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We woke up extra-early to start at the barn at 6:30 this morning to be ready for an early-morning lecture with Dr. Omar Maher, Dr. Christine Machin, and Dr. Virginia Melly of Atlantic Equine Services. First, Omar went over a visual evaluation of a horse with us, explaining where we should find symmetries and where common problems might arise. We then broke into three groups, each with a demo horse, to do a physical examination of the horse's neck and back, front limbs, and hind limbs.

I started at Omar's station, where we evaluated Dustin's neck and back. We repeated the visual exam first, looking at Dustin from all angles to judge the muscling in his body, the way he holds himself, and how he is conformationally built. We then began the physical examination of this neck, feeling its suppleness and testing his flexibility with carrot stretches. Moving to the back, we felt along the top of the spine and palpated along either side to search for any sensitivity. We then encouraged Dustin to flex his back in different ways to test his suppleness as we did for his neck.

Next, my group moved to Virginia's station, where she taught us about the anatomy of the horse's front limb. Starting at the feet, we looked at the angle of demo horse Lear's feet and discussed how his bar shoes alleviate any pain he has associated with his navicular bones. Moving our way up the leg, we discussed the bones, joints, and soft tissue structures present in the limb. Lear has very clean, tight legs, so he was an excellent example of how a horse's legs should look and feel.

We finished with Christine, who went over the hind limbs of Rush. We started with the bones and joints of the pelvis and worked our way down to the hoof, then discussed the soft tissue structures. While there are many similarities between the front and hind limbs, it was interesting to discuss their differences, too. It was a great lecture, and we are all so thankful to the vets at Atlantic Equine Services for giving us their time and knowledge!

Lessons began immediately after the lecture. As Monday was everyone's day off, Tuesdays' lessons are generally more relaxed than on other days. Though I took him for a big hack on Monday, Spotlight felt a bit tight in our warmup. Combining his general sense of unsettledness (which is going away a bit each day) with the colder temperature in the morning, it was no surprise to me that he didn't feel his best, however, I was surprised when he, fairly confidently, walked all the way around the outside of the arena, all the way to the end by C for the first time! He is such a good boy. He knew he was being brave, too, because once we had passed the wall (which will soon hold mirrors), he stopped and turned and asked me for a sugar cube.

In our lesson (which we shared with Caroline and Dustin), we continued our discussion of having an honest bend, yielding around my inside (particularly left) leg and not bulging through my outside (particularly right) rein. I was working on a 20-meter circle, gently changing the bend from true to counter and back, when Lendon had me halt in front of her*. She said, on a horse who doesn't understand the concept, what you are doing is great. But this horse is trained to Prix St Georges now, and he knows this already. You have to be more determined. It shouldn't be a discussion at this point; it should just happen. Lendon also suggested I stop working on the circle, as it encourages him to push his shoulders out, so I moved to a shoulder-fore/renvere on the straightaway. This was much easier to the right than it is to the left, but I know it can be better than what I achieved in this ride, and I am determined to find better straightness in my Wednesday lesson.

While keeping the inside-leg-to-outside-rein connection in my mind, we worked on prompt transitions within the canter and then in the trot. In my three lessons so far, Lendon has told me both that I need to have one solid, unchanging trot and that I need to ride 10,000 different trots in a ride. While it sounds a bit confusing, I know she wants me to be able to do both. As is essentially the goal in dressage, we should be able to have the horse do anything; be quick or slow, high or low, big or small, at any point in time. At the same time, we should be in control of these changes and should be able to switch between them at any time.

On a somewhat unrelated note, our halts are getting much more immobile. Hurray!

For fitness today, Lendon lead us again. As we are all still very sore from running on Saturday, we just ran through our dynamic warmup routine to get an idea of how we will be starting each workout in the future. We lined up on the long side of the dressage arena, and just like in my Middle School gym class, we walked, ran, leaped, or otherwise stretched our ways across the short side and back. Not only did this allow us to stay socially distanced, but it also provided an exact 20-meter distance called for in our warmup instructions and gave us a soft cushion to fall on if we lost our balance! Even though it was just a warmup, I can tell you that as I write this the next morning, I am definitely no less sore today than I was on Tuesday. I guess I have a ways to go before I am WIT-fit!

*Disclaimer: I am not using quotations because I am paraphrasing here! I don't have any exact quotes; I am just writing how I interpreted a conversation. This will be true for the rest of this blog.

Hello and happy Monday! Today is our day off from the program (which totally confuses my week, I keep thinking it is Saturday) and marks the beginning of our third week in WIT. Since my last post we, as a group, have definitely found more of a rhythm in our days and are starting to feel more as a single group rather than a gathering of individuals. I am fairly confident that I know the names of all the riders and the horses who belong to them, though I am still trying to match the faces of parents to their respective children.

Thanks to the excellent care of Dr. Christine Machin, Spotlight's hives have completely disappeared! We are still waiting for the results of his allergy test, but I am fairly confident that the shavings were the culprit. Now, it's just a game of waiting for his skin to heal. The hives caused lots of scabs, which are now falling off and taking his hair with them, so he looks a bit bald in spots. Luckily, he is feeling a lot better already, and is sleeping heavily on his new, fancy shavings every night.

Following our success at the schooling show last weekend, I entered for our first show at Global! On January 29 and 30 we will compete in the FEI Prix St Georges to qualify for Regionals, and on January 31 we will ride the Young Rider Individual test in the Test of Choice class as a warmup to a real qualifier. I'm still not entirely sure when that will be, but I will have to decide soon! Rumor has it that classes will fill up quickly this year, as many people could not compete over the summer.

As our lecture for some of the days this week, we were required to watch some of the rides at Global, which we live-streamed onto a TV on the porch in front of the barn. While it isn't the same as being there in person, it has been really nice to be able to watch these tests at any time. Every morning of the show, I set up my laptop and the TV to play the live stream all day, so anyone can sit and watch while eating lunch or folding laundry, and there is almost always something to watch. I really enjoyed watching the Young Rider and PSG classes, since they are most relevant to what I am riding. I study others to learn when to start the pirouettes, how to center the tempis over the centerline, and the change of bend in the canter halfpasses. I learn best by watching, plus it gives me inspiration to do well in our upcoming test

This past weekend, I entered to ride in the national show at Global! We trailered Spotlight over to school in the afternoon, so we got to see how much time we needed to plan for, and Spotlight got to see each of the rings and judges’ booths. He was hot, but also very respectful and we ultimately had a very good school. Though Lendon, sitting in the judge’s booth, kept saying that my halfpasses need more haunches… I think she needs to sit at C more often!

On the first day of competition, we rode the Prix St Georges in front of Annie Cizaldo, who was also the judge at our first schooling show. Our halts were all immobile, and the extensions were clean. We didn’t quite touch the rail between the right volte and trot halfpass. After the second canter halfpass, Spotlight spooked in the corner and did a change late in front, which earned us a 4. The canter pirouettes were good but a bit tense. The four- and three-temps both had stupid rider errors, earning a 6 and a 5.5. Her final comment reads “Talented horse shows clear understanding of the work at this level. Be more in control of the elasticity of the topline and the suppleness in the bending in the halfpasses for a more polished presentation. Quality horse, just a little too much tension fo more 7s and 8s today.” We earned a 68.235%.

The next day was slightly better, earning a 68.676%. We went into the ring aiming for maximum relaxation, and I think we got as close to that as we could. We rode the same test in front of the same judge, so it is interesting to compare the comments. The haunches came left in the first halt, which was otherwise square and immobile. Today’s medium was better, earning a 7.5 and only asking for more ground cover from the start. The lateral movements overall needed to be more supple with more bend. I made darn sure that we met the rail between the right volte and halfpass this day, earning a 7 this time. The walk work was all good again, the walk pirouettes are a highlight. Canter work all generally needed to be more supple over the back. I had some very unfortunate mistakes once again in the tempis, earning a 4 for each line. The rest of the test was good, finishing with an 8 on our final centerline. Saturday’s final comments read “Really good every and cadence in the trot work. Add more elasticity and suppleness to the topline for an even more impressive performance. Technically quite good, good with accuracy. Tension in topline and lack of suppleness and elasticity are the only qualities holding scores back today.”

Sunday’s test was less good. Probably partially because I was riding with a vengeance to get my tempis right. Also, Spotlight was maybe a bit tired from workings days in a row (though I think he gets tired like a toddler, he just gets frantic and tense). Plus, we rode a new test in front of a different judge. Or maybe it was because my dad decided to film this ride on Facebook, live. Regardless, we ended the show with a 61.911%. Many of the comments asked for more impulsion, more energy and flow. The extended trot had a small loss of balance over X. The canter half passes needed to be more consistent in bend and angle. I had another miscount in the 4s (at this point, I’d like to just jump to the I-1 and never have to ride 4s again). The pirouettes were bracing and tight. The threes were clean until the last change. The extended canter was tight and lost rhythm, and the final centerline was not straight. Judge Lisa El Ramey’s comments read “Elegant pair. Improve suppleness in contact and from your leg to keep horse more actively forward in all cases and more through in canter work. Good luck.”

Overall, I was thrilled with the weekend. Finally, I got to show at Global! Spotlight was a total gentleman the whole time, loading on and off the trailer like an old pro, handling himself with a maturity that has taken a long time to develop. We got some more miles at the PSG under our belts, I got some new ideas for a warmup plan, and I know what to expect when we return in a few weeks.