Frankie's Beat

Today was a flat day. I went with draw reins again and think I will incorporate those into my flat work at least twice a week. He had a good amount of energy for working and it was a beautiful day to ride outside. I mainly worked on transitions both on a circle and around the ring. Lengthening trot, collected trot, walk, working trot, collected trot, canter, walk, trot, canter, lengthened canter, collected canter, etc. I finished the ride out with about 5 times around each... Read More

A lesson in the cold-harsh hunter/jumper world

Well, Josh and I loaded Frankie up and headed to a well known big AA hunter/jumper barn for a lesson. Why? Because there is always room for improvement and always more to learn. Frankie and I are rusty as far as showing goes. We have continued jumping, but for fun, not competition. I know we can be better and I know that both Frankie and I have weaknesses that need to be addressed AND fixed. This is Josh’s first experience at this kind of barn since living in Colorado. We... Read More

Dressage a Lesson

So, today was my first dressage lesson I’ve had in about 12 years. We worked on most of the stuff we have already been working on. Transitions, circles, spirals, all that fun dressagy stuff. He started out as usual, lazy, heavy, on the forehand. Ended like usual; a tad less heavy, forward, off the forehand, for the most part. It was good to hear we aren’t THAT bad and we definitely have a chance to do well in the eventing dressage ring. Some things that we need to... Read More

Draw Rein Thursday

Today was a beautiful day to ride. Flat work sucks and I have my first dressage lesson tomorrow so I thought I should work on something, but I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired. So, I figured I would throw some draw reins on and work on getting a little more depth to the gaits along with working on the transitions within the gaits. I was planning a short ride, no more than a half hour because I actually have plans tonight. But, Frankie had more than a half hour in him... Read More

Quick Jump Ride

A beautiful day to ride outside. Usually Wednesdays are jump days but my ground boy (that’s my husband) cannot be around Wednesdays anymore. I don’t like jumping without a ground person. It limits my jump options, but some is better than none. I set up five jumps all at different heights to built up to 4’3″. 1 at 3’3″ 1 at 3’6″ 1 at 3’9″ 1 at 4′ 1 at 4’3″ The bad thing is I can’t really jump a... Read More

Rain AGAIN!

So, more thunderstorms made me less than motivated to ride today. I actually drove up to drop off his supplements and almost wussed out. But, then I thought of how important it is to stick to my program. So, I went in the indoor and set up some poles to at least break up the monotony of flat work. I set up 3 trot poles and 3 canter poles. I warmed up walk, trot, and canter just around the ring for 20 minutes. Then we got down to business. Today I wanted to work more on lengthening... Read More

Loose Ring Woes

So, it was a really nice day. I thought I would work on downward transitions. I rode in the outdoor and I have to say Frankie was great. However, downward transitions in a loose ring are non existent. He is great with voice commands, and if I have a pelham or 3 ring on he’s perfect and super responsive. But, the loose ring is a little slow in response. He was great by the end. We worked on canter/trot, trot/walk, and canter/walk transitions on a circle. We did a little... Read More

A Bad Taste of My First Event

So, Stonleigh-Burnham Horse Trials 2009. Me and Frankie’s first event. I didn’t have time to ride on Friday. Had to work, get things loaded into the trailer and drive the 2 1/2 hours to the event. We got up there around 7:30pm. Frankie seemed to know he was at a “horse show”—he always has liked them. My focus was on going out and walking the cross country course. The facility was beautiful. Josh helped unpack the trailer, I checked in at the office.... Read More

The sun, relaxed ride, and gelding breasts….

Today was well deserved but lazy ride. Frankie’s skin “condition” had worsened. He was VERY sensitive to the touch and also had a decent sized edema between his front legs. Make that two edema’s, as though he had gelding breasts, deflated, but still gelding breasts. I thought about Fight Club. I tacked him up—the breast plate sits right were the skin problem is at it’s worst. He seemed sore, not lame, just sore. Walking him, the rubbing of the... Read More

Thunder, Lightning, Dressage, and Skin Problems

I got to the barn and it was cloudy. I went out to set up a course so we could work on our 3’3″ jumps for the weekend. As I was finishing setting up the jumps it started to rain. By the time I got back in the barn it was pouring. I thought I would do some organizing and grooming to wait for the rain to pass by. First I had to evaluate Frankie’s skin that keeps falling off. About two weeks ago he had two spots, one on each shoulder that had huge flakes of... Read More