Been a While...

Well it's been a while...a few years in fact...since I've last posted on this blog. Many things have changed as you can see and I'm no longer having adventures with Satchmo but now with my horse, Smashing! She is a 7yr old 17HH Holsteiner/Thoroughbred mare with quite a feisty attitude! About a month ago we moved to a new farm called, Waredaca, where we are working on improving our Eventing skills in order for me to sell Smash in the spring of 2013. We are still adjusting to the new barn but so far we've been loving it and its amenities! Waredaca is a HUGE facility with all of your Eventing needs! In 3 short weeks I'll be competing in my first Event of the season - an unrecognized show at Waredaca. I am aiming to ride in the Beginner Novice division and hoping to have a bit more success than I did last season.

Last season I had some major bad habits with jumping and not enough instruction or practice which I feel left me unprepared for the show. Refusals were left and right and my confidence went down the drain. Since working with Steph I'm figuring out what my bad habits really are and building my confidence back up one lesson at a time. It's been pretty amazing how quickly we're turning things around, too! Just Monday we had a great jumping lesson over the stadium course left up from the recognized HT that previous weekend. We worked on my position to the jump and my aids/communication to Smash and I had the best jumping round I've had in YEARS! We only ran into a few trouble spots and it was mostly because I'd look down or try to override Smash to the fence when it turns out I don't need to work so hard. I'm now practicing looking up at the sky line with my approach to the fence, to loosen my grip on the reins, and to still keep my leg on to keep her moving forward and straight.

I've not always had confidence issues. In fact I was a very brave rider and successful rider through college until I started trying to train myself and green horses over fences and found out I need a little more help than I thought - especially when it comes to Eventing. I established over a few years some pretty bad jumping habits that were starting to really get me in trouble. I couldn't just skate through events anymore and that's mostly why I decided to move Smash to a farm with instructors who could help me get back into my jumping groove. And so far, the move is paying off big time! Steph has a great eye and has been able to pick out my issues every time.

Tonight I have a cross country lesson slated for this evening and I'm very excited! It, like the stadium course, is left up from the recognized show last weekend. It's pretty cool to be able to school over it for free! I'm planning on testing out my new Helmet Camera, too, during the lesson so hopefully I'll be able to share some footage!

I'm going to apologize in advance for lack of photos...most of the time I am traveling to the barn by myself and holding Smash and a camera at the same time is pretty difficult. So don't expect pictures unless it's a show day, clinic, or some other day when I have my Mom or Nick there to either hold Smash or take photos of us. Hope you still enjoy!

-Sara & Smash

Guest Blogger

Because I did not ride Satchmo this week and instead rode Smashing! I asked for my mom to submit an entry for Satchmo's blog:

"As Sara and I arrived for our lesson yesterday morning, Cathy informed us that Bella lost a shoe so she was not rideable. Sara and I looked at each other wondering what was going to happen. We were a little leery when she said that I would be riding Satchmo and Sara would be riding Smash. We looked at each other, not knowing what to expect. I tacked up Satchmo, who had not a care in the world. Sara was already in the ring on Smash, and the two were getting to know each other a little better. Satchmo and I got along quite well; I learned not to have too much contact with the reins as Satchmo becomes all balled up. I enjoyed Satchmo's canter, and we even did a few "X" jumps. Sara took Smash over (or through) one jump, but Smash stepped it up on the next one by going over the jump. . It was a good lesson for all concerned.

Liz, Guest Blogger"

He Can be Taught!

After Friday's adventures at Loch Moy, I took Satchmo to Full Moon Farm to compete in Baby Beginner Novice. We started off kind of rough in dressage. I thought it was horrible actually. :/ but then I had some time to get my head back in the game. We then went to stadium and I practically beat Satchmo over every fence *lol* At least no refusals!! :P Then we headed to cross country and went clean!! :D There were a few places that we jumped sideways *lol* but we got over none the less!! :D I was SO happy! And SO proud of Satchmo! He really pulled through!! :D We even got 6th place!!! GO US! :D I'm hoping the next Event I actually can get my head in the game starting with Dressage this time....

Cross Country Schooling

Yesterday Cassidy and I went Cross COuntry schooling at Loch Moy with Cathy. (wow that's a lot of Cs) I was terrified I was going to fall off or get hurt or bad things would occur. But it turned out to be an AWESOME day and I LOVE SATCHMO!!! :D First we worked on the ditch. That was scary for Satchmo but Smash practically walked in it *lol* so after a few attempts Satchmo finally tried, too, found out it wasn't so bad and then had no problem! We then went to the Water. dundundun! Our Nemisis! This was much more challenging as Smash was scared, too. We spent the first 10 min getting Smash in the water and then the next 15 getting Satchmo in. The poor thing was SO scared he was shaking!! I've never seen a horse THAT scared of the water! LOL! He finally went in, though, and I think he actually had fun in the water once he got in there! Silly boy! So then we went over to the bank which wasn't a problem at all (weird) and rode a couple made up courses that included all of the elements :) Satchmo was like a real Eventing horse! And Smash did so well, too!! What an awesome day! We got home and poticed them both and they got some star treatment ;) Such good ponies! Today will be show prep day and then tomorrow will be our big event! Here's hoping Satchmo remembers our schooling tomorrow *hope*

Learning

Satchmo and I are slowly learning what we need to do to get over Satchmo's fear of new things. Basically it comes down to the timing of my crop useage and it was off. Yesterday our lesson was so good! Cathy helped me with the timing of the crop and finally we were communicating a bit better. At least there weren't any refusals :P (ok we had 1 but it was better than before)

I'm hoping to get him out cross country schooling on Friday before our Event. I'm terrified of the event :/

2 Shows 1 Post

So I have been a bad blogger. I should've posted all about the Hunter Jumper show we did last month but never got around to it. And now I've also done an Event at Equilibrium. SOOO first paragraph or so will be dedicated to the H/J show and the rest will be about yesterday.

I decided to take Satchmo to CHC for a H/J show for some more practice over fences at a new place. And I wanted him to get experience over the 2'3" fences since we had entered in that division at the Events this year. Well it was probably one of the hottest days in April and one of the slowest shows! Ugh! Poor Satchmo and I had to stand around for hours waiting for our time to ride! We did the 2' division first and placed 5th and 6th O/F. We had no chance at placing in the hack class and I was preparred for that. Then the 2'3" division started and those courses weren't nearly as pretty. But I was looking at the CHC website and it says I placed (4pts) so I'm trying to figure out what my place was to get the ribbon *lol* (we didn't stay long enough to hear the pinnings). So all in all, a very good day for Satchmo! He was actinglike a pro! Not getting too nervous and listening pretty well :)

Yesterday, however, was a whole new ball game. It was raining ALL day long. Miserable. We went into dressage and it was horrendous! He kept slipping on the 20 meter circle and it was SO ugly!! But we got a fairly decent score and the judge LOVED Satchmo :) Then we headed off to try our hand at cross country and that was just disgusting. He was refusing everything because of the footing and at times would jump but mainly not. Finally I pulled out when he down right refused to go over the ditch. I just couldn't take the rearing and backing up and stuff any longer...especially in the rain. Thankfully they allowed us to still do a stadium course and then we called it a day. My mom, however, had an AWESOME day and got 4th place!! :) Very cool!! I'm nervous about Full Moon Farm's upcoming event...but we're going to give it a shot.

One Eyed Pony

Poor Satchmo's eye was swollen yesterday :( looked like he had hurt it on something. But that didn't get him enough sympathy to not be ridden. Granted I was being a little nice to him - nicer than usual - but I did have to get after him when we started jumping. I had to give him a little whack with the crop because this whole refusing thing has got to stop. After one little tap he did not refuse again! LOL!



Next weekend we are going to Columbia Horse Center for the Hunter/Jumper show. We're going to do 2 divisions. Low Hunter at 2' and Hopeful Hunter at 2'3". I'm nervous! I haven't done a show like that in a LONG time! :) But I'm excited, too! As long as the warm up goes well/schooling we should be fine. Satchmo is pretty smart in that sense.



Hopefully we'll get some good pictures, too! *hope* and maybe a ribbon or 2??