How to get a sponsor: a guide for all riders

How to get a sponsor: a guide for all riders

Inching along...

Ridiculous weather, trainer's family emergencies & mysterious equine  illnesses seem to be plaguing me during the last week or so...

I figure I shouldn't really work tori until Tilen comes back... Further discussion of this will happen tomorrow morning with the trainer...

Dezi has a mysterious lameness aka thar's prolly an abscess abrewin'! And poor City has hives on his head, chiggers all up & down his neck & mane & legs, and his sun blisters are still healing... Nnngh. I wanna get going dammit!!!

Tentatively planning on taking City to the OTTB show @ the new jersey horse park in October... Gotta at least have a respectable Training Level 3 & First 1 by then and gotta build a costume for him... HALLOWEEN COSTUME CLASS!!!!

Outside of that only other show I've got to look forward to is the SGSDS Championship show with Dezi. Hopefully we'll get to Training 2/3 by November. :3

ride 28...

I've always thought that riding should be an art that is more about the quality of the time spent in the saddle... not the quantity. Due to my work schedule, I really can only ride about 3 days a week, 4 if all the planets are in alignment. 3 days a week really worked out perfectly for Tori and her lameness issues and as it turns out 3 days works out perfectly for my 3 year old, whom has only been officially started under saddle sometime mid-April this year.

We're at our 28th ride, and in our lesson, we successfully completed Training Level - Test 1. So our 2 tests for show at present are Intro C & Training 1. Which is incredible, considering she's still not been ridden a whole 30 days yet. While, the tests aren't AMAZING, she does offer to do all the movements, she does them in a timely fashion and for the most part, she's not an asshole about it either. Plus, she's proud of herself and she's excited to do more work. which is awesome. :D

STEP BY STEP and day by day

Tori was fabulous for her day at Appel Farm Camp Performance Day for the 3 young ladies that vaulted on her in front of at least 100 people. Tori's never been exposed to that many people at once. She's never had a crowd cheering & clapping for her or at her for that matter. SHE LOVED IT! She listened better to me lunging her around with children standing up on her than she does when I ride her at a show! (friggen brat, lol.) ;3

Dezi has been learning in leaps & bounds. Our lesson before last, we took a stab at Intro Test C, and she was awesome (even when the horse riding in the ring with us FELL DOWN in front of us bc his rider is incompetent & instead of down shifting to trot, decided she could cut the corner in an extremely unbalanced, motorcycle-leaning canter and caused her horse to fall [dezi, trainer & myself were utterly horrified]).

And now for the cherry on this lovely dessert: Trainer has asked me to start working with her own home-bred 3 year old filly because I've done such a great job with Dezi!!! :D

Super excited.

also, the owner of the thoroughbred stallion I was catch riding from like August until January, has decided that he's going to move City closer to me so I can start riding him again! lol. pretty freaking awesome if you ask me!

green... not one of my favorite colors

i hate when the jealousy bug bites... i want so desperately to have the successes my friends have but lameness keeps returning. my older mare can't stay sound at competitions with stone dust footing. and now i worry about having to show my baby on it too. i'd never compromise my horses' health for my own wants and greedy desires. i wish there were more recognized show venues near new jersey with footing appropriate to horses with special needs. even if it was just sand. i'm totally fine with sand! /sigh. 

22 rides and counting!

Dezi has been absolutely wonderful. We've now worked on turning on the forehand (to establish that no matter what, she needs to move off my leg; so we don't have another tori).

All transitions are to be WITHOUT touching her mouth. (which honestly, for her, it's cake)

her canter transitions are a little rocky, but she does pick them up. and her right lead is SUPER comfy. left one is kinda "eh" but it's to be expected. its soo cool though, i had one of those epiphany things when riding the canter, realizing my reins were fairly slack, except for the play every couple strides so she understands that she can't poke her nose out ALL the time... and i was sitting up, and straight, and i was able to keep myself even on both seat bones. and i was actually able to feel how the canter goes from back to front. SO COOL.

and seriously, how many 3 yr olds can you canter around on a loose rein? xD

Moving right along!

So, last Thursday, during our lesson, Dezi and I had a few conflicts...

Conflict A.) Dezi has an overwhelming gravitational pull towards the wall of the indoor. Which eventually resulted in her trotting up the wall and falling on my leg. Which whalloped the area just above my knee cap (thankfully!) and now I have this GIGANTIC knee.
    - Side Note: I was frantically trying to get her to not glue herself up against the wall, but Dezi clearly knows best. >.>;

Conflict B.) Dezi decided that her proverbial "quarter" was up and did a "exit stage-left" out of the indoor.

So, I'm extremely glad to report that suddenly (after I purchased two ebooks last night & mused through them a bit) Dezi no longer has a dependency to being on the wall! We now make our "stop-sign" octagon shaped 20m circle at the trot. Molding her & guiding her around with my leg aids.

Not only that, but I started working some of the training level patterns with her, just because I could. The trot loops FXM & HXK = piece of cake. Even tested out the stretchie circle. and for a horse that doesn't quite understand the concept of the downward stretch for the free walk, she sure as hell caught on quick for the trot stretchie circle! (soon after we worked around the free walk and she started understanding what i was asking!)

Best & hardest experience of my life = breaking & training my own child.. er. i mean filly. :3 It is so much fun to help her learn and watching her browse through her little baby roll-a-dex to figure out the answer to the question I present to her.

baby's first dressage test

I cannot hardly stand myself. The only horse I've ever bred, the 2nd horse I've ever owned, she's out of my 1st horse (who is still very alive, and finally feeling better since her recent recurrent-injury). Dezdemona is a labor of love. She's my only "child" and like all parents, you prepare as best you can, play with the hand you are dealt and move forward. I'm pretty darn okay with the hand I happened to be dealt. I have an 85% cooperative 3-year-old filly, whom I had the opportunity to help bring into the world, so she and I have bonded since she hit the ground. She's been the friendliest, most forgiving, loving horse, I've ever met and I'm so happy that she's mine.

 Our first show under saddle was extremely nerve racking for me. I didn't have enough time to lunge her (not that she really needs it, it's more of a learning/repetition tool than to get her "naughties" out), so I simply hopped on and started warming up.

All things considered, we received a 63% for Intro Level - Test A and won 2nd place. The things that need improvement...

• steadier connection in the bridle (and steering)
• listening to the aids (leg aids in particular; and creating a more forward energy, especially in walk [she felt like she was gonna stop at any moment x.x])
• better balance
• free walk (she needs to learn to stretch forward & downward and reach for the contact)

All-in-all, those things will improve anyway as she matures. (but that still won't stop me from buying a few kindle books to help me understand how to make learning easier for her ;D)

Puddle jumping

So, Dezi and I had a successful puddle conquering experience.

Freshly rained thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea, the one side of the outdoor has some sizeable puddles. So I figured we could do some work riding through them, seeing as though we have our first show next Saturday, and I want it to be an extremely positive experience for my widdles.

And... to be quite honest, after that Fidler Run Show... I'll be damned if one of my horses isn't gonna be a mudder.

At any rate, after a bit of coaxing, Dezi walked into the puddle, and proceeded to murder it with her front legs (stompstompstomp). We were able to walk & trot through it going to  the right. Not so much going to the left, but these things take time. ESPECIALLY if you wanna do it right.

In other news... i found an awesome deal on ebay & I'm getting my birthday present early! A lightly used pair of Konigs!!! :D

and in addition... an awesome deal appeared on a facebook group... also acquiring a lightly used mattes pad for tori (since it's taking forever to get around to re-purposing the one that recently died). :D HORRAY!

keep on keeping on!

So, after riding my baby dezi girl this morning (was hoping she'd be a better morning ride than Tori usually is; not that i can blame her, i'm stiff & cranky in the morning too ya know), I've officially decided upon a plan for the next few weeks.

On June 15th, Dezi will be attending and participating in her very first under saddle dressage schooling show, and we will be riding Intro Test A.

The things we need to work on:

• choosing a saddle & sticking with it until after the show
• working on my balance in the saddle (its very difficult to balance on a downhill slope)
• circle & corner bending
• straightness
• halting (girlfriend does great up & down transitions; just not ones that involve the full stoppage of the body)
• i need to memorize the test (my current attempt is failing miserably, my brain is not firing on all cylinders at this time)

After the not so heavenly waters...

Idk what the hell happened at this show between this year & last year. But I am seriously disappointed in the lack of ring maintenance that has directly caused my mare's lameness to flare up.

Tori was perfectly perfect in our 2-2 class the day before... But we were robbed on the score. Bitch gave me 4's on my simple changes & said I didn't walk. The hell I did. I surely didn't do any flying lead changes... Because we certainly don't do that on command yet (and with that being said, it's much more explosive than normal movements she does). She also didn't trot. We performed a canter-walk step-canter, but because there can technically be 1-3 steps of walk, so because she didn't take 3 steps of walk, I received a 4... On both of them. There were a couple other things she said but didn't make sense... Like that Tori wasn't submissive and she was the most submissive she's ever been at a show! Friggen sucks. OH! and because i was crooked in my lateral movements, means that my position must be crooked for the whole test, and i received a 5 on that. :c talk about being totally destroyed.

We get no recognition for a well done performance. But I know my mare was the best she's ever been & I love her for it! Even if I only do schooling shows with her for the rest of forever, it's okay because I still have her & I can still ride her (when she's not in pain).

Looks like I'm going to be focusing on my next chapter... Dezdemona, my happy, wonderful, desperately trying to be uphill, 3-yr-old child prodigy.

preparations...

So. Memorial Day Weekend is upon us! last ditch efforts to prepare are under way... already have my preliminary ride times for Heavenly Waters... all late afternoon rides. Saturday: 3 & 4pm-ish • Sunday: 4 & 5pm-ish. (on a side note: it's very interesting how you ask for ride times before noon on sunday & you get 4 & 5pm. what. the. fuck.) looks like i'm not getting home til at least 11pm

AWESOME

so, keeping on with keeping on. Plans to show Dezi under saddle for the first time are panning themselves out quite nicely. I have ridden her 9 times total so far. and she's very easy going. rides in company or by herself. trots around the indoor. does 20m circles. trots around the outdoor, doesn't give a crap. lunges w/t/c both directions, no problem. listens carefully, responds kind of slower than what i would like, but she processes slower i think. because she does do what i want. her timing just needs to be faster. and for not being quite 3 yet, we're doing pretty well i think. she's better at listening to your seat than her mother is (thank god). and she has a natural up-hill tendency even though at present she's built down hill. so both she & i are desperately waiting for her body to grow in the front end... she's about 15.2hh now. and it's kinda like watching grass grow. cute, fuzzy brown grass...

On the aids... or lack there of.

Went to my first recognized show of the year with her redness. Won the warm-up! Drowned miserably in the actual arena (figuratively & actually; we had torrential down pours the day before, so the show grounds were swamped).

I had my trainer coaching me in the warm-up, of course, and I was finally starting to get my act together.

[side note: mare has feet problems, farrier just tacked on new shoes two days prior, mare is 90% sound; previously she was about 75%]

Tori's not used to her feet not hurting, she doesn't know how to trust that there probably won't be anymore pain, and she especially doesn't trust me when she can't trust the footing she's moving around on. So, she shuts me down & goes around like a flaming retard, head straight up in the air & is more likely to damage herself than get anything productive done.

Long story short: horse is not obedient to the aids; the judge put it very nicely and said "horse replaces engagement with speed". Probably had the land-speed record for Second Level - Test 2.

So I've been brooding over this... trying to figure out what I can do, what concepts or books can I revisit, so I can continue to correct this problem under the careful guidance of my trainer. One of my favorite books to revisit is "Riding Logic" by Wilhelm Museler.

[Excerpt from the book...]

A horse is obeying the aids completely if:

• It is totally relaxed. There must be no tension or stiffness at all in the jawbones, poll, lower jaw, neck, back or legs. This applies to joints and muscles.
• It is attentive to the rider's legs, back, reins and moves in equilibrium. This means in effect that the complete moving mechanism of the horse is willingly subjected to its rider's commands. This is only possible if the horse understands the influences of the legs, hands, weight and back and will willingly carry out what those components say to it.

Teaching a horse the aids does not mean:

• That it has to adopt a particular position or carriage.
• That it already understands all the aids that are made up by the various influences.

The rider must:

• Sit, at all times, calmly and with suppleness in the deepest part of the saddle. He must not lurch about in the saddle at every stride, nor should an onlooker hear or see him slapping back into the saddle.
• Keep arms and hands still. He must not work his hands and arms at every stride. His rein contact must be constant. The reins must not hang slackly, or be slack at one moment and strongly applied the next. Nor must the rider saw with the reins to keep contact with the horse's mouth or to keep the horse mouthing the bit.
• Keep his legs still and in constant contact with the horse: they can thus influence if required without the rider changing his position. It is permissible to make a slight movement of the knee, which may need to be bent or straightened ever so slightly.

The horse must:

• Take calm, even, but energetic steps.
• When going forward, be perfectly straight with both ears at the same height; at corners and when turning it must give the appearance of bending of its own volition towards the inside. Stiffness will manifest itself if the horse's head is turned to the outside.
• Mouth the bit calmly and steadily all the time without it being audible. It must not try to spit the bit out, grind it or play with it with its tongue. It should not get its tongue over the bit, let it hang out or make foam.
• Keep head and neck still. It should not shake its head, even at a change of pace or halt or when trotting on from rest, nor stretch it forward or upward or lower to its chest. The neck should form an even, curved line.
• Carry the tail quietly with no twitching or swishing.

From all of that I can gladly say that Tori does carry her tail quietly! ... everything else however... she does not do. >.> BACK to BASICS. always basics... Oh, and I also am not very still... need to learn to be still.

... and it continues

I'm obviously not very good at keeping a journal... (last entry was december 2011? lol).

So enjoy a recap of the last 15 months!

March 2012

Fix-a-test with Debbie Morrison (very productive experience)

May 2012
First rated competition with Tori since October 2007! We went to Heavenly Waters for Memorial Day Weekend. Best. Show. EVER. Everyone was so nice, I was able to warm-up my horse & not get run down, we camped out and had so much fun! In our first time showing Second Level - Test 2 we acquired our highest score as a pair, earning a 63% and qualifying for the CBLM Championships in Lexington, VA!

June 2012

A few weeks after MDW Tori went lame... again. this time from pedal osteitis (inflammation of the pedal bone [coffin bone])

Rode Dezi for the first time. She took me for a 5-minute pony ride & it was awesome!

October 2012

Participated in our first ever CBLM Championship! Total score of 59%. Judge at C gave us a 57% & Judge at B gave us a 61%. It was a good weekend.

December 2012

Went to Jeannie McDonald's farm for a clinic with Jane Weatherwax! Best clinic lesson yet! I actually felt for the first time, that a clinic went well and I actually accomplished something.

March 2013

Rode in a 2-day clinic with Dr. Jenny Susser, the sports psychologist for the US Olympic Equestrian Team. It was a very emotional experience. I have to stop beating myself up ALL the time. Give credit where credit is due. Also, not be so serious about my riding all the time. I need to relax and enjoy it more.

April 2013 to Present!
I have started riding Dezi more. at least twice a week. We lunge both directions in side reins. She's so stinkin' smart; while it takes her a few moments to figure things out, she does so in the most earnest & pure way. We've trotted under saddle at least twice now and she's great. I can adjust my stirrups without assistance from her back. I treat her like a grown horse because I expect her to act like a grown horse and she doesn't disappoint (at least under saddle). In hand she has an evil twin that shows up periodically (damn her being a gemini).