in the canter. His willingness and ability to hold the canter until I asked for a return to trot also improved.

Sometimes these little things are really quite big. For a novice horse, this was good progress. A lot of mints were munched tonight. :-)

The Perfect Fit

In the 1980's, while living in the Los Angeles area and first learning about dressage, I was like many less experienced riders who purchased saddles pretty much based solely on how they felt when we sat in them in the tack store. Brands selected had more to do with who else was using that brand than what the saddle offered. And so, I went through the same brands as many others in my area. County Competitor. Crosby. Passier. Albion.

It was all about equestrian fashion in the dressage world.

Later, after I moved to England, I gained a great appreciation for the art of saddle fitting after having encountered problems with a poorly fitting saddle on a young horse. And accordingly, I now ensure that all of my horses' saddles fit well and comfortably. Their comfort is key to successful & happy work.

Today, I ride primarily in Wintecs. I like being able to change the tree width instead of buying a new saddle as my horse grows & develops. And the price makes it much less painful to purchase a saddle for each horse, a saddle which will be custom fitted for each individual. I also like not worrying so much about riding in the rain.

But, I still have my saddles custom fitted and checked regularly. This is important. Tomorrow, even though the last fitting was only mere months ago, our fat unfit competition horses will be seen again by top saddler Anthony Cooper for checks of their saddles. And then we'll do it again, later in the show season as they become more fit.

I've learned the hard way that a little investment in saddle fitting is a helluva lot cheaper than the costs of having to deal with sore backs caused by ill-fitting saddles. So, I view tomorrow as a money saving investment.

Distractions

If there is anything predictable about horses, it is their unpredictability.

Competing with a green, inexperienced horse, this unpredictability becames a distraction for the rider. Instead of focusing on a test or a specific movement, the rider also has to maintain an extra high level of awareness of the environment and things that might distract the novice horse. Or worse yet, things that might cause him to spook, run out, or decide he has an excuse to completely misbehave.

Many agree that competition itself is the best way to get a horse used to competition. Nothing like the real thing. However, anything to help prepare the horse before competition is always a good thing.

Today, while training outdoors, the horses in the two nearby pastures decided to play up. One minute they were all quietly grazing. The next, their tails were up, they were racing up and down the fence line, and there was a lot of snorting & kicking.

"Oh, oh. This is it!", I thought. "Piper is going to lose it." But bless his little hooves! He looked, hesitated, started to react, but then got back to business as soon as I gave him an assertive squeeze and a verbal reminder to pay attention. The horses continued to play up for a minute, then peace returned. And Piper was fine.

The chickens provided the next distraction, venturing closer and closer than usual to the arena. Again, Piper looked, but kept working. Next, a car came down the driveway. Then the dog came to rest by "C". Lots of distractions today and yet nothing that stopped the work.

Piper is showing the early development of a good work ethic. How absolutely fabulous!

Two weeks and counting to our first show.....