Alfredo Hernandez && Equitation show.

Tuesday, August 23rd: Duellsa and I headed down to Inish Beg Farm with Gail McCormack to the Alfredo Hernandez Clinic. He specializes in Piaffe and Passage work. He does a lot of work on the ground with horses with/ or without riders. Duelli and I obviously are not ready for Piaffe and Passage quite yet. We worked on getting Duelli to accept contact, and getting her through back to front. For the ground work part, he had me stand in place and leg yield her till she started to come through and then I'd start walking towards her and pushing her away from me while keeping her going forward too. It's hard for me to explain. So for the riding part I got on and he saw a little bit of what she is all about. (wanting to curl instead of stretching down, normal green horse stuff) So he had Gail do the same thing that I did on the ground while I was riding. Once she would come through and round he'd have Gail unhook the lead and I would continue the exercise while pushing Duelli out on a 20 meter circle. By the end she felt 110% better. She was actually stretching down into the contact while still keeping weight in my rein. It's so different training a Warmblood type horse verses your normal day to day horse. One thing he said was, that I can get Duelli to stretch by doing this exercise but you never want her nose lower then her chest for our day to day work. His reasoning for not letting her stretch that far is because she'd get on her forehand and let her hindend just be there. It is like a Teeter totter. If their head goes too far down, then that causes their hindquarters to come up, but if their head is a little above (And supple) then their hindquarters can come under. It was good to see that when we were done she had sweat on her belly, so that was a good sign that she was using her "core" too. Duelli was great she loaded right up on the way home and got some much needed bute for a 2 hour trailer ride there and back, and the hard lesson :)


This past weekend was the FPC Equitation show! It was tons of fun to go to a show and just have some fun. I took Dixie. We did everything, English, Road Hack, Bareback, Western, Costume, Parade, Trail, Jumping...and some more. She such a handy/versatile pony <3. We got Reserve Champion for our age division, and Champion for the Open classes! It was also nice to see the little PCer's on their very cute ponies going around the equitation ring like Champions!

Sunday was supposed to be Claybrook HTS, but thanks to hurricane Irene that changes some plans. It was postponed for next sunday! :)




-Ashley

Dixie Update!

So, as some of you may know, my special Dixie pony has been able to be ridden off and on for 7 months now.
In 2010 we had some back issues with her (before and after AEC's) She had a tough year last year. We got some Chiropractic work done (in August 2010), no major issues. Finally in October we got her blood drawn for a vitamin test. Her vitamin E levels came back extremely low. I guess in Maine there have been a lot of vitiman E absorption issues due to horses not getting enough grass (the primary source of Vit. E). After finding that out we started her on Co Mega. Then we got her retested in January and her levels were rising! So we kept her on that supplement. When we got her shots done (May) she got another test, and it was lower than her 1st test in October. We started her on Health-E. Once again we got her retested in July, her level jumped up a ton! :)

Dixie has been doing great since we have gotten her levels up. It's odd how one little vitamin can make a horse so sore, and unable to be ridden. Before this week she had not been ridden in a month and a half. A good little break for her :). Monday (Aug. 22) I rode her, and 1. She has gotten a little fat so her dressage saddle did not fit. 2. She was so good. Ever since then, she has been the happiest pony in the pasture. It's so nice to be able to ride my little wonder pony again. <3

Shows, Clinics, and recovered ponies!

 The month of August is slowly coming to an end. I can't believe it! It feels like it was just yesterday I was complaining about the snow.

     Alright, I have been slaking on writing on this.  So after the FPC Ultimate craziness....came Snowfields!
When it comes to the time of the month to really get working and training for Snowfields I always feel bad that I cannot volunteer. It's a 3 hour ride for us, and with gas prices the way they are we're lucky if we can go to the event! But anyway, I took Keiko this year. She was great! It was her 1st real long trip show and her 1st USEA. She had a really nice dressage test scoring a 33.3 and tied for 1st. Then the dreaded stadium came next. It had been raining like crazy all night the night before and during the show. Always fun right? Her balance and footing and warm up was a little hairy scary, but we pulled through our stadium round with no jump penalties or time faults! ( SJ Video ) (STILL tied for 1st)  There was almost a 3 hour break between SJ and XC, so that gave us time to walk our cross country :) Warming up was again a little scary. We headed out on to cross country and the Swedish WB side of Keiko came out with a force! She was super forward and "up" it was fantastic. Clear over every jump and over finish fence I glanced down at my watch and we had 30 seconds! I was SO proud of my big Keiko mare! Come to find out the person I was tied with was really smart and after the last jump she walked to the finish flags cause she knew we were tied and she could win it on her time. I was thinking if  I did that; 1, We'd have to walk SO slow and 2, I thought there was some kind of penalty for doing that. So I don't really know. Honestly I am not totally worried cause Keiko got 2nd AND the Pony Club award. I was (and still am) so incredibly proud of her. It makes me happy that she is doing so well, because I know alot of people that think that the past few years I was winning because it was all Dixie.Wrong. It's a team effort, and with the right training  any horse can be a so called "Winner". This is kind of proof :) I am proud of all my horses and how far they've come.

Next on the agenda was....the Infinity Farm 2-phase! Keiko and Ryn went this time! Keiko did BN and Ryn did Elementary. Yet again, it had been raining the night before and everything was so wet. Dressage warm up was so slick that I didn't get much warm up with either horse. Keiko got a 29.5, and Ms. Ryn got a 33.8. Again, so proud. It was Ryn's 1st 2-phase ever :) They both went clear jumping too! Keiko got 2nd, and Ryn was tied in 1st after dressage and in jumping, so they did a coin toss (Our Collectives were all the same) and I lost. HAHA. I think I have come to the conclusion I am not lucky with ties. :) The day was winding down and people were leaving, everything was quieting down until.....I hear "LOOOOSSSEEEE HOOOORRRSSSEEE!" It was a fellow NER pony clubber's pony. They put a girl on the pony, and he took off and she came off. He headed down a four wheeler trail. So, thinking quickly my friend Keri and I tacked up Keiko and Ryn, and went on an adventure! Now, at the time I was not thinking and Ryn has never been on the trails, or a main road. So, poor Keri is in Danskos and someone elses helmet, and I'm in jeans and muck boots that are too big for me. So safe right? After about a mile and a half we came to a main road in Dover Foxcroft, and couldn't see hoof prints anymore. So we guessed and went right. A little ways down there was a logging road and he was right down it! We saw an older lady holding him, and his owner and another woman pop out of the woods. He was fine, no scrapes and didn't break any tack! The owner popped on Keiko and I got on the pony (Who I didn't know.) and went back to the fair grounds! It was such an adventure but way too fun :) We are just thankful that the pony was not hurt.

Then came the Peter Atkins Clinic! Thanks to Marina (Her Blog) and her mother Mary for offering to bring me! We took the trip to Lyman, Maine with Neil and Duellsa! It only took about 45 mins to get Duelli on a unfamiliar trailer this time :) I took about 3 hours from my house (Though, the DiMarco's had an additional 2 hours from traveling from Houlton) we got a little lost, not bad at all. We actually still ended up getting there early. The lesson was great! He wasn't the kind of instructor that said "Do this, this, and this!" He asked many questions like... "What does a horse need to be on the bit?" And being good pony clubbers, Marina and I way over thought the question. He said " THE BIT." Which, duh,  it made sense. Another good one was.

"Can you, and how long can you hold a bowling ball away from your body?" Thinking about it, it would be hard and you couldn't hold it for long. What he was talking about is when we jump, and throw our chest down to the mane it is like the horse holding your head up (like the bowling ball) it made sense too.

Like this.

This was a GREAT one for me, cause I fight with people about it all the time. Stirrup length! I always get talked to about my stirrup length and that it is much too long. Well, what Peter said is if your stirrups are short (like really short, not quite Jockey height) your legs cannot wrap around the horse as easily because your legs are now on the upper part of the horses barrel, and where it starts to go narrow. So when you add leg, it slides your leg up and pops you out of the saddle.

Like so :)

Now if you had a longer stirrup your able to wrap your leg around and use it effectively. Now, with your stirrups longer your on the part of the horses barrel where it is now starting to narrow on the lower half. May be hard to understand, but I agree with it 110%.








After Discussing ring work, we headed out to do some XC! 1st up was the water. Duelli was a little hesitant at 1st but once she got a hoof in she was perfectly comfortable. We cantered in and out and did a trot circle in the water, where Marina was on the outside going to the left, and I was on the inside going to the right. The reasoning behind that was most horses do not like the splashing in the water. Another thing we talked about is the hoof flotation in the water. Just like it is hard for us to run in water, it is for them too. When on solid the horse always knows where his/her hoof is going to land. In water they start to put their hoof down and once it is in the water it "floats" a little bit then lands. So the horses are always unsure where their hoof will actually land. After playing in the water, we talked about banks. That was my physics lesson for the day :). He was talking about how when jumping a bank the horse has to get the feel for not having much landing when going up. On a stadium fence, it's just the 2ft fence at 5 ft (in order to get their body over) and land the 2ft fence on the same level ground. On a bank they loose some of that landing spot. When going down a bank, almost every horse jumps it as if there was a 2ft stadium jump right at the edge. It made sense, because if you think of a regular 2ft jump. Your horse is not going to jump only 2ft, if they did they'd collide into it. They have to get their legs and body over it. So that adds at least another 2ft. :) (Banks) (Video 1   Video 2)

Duelli and Neil were great, and I would love to have another lesson with Peter someday.

Now for a week of more Clinics, and show crazy fun!


Pendragon 2phase videos (Dressage       Jumping)