I admit that I was nervous for my dressage lesson on Saturday. Big sticks and technical courses? No worries. A 20 x 40 empty rectangle? OH MY GOD. Yep, I know, my psyche makes total sense. In my defense I haven’t had a dressage lesson in like 2 1/2 months, plus this was my first time riding with Martin the dressage man extraordinaire. What if he thought I was an idiot? Ok, well, he would probably know within 30 seconds that I was in fact an idiot, but what if he thought I was a hopeless idiot??? I got to the barn with a little extra time to spare so I could get on early, re-acquaint myself with the dressage saddle (no the Devoucoux isn’t here yet), see if I could remember how to sit up, and get Henry thinking forward. As soon as I got on I kinda wished I’d grabbed my spurs, but otherwise he warmed up ok. Martin arrived, we talked briefly about Henry’s history, my history, what I thought our weak points were, and what we were trying to accomplish. Then he put us to work.

Turns out I’m kind of in love with Martin. Here’s the thing: some trainers just don’t “get” all horses. And with Henry (as with a lot of TB’s) it’s really really important that you understand how he thinks, because it’s 90% mental with him. He tries really hard but he also has to feel like you’re being fair, he has to keep his confidence at all times, and you can’t ask too much of him at once – he will implode. He’s really just getting started with this dressage stuff and he’s simply not there yet with a lot of things, so there’s a fine line between teaching him something and making him frustrated. Martin immediately spotted that line, and while he took us right up to it several times, he never pushed us over it. Mistakes were no big deal, perfection was not required, he just had to make a solid effort. Henry stayed relaxed the whole time, we had a couple of “a-ha” moments, and I had a better horse at the end. Was it a dramatic, amazing, night and day difference? Of course not. These things take time. A lot of time. But we made some baby steps and I have good homework.

The first thing he honed in on was how Henry really hasn’t released his back/hind end and truly gotten himself engaged from behind. As he stated “He looks lovely going around on a 20 meter circle but in the lateral work you can see it”. Bingo. This has been our struggle. So we worked on a few exercises to get him to start thinking about really crossing those hind legs over and engaging the hind end. We got a few good steps as we went along, which is I think as much progress as you can ask for in a 45 minute time frame. Martin also immediately honed in on some of my own issues: “don’t turn your toe out” (my h/j trainers spent all of the 90’s trying to get my toe out and my calf on – stop messing with my head, dressage), “open your shoulders”, and “heels down, let your leg drape” (I swear I’ve ridden before). He also asked if I’ve ever ridden Henry in a spur. Cue sheepish “um… yes… I didn’t think to grab them today…”

 

I think my favorite exercise was cantering a square. I could really feel Henry step up under himself and “jump” in the canter stride on the square turns, which was very cool. We also did some half turns on the forehand at the walk, which was difficult for both of us but after a few tries he started to get it and crossed over quite well for a few steps behind. Overall Martin was very complimentary of him and said he liked how pleasant he looked, he especially liked his canter, and said I’d done a good job with him. That warmed the cackles of my cold dark heart.

The extra awesome thing is that Brandy’s hubby got lots of video! And you can actually hear Martin pretty clearly if you turn up the volume, so it’s like having a mini-lesson all over again. When I put all the clips together it was too big to load on Vimeo so I had to break them up.

Martin Lesson 1 from amanda chance on Vimeo.

Martin lesson 2 from amanda chance on Vimeo.

Martin lesson 3 from amanda chance on Vimeo.

Sunday we went for a fun gallop out in the front hay field. Today unfortunately it’s rainy, so we’ll see what the week brings depending on how much rain we get.

Happy Friday the 13th, Happy Day before Valentine’s Day, and Happy Birthday to the one and only He’salmostsweet aka Happenstance aka Henrypants!

And all the outtakes

 

 

We celebrated last night with treats for the ponies and cupcakes for the humans. Henry, as you can imagine, was thrilled with my hat idea. Pretty sure he’s plotting his revenge as we speak. For his “birthday ride” (since I can’t go out today) I picked his favorite thing and jumped him in his side pull, just a few fences but I put them up around 3′, and he was super. God he just goes so well in that thing. Then we went for a walk down the road with his buddy Auto and I stuffed him full of the rest of his Carat Cake when we were done. He thinks those are DELICIOUS.

I’m barnsitting this weekend but have a dressage lesson on Saturday. Is it weird that dressage lessons make me nervous and pretty much nothing else does? Scary scary dressage.

First of all – congrats to all my peeps at PS of Sweden on winning another Hippson award! They are having a 15% celebration sale on everything in the store with the code vinnare14. Just enabling saying…

On to Henry things… since we’re fiiiinally having a stretch of good weather here (knock on wood) we’ve been able to get back to regular rides. No more of this once or twice a week thing that we’ve been doing pretty much since the end of November! Nothing super specific is going on yet. We did our XC school last weekend and we did a jump school on Monday night… definitely feeling rusty but hopefully things will start coming together again quickly.

And in even better news, my picture taking friend Amy was able to come back out! We haven’t been working on anything particularly exciting, but hey – pictures are pictures. There is solid proof that I do, in fact, still ride. And yes I’m wearing a sunshirt in these pics because it was 85 and sunny that day. Sorrynotsorry, northerners.

 

 

 

On Tuesday we had a fantastic hack out in the big front field. We worked on some tougher flatwork and he was really game and forward. I think he was just happy to be out in a nice big open space again… it’s been a while. After he gave me a little stretchy trot I let him gallop a big lap around the field as a fun reward for his efforts. Of course, it was pretty warm so by that point he was already a bit tired and sweaty so it wasn’t that exciting. But he did get his first hose-down of the year, which I found incredibly exciting. Him, not so much.

He also lost a shoe somewhere in the field but luckily the farrier was coming the next day so he only had to go shoeless overnight. Good timing.

For the rest of the month I’m hoping to fit in a couple dressage lessons (better yet – have the dressage trainer RIDE him!) and on the 28th we’re tentatively planning a sj/xc semi-private at a venue a couple hours away with course designer and trainer Carsten Meyer. For now, I’m just so happy to be back in the saddle with good weather and good rides!

Tracy of Fly On Over posted this last week and I thought it was such a good idea, so I’m glad she turned it into a blog hop! It’s interesting to see what a typical day in everyone else’s life is like, especially since we all share in the same struggle of trying to balance horses, work, and life. Here’s what a typical day for me looks like:

6:08am – (not kidding, on the dot every morning) Wake up and try to determine from the level of darkness what time it is. Wonder why it’s so impossible for me to actually sleep all the way to my 7am alarm.

6:10 – Give up on guessing the time, sit halfway up and look over SO to see the clock. Flop back down and wonder if it’s possible to fall asleep again. This movement alerts the dogs, who climb into bed for morning cuddles and inevitably press their cold wet noses into my face.

6:45 – Decide I’m bored waiting for the alarm to go off and get up to let the dogs out and get ready for work. I also pack a bag with everything I’ll need for the day’s activities then head out the door for my 10 minute commute to work.

7:30 – Plop down at my desk with some cereal and start updating the status of all the orders and repairs in the queue before my first meeting. Weed through my emails and make sure no “fires” have started since the day before that need immediate attention.

8:00 – Meeting. Erry day.

8:30 – Meeting. Erry day.

9:30 – Answer all the emails and phone calls I missed while I was in my meetings and then try to get some actual work done.

10:30 – Decide I’m going crazy in my tiny box of an office and wander to the break room for refreshments. Stare longingly at the cookies and candy, but grab an apple or banana or orange and a water instead. Grumble about it for at least 10 minutes.

11:30 – Try really hard not to kill anyone while thinking about how much I want the pizza buffet.

11:32 – Briefly consider just how many people I’d be willing to kill in exchange for a free trip through the pizza buffet…

12:00 – Eat a Clif bar and some almonds at my desk instead because there’s just no time for a lunch break. Still continue to fantasize about the pizza buffet.

1:00 – put out whatever inevitable “fire” has sprung up during the day.

2:00 – Ponder how bad life could possibly be as a vagrant. Remember the horse costs money, therefore I have to have a job. Daydream about being independently wealthy instead. Eat my feelings by way of more cereal or fruit.

3:30 – Look at the giant pile of work that still remains and decide to stay an extra hour.

4:30 – Leap out of my chair and drive to the barn, cursing stupid drivers the whole way. This could also be considered a time where I’m trying really hard not to kill anyone.

5:15 – On the horse. Finally my happy place. Suddenly I have no more desire to kill anyone.

6:30 – Stuff horse full of cookies and bid him farewell.

7:00 – Drive into the parking lot at the gym and immediately give up on finding a parking spot, so drive around the back and park at another business instead. It’s ok, I’ve had my horse therapy.

7:15 – In the pool.

8:00 – In the shower.

8:30 – Finally home. Stare at the contents of fridge/pantry as if they will magically put themselves together for dinner. Finally just give up and throw together whatever is quick and easy and not terribly unhealthy (unless we’ve both had a really bad day, then we eat macaroni and cheese, don’t make eye contact, and never speak of it again).

9:30 – Climb into bed to relax and read. Usually fall asleep before 10:30 still holding my Kindle. Glare at SO and dogs when they come to bed and wake me up. Roll over and congratulate myself on another successful day of not killing anyone before drifting back off to sleep.

Sometimes the times shift a little if I have to be at spin class by 6, or if I’m just too tired for a barn/gym double, or if it’s too wet to ride. But in general – that’s my life. Reading this makes me think we should all pool together and buy a crapton of lottery tickets so we don’t have do to that pesky work thing. It really gets in the way of riding…

When you’re shopping for something specific or trying to find a good deal, sometimes shopping overseas can give you more bang for your buck or open up your options for more unusual items. Of course the flip side of the coin is that buying from a foreign shop or person can be a little bit nerve-wracking and intimidating. In this post I covered the basic ins and outs of how to go about buying from overseas.

I had many requests asking which websites I would recommend, so here is a list of some that I have had positive experiences with. Or at least the ones I can remember… some transactions were so long ago I’ll probably never find my way back to them.

England:

Equestrian clearance

Aztec diamond

Amira equi

Just riding

Red Post Equestrian

Selwood Equine (hint: join their mailing list for sale coupons)

 

The Netherlands:

Divoza (they also have regular coupon codes if you’re on their mailing list)

 

Germany:

Calevo

 

France:

Padd

Kval Boutique

http://www.selle-expert.com/selles-occasion.php Used saddles – inventory comes and goes pretty quickly but they’re well priced.

https://annonces.ffe.com/annonces-selles Used saddle classifieds

https://annonces.ffe.com/index.php?a=5&b=999&seller=1949 – direct link to Thierry de Verdelhan’s listings, the used saddle reseller I bought my CWD from. His inventory also comes and goes quickly, I would message him if you’re looking for something specific.

http://www.chevalannonce.com/annonces/fr/selle-a-vendre-occasion/ more used saddle classifieds

 

Sweden:

PS of Sweden

Also – never underestimate the power of another country’s eBay. It might take a little work on your part, as far as translating, contacting the seller to see if they’ll ship, figuring out payment, etc, but sometimes the savings can be worth it. The easiest way to find each eBay is to just go to Google and type “eBay France” or whatever country. Usually I hit the UK, France and Germany for sure, and sometimes Italy, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden if I’m really scraping or think I have a better chance of finding a certain product there. Whatever item you’re looking for, it helps to know where the company is based and start there. Usually the easiest thing to do is search for a certain brand since that’s universal across all languages (ie Devoucoux, Animo, etc) but if you’re searching for a more general object, learn the word for it in whatever language you need. For instance, it’s really easy to hit up google translate and figure out that sattel, selle, sella, silla, sadel mean saddle. If it’s a more specific item google might not be of help, but usually with a little bit of sleuthing you can figure it out.