“Blessed are the Flexible, for they will not get Bent out of
Shape.”
Tis the season and when family gatherings begin, you can
nearly guarantee that someone will get a wee bit bent out of shape.Whether the traditional Thanksgiving dish got
assigned to the wrong person, schedules conflict, or personalities clash, the
holidays always present their own unique challenges.So do horses.
Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending a Dressage
Clinic with Cynthia Spalding.She’s a
unique lady with a wealth of knowledge and a passion for teaching.Anyone who listens to her clinic for just ten
minutes is bound to pick up a fresh perspective or two!
My lesson with Nutmeg focused on flexion.After our less than stellar performance in
the Dressage ring at Heritage, I was hoping to gain some insights on our new
found bunny hop presentation.But I’m
getting ahead of myself.It’s a chronic
problem.Before we could canter, we
needed to trot and the trot presented lesson number one.I have a habit of pushing the beat.Basically I am always thinking a hair in
front of where I am and this causes me to rush.It’s a problem when I try to dance as well, and play the piano, and walk
up stairs, and through doorways and, well, you get the point.Cynthia’s solution: Sing!
Once we had our tempo more correct, we could turn our focus
to flexion.We discovered that the
resistance I’ve been getting is likely related to Nutmeg being
out in her pole and jaw.It’s time for
another visit to the chiropractor.Merry
Christmas to her!The great thing is, even working with that limitation, we were able to get her flexing better with slow
calm work.
The change came when we got my leg moving and in turn her moving off my leg. Move my hand, move my leg. Movement promotes movement. Stiffness leads to stiffness. The
second she got it right – release the pressure.The release is the reward.
It works great with horses.Now if I could just apply it to family conflicts around the
holidays.Try as I might, I can’t master
the skill, so I’m giving it a Fresh Perspective. No amount of leg and rein aids will make the people around me flexible.I can encourage
them, but I’m fighting generations of
habits.I think I’ll just stick to
making myself flexible.Maybe that way I
won’t be the one getting bent out of shape.
Well, this has taken a while.It’s that time of year when things spin a bit
out of control.Who am I kidding,
they’re always out of control around here, but this time of year I have trouble
catching my breath in the whirlwind.Thank goodness for the occasional weekend when I can immerse myself in
the horse world and breathe deeply.
That’s just what we did at Heritage, although caution
against breathing too deeply was needed.Temperatures stayed in the 30’s during the day and dipped into the
twenties by night.Even with woolly
winter coats coming in, I don’t think anyone was worried about over heating
their horses on cross country.
I really couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.I got to catch up with dear friends and pilot
Miss Nutmeg around her first Training Level cross country course.There were definite instances that showed how
much improvement is needed, but I still came away from the weekend wearing a
huge smile and terribly proud of the pony.
Dressage is going to be the game we play this winter.Although we’ve truly made some great strides
(no pun intended, well maybe slightly), there is still much to be desired.Here’s the best descriptor of our dressage
test.
Photo by Merrick Studios.
There were some decent moments too.
And some moments where the judge’s comment of “transition a
little late” was more than generous.For
whatever reason, I was paying more attention to staying on and in the ring then
I was to riding a precise test.Still,
as my coach said, “She went in at A, did most of the movements, and came out at
A.”I’ll take it and we WILL improve
from here.Gives me plenty to work on
through the dark of winter.
As less then polished as our dressage may have been, Nutmeg
earned every one of her blankets, cookies, and pets around cross country. I did not ride my best, but she rocked
it.
Looks innocent enough, right?I don’t know what it is about the first fence
at Heritage, but apparently Nutmeg doesn’t care much for it.Last year it caught me completely off-guard,
this year I was ready.It took being
ready and then some.Fence one was
probably my best ride of the course!
Fence two, I threw my shoulders a bit and we got a funny
spot, but Nutmeg pulled it out.
Then I remembered to turn on the camera!
I almost pulled up after three.Cantering from three to four things just felt
a little funky.I couldn’t place my
finger on it so I just eased up a bit and things seemed to sort themselves out
on the way to five and six.
Headed to the water, I didn’t get it together.It didn’t occur to me until over a week
later, that I could have made a circle and set things up better, but at the
time I was just completely focused on forward.Unfortunately, I also focused down.
Big Praise to the Pony.I could have ended up very wet and cold if she hadn’t kept going!
It took me a bit to regroup, but Nutmeg trotted over the
“boat house” like a pro with me bopping along on her back.I still wasn’t completely settled back in as
we headed down to the dreaded trakenher.All the while I was yelling to myself, “Get it together!This has to be right!Eyes up!Eyes up!Eyes up!”I managed to keep them up almost all the
way.Nutmeg had a legitimate peek at the
ditch, can’t blame her, she’s never seen one with a log over it before, but in
that instance, I quit riding and prepared for disaster.She’s amazing.She really is because she piled us over that
log and landed at nearly a complete stop.
Onward and forward!After that it was all icing on the cake.The bank up to the table wasn’t super smooth, but she read the question
and answered it.The combination I was
most concerned about was probably our best combination on course.
I threw my shoulders again at the chevron.Another jump she’s never schooled but piled
me over in spite of my distracting flopping.I really need to get back to the gym or at least off my rear more often
and get my mental longevity back.Over
the end table and home free.
I thought we’d gone double clear, well inside the time (26
seconds), but later discovered I’d set my watch 30 seconds slow.We had a few time penalties, but I view it as
a blessing.By setting my watch
incorrectly, I made the time a non-issue.I was planning on “ignoring” the time anyway, but you always have just a
little pressure from that watch on your wrist.This way I faked myself out.I am
very confident that time will not be a problem in the future.
Photo by Merrick Studios.
For those of you who have never ridden by the seat of your
pants, had your horse save your hinny, or even had just an exhilarating gallop
around the pasture, I can’t put into words how great I felt after
cross-country.It is one of those experiences
you really just have to experience!Say
what you will about riding, it is teamwork on the highest level.
Sunday dawned not quite as chili, but still frost clung to
the grass well after nine.The Show
Jumping course looked like it would be a real challenge for us.There were several downhill turning questions
where I could have easily lost Nutmeg’s shoulders and when the shoulders go,
we’re sunk.We would also be returning
to the ring where she pretty much ran away with me last year, but we’ve been
working on submission ever since and I was literally praying it paid off.
Photo by Merrick Studios.
She was a champ.One
hundred percent more ridable then the year before.I was thrilled with the round.We had a rail.Possibly she just didn’t see it.It was have black and half orange.I rode to the black half to give us just a
hair more room in our line to the next fence, she pulled the rail.Oh well.The rail did mess with our ride to the following oxar which in turn
affected our ride into the one stride.It twern’t pretty, but it was amazing.The horse that grabbed the bit and plowed around courses earlier this
year listened to my voice alone as I steadied her up for the one stride and
somehow we came through it unscathed.Good pony.Good, good pony.
That really sums it up.I am still completely overwhelmed with how good she is.It was nice to get a pretty pink ribbon, but
I’d trade a hundred pink or even blue ribbons for the feeling she gave me
repeatedly that weekend.“Mom, I can do
this, just come along for the ride, or at least stay out of the way.”She’s happy and she is loving this game.If you haven’t watched the video through to
the end, do.The look on her face back
at her stall is priceless.My Fresh
Perspective from our weekend at Heritage: I am truly blessed to have such a
creature in my life.
