Monday, July 30, 2012

Fun Fact of The Day

Its official..... India is sacred.

Well to the Native Americans anyway, apparently she'd be an awesome war horse. Although you'd never know it when she's attacked by an evil sinister plastic bag.....
But she has what they call Shields, one is the spot on her chest because it covers the whole chest area. The other is the two matching spots on both flanks. They are supposed to protect the horse from enemies. The other interesting spot is the one where the rider sits, its supposed to not let the rider fall off. The only two marks of a sacred horse she's missing is the medicine hat and a bear claw. However its apparently really lucky to have as many as she does!

So from now on you may all refer to India as a "Sacred Native War Dutch Sport Pony" or "India, sacred bane of plastic bags"

;)

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Junebug~

So Bootcamp went VERY! well. I got to ride five horses a day for three days. And I got a lesson on India and Roubles each day and then mini lessons on all the other horses. First I rode Roubles, then India, Revelle, Sage, and ended on Eclipse.
The best way to describe Roubles is a dragon. He's 16.3 hands and he's not a small 16.3 hands he's big and masculine. And he has an attitude as big as him, and did I mention he's six? But when you get yourself right and him right he's so much fun to ride! My rides on him were a little hairy because I wasn't psychically strong enough to keep him together like David does. However I will become strong enough to ride him it will just take a lot of practice so that when he pulls one of his stunts my body wont collapse. But anyways I got on him to learn about finessing my flying change aid, because I was all over the place and on him if you don't stay straight with your body and plugged in and working like a dog there ain't no way in hell that horse is gonna change his damn legs. So after many failed attempts at changes I finally figured out that the change happens on the exhale.
But before you ask for a flying change first you have to learn "H or Die" which is you pick a letter and you either reach that letter on the other lead or you die... and by die I mean the horse is halted and you start over. The next thing was straightness. I learned this trip that I ride every single horse like a banana, so getting myself "on" enough to get them straight was really hard and it took a lot of brain space, but I think I've pretty much got the idea now.
Now back to the exhale, what I was doing at first was trying to change the bend and kind of flail around to get the change but David taught me that its like you collect and hold your breath before the change and then when you want the change you think change and only move your seatbones and exhale. The exhale relaxs you just enough to allow the change to happen.

India also learned about changes with David! She did her six clean changes with David riding. But the exciting part was that he only asked for six changes period, so all of her changes were clean!! I wish so bad that I had thought about taking a video...

Now I have to get better with changes....

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Blindingly White

Since when is Indie this white? 
I didn't do anything to her.....

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Be Still~~

I just realized that I havent updated everyone on Indie in forever... whoops


So Indie has been an absolute angel lately! We are rapidly closing in on third level. I just have so much trouble with changes and the dreaded half-pass. Half-pass is the bane of my existence.... I try to ask for it and my body goes all wonky and then indias all like "I cant half-pass under these conditions!" and then half-pass doesnt happen. But we're leaving tomorrow for super awesome bootcamp with Francie and David. I really want to work on half-pass and changes. The reality is i'll probably get over there and magically not be able to shoulder-in anymore, just because someones watching. On the brightside though i'll come back with one awesome shoulder-in! However....the day I master half-pass you will not address me as merideth anymore. I will be "Merideth, Bane of Half-Pass" or something like that.....

The other cool thing is she's almost got changes! They aren't clean but shes got the basic jist of it. I change my seatbones, she changes her front legs. Still working on the hind legs. I'm just scared that I will ruin her changes if I do too many un-clean ones. So I've been waiting to get to bootcamp until I actually seriously start working on them. She also almost did piaffe today.....but dont ask me to do it again! I shamelessly admit it was a fluke XD but still! it almost happened! I was asking for collected trot and someone behind me smacked their horses and india spooked but instead of jumping or darting forward she tucked her butt and almost piaffed, silly pony!

She's so darn adorable.... I dont remember giving her permission to be so cute <3

Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Cactus in a Valley.

Riding horses is not about ribbons, or beating the

 clock, or money. It was never about those things.

Its about two beings of this earth learning to move

and breath as one entirely new being. The rider

becomes the brain and nervous system while the

horse is the heart and muscles. But in being so

close to each other they take different aspects

from the other. From us the horse learns new

ways to move. But from the horse we learn to love