Thou must be kidding thyself

I found Indie's baby pictures!!! and aren't they just so adorable!! but of coarse i'm biased ;)

their are a couple more but i chose the cutest ones. I'm really lucky to have this many pictures of my horse as a foal not many people have this many. 

So miss sassy pants got pampered by the chiropractor again, and didn't try to bite him!! so excited about that. Well she was not much better than the last time, bummer. However a 19 hour trailer ride right before a show really wasn't helpful. So until his next visit Sept 9. all we're doing is stretching and lateral work and oh yeah more stretching. But thats okay with me because it takes a lot of pressure off. Most of the time i feel like if i'm not doing real dressage work all the time i'm not making any progress (which is totally not true!!) and by "real dressage work" i mean stuff we have yet to master such as working on collection or half-pass. Stretching not included, even though it should be. 

So i decided since we're not working on real dressage it would be a good idea to go to the now-dry cross country field and go stretch. There is a raised track around the field that stays mostly dry (most of the time) that goes through trees and borders a swamp-like pit hole, but still a nice place to ride. So we went around the track at a stretching trot  once and then went around at a canter a couple times around. We did have to have a little "discussion" about cantering politely, and not running into trees. Other than that Indie enjoyed herself so much that as the ride went on  her canter got boucier and bouncier and more wonderful and more wonderful. When i went back to the field next to the barn my mom was there and i started cantering and asked indie to canter slower and i hear from across the field "STOP ASKING HER TO COLLECT!!!" apparently her canter was so bouncy that she collected her canter enough to be seen across a giant field, which doesn't sound impressive but it definatly is!! well.........i was excited.

USPC Championships East

USPC Champs was the most fun i've ever had in my life!! My scramble team was absolutly amazing, i loved them!! We were in the first level and up division so we were competeing against two people doing second level and one doing third. I was really surprised that their weren't more people doing "upper level" (thats what my region called first level and up, their such nerds!! but i love 'em!!) There were only about 20 people, there were way more people doing training however. I mean come on people!! whenever someone moves to second level they quit pony club, its happened in my region about four times and my region is tiny, really really tiny. Something is just not right about that, its like they move to second level and suddenly their too good to be on a team and have to fool with horse management. Okay enough with that, i'm over it.

So please enjoy this beautiful camera-phone picture my friend took, there was a Professional photographer but he hasn't posted any photos yet so the phone picture will have to do for now

That is a picture of my freestyle, and i'm about to do a ten meter circle and then lengthen to B

This year Champs was in Virginia, which is in the eastern time zone, i live in the central time zone. So every morning getting up at 5:00 to get to the barn by 6:00 was actually me getting up at 4:00 and getting to the barn by 5:00, for seven days because the drive took two days each way, the first two days i was fine. Even excited if that word can be applied to 4am. But by the third day i was so nauseated and this continued for four more days, so i daresay my rides really suffered because by the time i actually got on taken three ginger pills drunk two cans of ginger ale thrown half of that up, i really could have cared less about my test. Add to the mix that india was being as my friend put it "a little turd"

Examples: almost launching her self over a cliff twice, bucking, no steering, bolting, and she wouldn't walk in the warm-up.

Mix that all together and we got 61% on all of our tests and a 64% on the freestyle. But the part i was most excited about was that indie got a 7 on her canter lengthening!!! last time the highest lengthening score we got was a five, this time we got sixes for the trot lengthening and sevens for the canter.

Just those two scores made the whole time a success.

Another thing that i'm really proud of is that from the first test to the last india really improved, instead of slowly losing her mind she slowly found her mind.

My trainer watched all of my tests and she disagreed with a couple of the scores, she thought the first test should have scored much lower (and i have to agree with that one) and that the last test should have scored a little higher. But i'm happy everything was atleast in the 60s so that makes me feel better.

So placings we got fourth in horse management, because i was pretty much the only one that had ever been to a rally that went more than two days, so besides having a couple little mini heart attacks it all went pretty good.

and drumroll please........First overall!!! not only were we a scramble team but half of us had never been to championships at all and the other half had never gone in first level, thats pretty darn impressive!!

and i got fifth out of twenty people in the individual freestyles

Yeah!! so much fun was had :D

Chiropractor

Good and Bad news....
Bad news first, the chiropractor came and worked on india, he found that both her hips, one knee, one shoulder, and two ribs were out, like out of the socket and/or joint. Which was causing her a lot of pain. I feel really stupid now, "oh that would be why my horse doesn't want to collect, her hips hurt so bad she popped her knee out" she was trying to stay off her hips and in the process threw her knee out.
Super

But she was a very good girl and only tried to bite him when he put one of her ribs back in. Personally i don't blame her!!
Watching the chiropractor was really cool though. He used this...thing that looked like a giant syringe but had like a ball at the end and when he pushed it it put pressure on whatever he had it on (like ribs) i'm not exactly sure what it did but it was interesting.
Then he would put his hands on the point of the hip and push really hard while pulsing his hands, which i'm pretty sure put the hips back in the socket.
We also got some stretches that they need to do everyday in order to make the good feelings last longer because the first visit only lasts about two weeks but if your really good about the stretches it can go about three.
I also learned that what throws horses bones and joints out faster than anything is stalls. Horses are meant to move all  day long, however if one has the same problem as me you can't turn them out all the time because there is simply no place to turn them out. I literally live in a swamp sometimes, the mud and water in the pastures has been known to claim footwear, horseshoes, a couple knees....and a few children, still haven't found them buggers.
So tunout is not an option sometimes, riding helps but there is nothing like walking around for hours.
The stretches we got are as follows, pull their head around and make them walk in a circle the trick is to get their inside hind leg to cross over the other hind leg. That is for their hips to keep them loose and pain-free. Another is make them briskly walk backwards about twenty steps, i think thats for the hips too. The other is to stand at their shoulder and take the hand closest to their hip and using the allure of a treat stretch their neck around you as far as they can go. I would like to report that india has a very flexible neck, she can touch her hip.
So now for the good news.......the chiropractor is a miracle worker.
the first time i rode her afterwards she felt amazing, awesome, super super awesomely amazing!!
She was soft, relaxed, but she had that electric feel, she felt so good!!
She was even excited about being ridden, she just fluffed up, rounded her back and lengthened her stride and just floated around the arena!! Her canter is even bouncier!! i really regret that i haven't taught her flying changes yet because her canter for the past two rides would have been perfect for them, i settled on simple changes :)

Off topic here but i really feel like life is looking up right now, like everything is just going to start falling into place, something good is going to happen. i mean just look at this blog, my first post was about just starting leg yields, now i'm talking about half-pass, simple changes, and about moving up to second level!!

*did anyone catch the MGMT reference??*

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

First off i'm realllyyy hyper, too much caffeine!!
So me and the madre went to Mississippi to train on some Grand Prix horses!! Two of the horses we rode were 25 and one that my mom rode looked like he was 10 max, his name was Rumor Has it and was trained by Carol Lavell. Apparently i am inept because i couldn't ride him at all!! Couldn't get him to go couldn't turn nothin. Ms E, the trainer we were taking lessons from eventually told me the secret, first you have to beat him to get him to take you seriously and then just have to figure him out. Thats my challenge next time we go. However i'm bringing my own saddle there was one saddle she put me in and it gave me bruises, big old black ones.
 I think its so interesting how different saddles can be, they all have the same basic design but they are used for such different body types, for example if my mom can ride in a saddle you can know without a shadow of a doubt that i can't ride in it. Her thigh bones are long and mine are short, but we are about the same height, figure that one out.
Alright so back to the horses, the one i rode most of the time was a 16.3 hand warmblood named Armani. And now that i think about it he was almost an older carbon copy of Val (Grand Prix Someday's horse). He was also 25 and his gaits were HUGE!! It felt like jumping on a horse trampoline. He was so wiggily like a giant chesnut noodle, but i loved him. Then there was Winglet, she was about 7, and she was like butter. All you had to do was think what you wanted and it happened. She was wonderful!!
Most of what we worked on was fixing basic holes in my riding, stuff that india lets me get away with. Like getting the perfect angle for lateral work. We worked on shoulder-in, travers, half-pass, and leg yield.

Yes i really am that bored right now
We also worked on transitions, mostly canter transitions, and keeping mr. noodle butt straight. Once you create a corridor of aids (reins, legs, feet, those aids) then he was really easy to keep straight.
I also did some passage and piaffe on accident, Oops. but it was fun to be able to sit.
It was really fun, schoolmasters are so nice to ride after riding lower level horses my whole life. Can't wait to go back!

Oh and Hey Hannah!! Stevie and Sparky are amazinggg!! XD

When Life says Go

WARNING This post  has toxic levels of mushy lovey dovey stuff  WARNING

Sometimes God holds you back, like collected trot and keeps saying "more energy, okay a little less now, sit on your haunches, more energy" He keeps you in one spot gearing you up towards the future. And then at one point in your life, or multiple times in your life depending on who you are, He says Go.
He lets you loose to wreck havoc on dressage shows, BMX tracks, football stadiums, whatever you love.
Like collected trot and extended trot. "sit on your haunches, more energy, sit more......now show them what you got" I feel like God has started to let me loose, and India has started to show everyone what she's got. Just the other day my non-horsey dad told me that he never thought me and indie would ever show first level, he didn't think indie was capable of it. He used to call her the little pony, now he calls her the horse. Our first time at first level we dominated, no one, not even the training level freestyles came close to our freestyle score. Our first time at first level we did test two and four, factor in the points i lost for talking in test two and we would have made a 61%  in test four we made a 62%.  The freestyle made a 69%.

A couple weeks before my trainer told me we couldn't break 60%.

On the way back from that show my mom looked at me and said "you proved yourself, you proved that i can teach, and you proved india is cut out for this"

A couple days ago India took two steps of half-pass, we've never worked on half-pass.
two days ago she took two more.
Yesterday she gave me collected trot...and canter.
The best i've ever felt, on any horse.

He's been gearing us up

Now its time to go.

Post-Show Epilogue

I gave Indie (unintentionally) five days off, spoiled princess!! because we have had torrental rainstorms every single #$^&*%&!!!! day since dressage rally, the outdoors once again have sea creatures swimming in them, i love sharks as much as the next person but they are not conductive to dressage training.
i did however get to ride yesterday and it was kind of a disaster of major proportions. the sky was perfectly clear when we got there not five minutes later the sky is so dark we had to turn the lights on just to see, at this barn however we have an indoor that can be completely sealed, so off to the indoor we went.
The ride could be summed up as such
Me: "hey indie you remember that stuff we did at dressage rally?? yeah that didn't just magically go away, i know we proved ourselves at first level and showed everyone that yes we are competitive,  but your still a dressage horse"
india: " ?!?!?!?"

Most of the ride was spent spooking at lightning (although i don't blame her for that we had some bigass lightning bolts) and convincing her not to run through my aids.
From a training dressage standpoint
ride = fail
BUT... i kept my temper in check, normally i would have been so mad at her that the other horses in the arena would have been running for cover, which was good when i was riding Austa but not so much for India. Austa was so bad about running through aids to convince her you were serious, one had to be mad enough to spit nails, India however gets mad back, thats her daddy coming out. And when she is mad she has all the other horses running for cover.....sometimes quite literally.
Take for instance one day when we were all practicing freestyles, those of us waiting our turn were just sitting on our horses under a tree and indie was mad because we had had a little come to jesus meeting about the speakers, another horse pepper (also known as the asshole) moved closer to her and she lunged for his jugular!!
scroll up to the picture
read my last sentence
now scroll up again
now read the sentence again
Whaaat?!?
i know she looks all sweet and innocent, but she is not to be trusted!! shes malicious its a wonder i've survived this long.
and then the other incident with a lesson horse where the lesson horse got too close and she tried to double barrel him, and on trail rides she tries to get as close as she can to horses she doesn't like just to bite them!!
So you see why me having a temper is not good. Last ride however i didn't get mad and just kept evaluating her the whole time and i eventually got her mostly sorted out and was happy with my ride. For me this is a big deal, and i'm proud of me and indie. :)

And i also found a treasure trove that those of us with cobs or ponies will apprieciate
http://www.justforponies.com/
its a website just for pony and cob sized equids!!

they even have a dressage section, with a reasonably priced double bridle and children sized dressage saddles, and pony sized martingales (do you know how hard it is to find a martingale for a 12 hand pony that fits correctly) With the emphasis on the cob sized double bridle i've been looking for one forever (not that we need one right now, just for the near future) and the only one i found that was actually cob sized was a really fancy one from a custom bridle shop that was about 2,000 dollars, this one is about 132 dollars, Yeah cheap stuff!!
So definatly go take a look if your horse is vertically challenged ;)


So cute!!

Dressage Rally!!

Was so much fun!!
So everything goes well at jog outs and then i go to my formal and the person says "oh your a B so do your formal" my heart stops because i have no idea what she's talking about, do my formal?? I then tell her that i am in fact not a B but a D3 (for those of you not in pony club, a B is the second highest rating one can achieve a D is the lowest. the ratings go like this D1, D2, D3, C1, C2, C3, B1, B2, A, i think thats how it goes if i need correcting please dont hesitate)
then they kept insisting that i was a B and i couldn't possibly be a D3, i then show them my nametag and armband where it clearly states that i am in fact a D3. Disaster averted they then got the right sheet and i didn't fail my formal :)
The first ride was first level test two and i was really nervous and i guess indie picked up on it and spooked at M, i forgot that one is not to speak during a dressage test, i might have called my horse an ass in front of the judge.

My Bad.

the rest of the test was very nice though and i pulled a 57% out of a hat.
The second test  was first level test four and this one went much much better. I rode my guts out pretty much nailed everything except for one simple change, i didn't shift her ribcage over enough and she picked up the wrong lead we got the correct lead back though in only about two or three strides, yeah!!
And my first halt in that test got a 10. a 10!!! OMG!! i was pretty excited :)
that test i got a 62% pretty good for our first show at first level, if i say so myself!!

Then on sunday the freestyle. I did a latin themed freestlye that had Mambo #5, Hips don't lie, and Cafe by the Sea, all instrumental. For this i got a 69%. The judges loved it!! the lowest score we got for it was a 6.5. I found out that i love doing freestyles if you ever get the chance to do one go for it!! and i would show everyone a video but four people tried to film it and all of their cameras died almost at the same time, i guess it was not meant to be. Poop. oh well i get to do it again in virginia..
BECAUSE WE QUALIFIED FOR CHAMPS!!!!!
even though i was the only one trying to qualify at first level, that doesn't matter because i still qualified and got the highest freestyle score out of everyone.

now i'm off to sleep for the next two weeks, Goodnight!