Monday, March 26, 2012

Galloping in March?

Yes it is true! We are able to do gallop sets in March! How thrilling! The girls have been going down the road, doing trot sets, gallop sets and getting ready for the start of our season! It is very quiet at the farm right now, all but one of my kids are gone on spring break and I am busy working the horses and keeping them tuned up for their return.

I have been very busy working hard at the gym. 3 days a week with Sam Berg, my personal trainer at the Delano Snap Fitness. Oh man I have been sore! I have noticed the results and lost 1.5%! Whoop! We just signed up for the Warrior Dash on July 1st too! I look forward to that tough challenge!

So I have been working hard in the gym and on horse back. Doing trot sets in two point, working on really strengthening my lower leg position and getting back into "summer show shape".

It was great to go off to my first clinic of the season on Saturday! The Pierro's brought in Mike Mendell, Mike has competed through the CCI****, including spending two years training and competing in the UK, Ireland and Europe competing at Burghley. Mike also has competed at the Grand Prix level of show jumping and in upper level dressage. In addition, he has worked with young horses extensively from their first experiences with riders onward.

I really enjoyed his instruction. It is great to be picked on! We got really picky about my position and worked on just tweaking things slightly that improved my ride and made my horses happier. Worked on trying not to do my horse's jobs for them and just creating a forward rhythm and balance. He talked about how legs create, the seat contains and allows and the shoulders control the rhythm. We turned my toe out slightly and talked about landing more into my heel then on my thigh and knee. I really liked this change. We also discussed in detail what a half halt is. The half halt starts with the shoulders, close your shoulder blades together, then moved downward. The back, the butt and then finally the thighs. Of course the half halt is always begun with adding your leg, balancing how much of a half halt you need and how much leg you need. The hands always stay quiet. I found these articles written by Jim Wofford very interesting on leg position and galloping position very interesting.

Why a Vertical Stirrup Leather is Critical on Cross-Country - by: Jim Wofford

Improve Your Galloping Position for Cross-Country - by: Jim Wofford

Of course we have been road riding like crazy! Group trail rides, one day we even rode all the way into Delano and made a few stops! Lots of great outings over the last few weeks! The weather is supposed to be a little bit more "spring" like now, with some rain and cooler temps, but that is fine with me as long as we are well out of winter!


This next weekend is the Spring Forward clinic held at the Leatherdale Equine Center at the U of M. Kate Phillips will be doing a dressage demo clinic on Sunday, which I will be riding the Intermediate Test B on Hannah. Jane Braddock will be doing a ride a course demo clinic on Saturday in which I will be riding Lucy. It should be another fun outing! The next weekend is Easter, I will be busy farm sitting for 10 days, the following weekend is the Ralph Hill clinic, the next weekend I hope to go schooling at Otter Creek and the next weekend is ROLEX!!! So excited!

That is all for now - stay tuned! Happy Spring!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Conditioning

Conditioning Discussion 03/03/2012

Before you even begin thinking about how to condition your horse you must acknowledge the basic of your horses health:
-Teeth floated
-Teeth, jaw and mouth professionally floated every 6-12 months
-Level biting and chewing surface, no lesions or abscesses causing pain or inflammation
-No sharp hooks or edges, no chipped or broken teeth, no dead teeth which need removing
-clean smelling breath
-Proper alignment
-Health and circulation can pass from head to tail, foot to hear and throughout spinal system
-Chiropractor on a regular basis (a few times per year)
-A girthy horse may have a rib out, if your horse is girthy call a chiropractor (Dr. Kyla Awes!) Horse’s ribs move and can easily dislodge which causes discomfort and sever pain under the saddle.
-Ribs and vertebrae can easily be dislocated by just playing or rolling the field or stall
-Properly cared for feet
-Horses feet, depending on the season should be done anywhere from 4-8 weeks
-Make sure your vet and farrier are in communication about the needs for shoeing
-Keep an eye out for thrush or cracking and shrinkage
-Proper Nutrition
-Make sure your horse is getting good quality hay and a proper amount of grain depending on their weight and dietary needs
-The more work your horse has, the more food they will need
-Supplements are up to the individual owner, trainer, vet and farrier
-Free choice mineral and/or salt blocks
-Others
-Make sure your horse is worm free, doing a fecal sample for your veteriniarian will help you to create a de-worming program for your horse
-Regular vaccines depending on your area
-A proper baseline fitness in order to bring your horse into harder work


Once you have met all of the above requirements and have been working your horse on a regular basis you are able to begin to prepare for going to a show. Whether it a dressage show, eventing show, hunter/jumpers or any other discipline of your choosing – your horse needs to be in shape. You can build off of your current program – discuss a specific plan of action with a knowledgeable person like your trainer or your veterinarian before creating a program.

Depending on your schedule and how often you are able to ride, you will want to create a program suited to yours and your horse’s needs. For a horse preparing for an event at any lower level, I highly recommend riding at least 4 days a week. For horses competing at the training level or higher I recommend 6 days a week. Some horses may need more fitness training depending on their breed and some can even do two a day workouts.

When preparing for an upper level event, which requires more conditioning and fitness work, I schedule my “gallop” days every 5 days. Here would be an example schedule leading up to an event at the Intermediate level at the end of May.

-Throughout the winter – regular light work, walk/trot/canter, gymnastic work, small course work
-Starting March – back into full time work (5 days minimum) schooling harder dressage movements, longer rides, trot sets, and starting to do slow canter sets (3x3 canters).
-April – (6 days a week) Longer trot and canter sets (20 minute trots up to 3 times a week, 3x4 and 3x5 canters)
-May – Building to 3x6 canter/gallop sets, incorporating some short sprints, increasing trot sets to 30 minutes


When doing my trot sets in the indoor, I will incorporate those after a shorter dressage school, and as the weather gets better I may even do two rides a day, a dressage ride in the morning and a trot set in the evening.

Through April and May I would continue to do harder dressage schools and incorporate more jumping. Including exercises that may be seen at a horse show like triple combinations, bending lines, corners, skinnies and more. By incorporating these cross country questions into your show jumping school you are able to school the questions, without actually having to have the cross country fences.

Example 10 day schedule:

Day 1 – Dressage
Day 2 – Gallop sets (I always begin with trot work, at my level 20m to start)
Day 3 – Dressage & trot sets
Day 4 – Jump school
Day 5 – Day Off
Day 6 – Dressage & trot sets
Day 7 – Gallop sets
*Keep in mind you do not want to do gallop sets or jump schools back to back and before and after you do a gallop set you want to do some sort of schooling to loosen them up, even if you just get on and hack
Day 8 – Dressage & trot sets
Day 9 – Jump school
Day 10 – Day Off


This is what a typical program would look like for Hannah B. Of course take into account that sometimes you just can’t make it out to the barn, or you may not be showing at this level, you may have an emergency, lameness, too hard/soft to gallop, etc. The lower the levels the less time you have to spend conditioning, but you still must condition. Your “gallops” and trot sets will be shorter too.

It is important not to jump right into doing too much canter work. Trot work is the most important. It really helps to build up your horse’s endurance and strengthen their tendons. There are many theories out there on what the best way is to do it, but I think that trotting on either pavement or gravel is the best way to strengthen their tendons. This is more of the old school way because trotting on harder surfaces tends to cause more concussion on the horses joints. But trotting on softer surfaces tends to put more pressure on the horses tendons. You will adapt your own ways as you become more experienced.

Another important part of conditioning a horse is to know their TPR.
Take their TEMPERATURE when resting and after a hard workout.
Take their PULSE when resting and after a hard workout.
Take their RESPIRATION when resting and after a hard workout.


Cooling your horse down is just as important is the conditioning work itself. This is another good reason to know your horse’s resting TPR. Other signs to look for, that your horse is cooled out, breathing has returned to normal, no flairing of the nostrils and veins are no longer visible. Especially on a hot day after a hard conditioning workout like gallop sets, immediately get cold water on your horse. Their neck and inside their hind legs are great places to begin sponging/hosing because they have large veins in these areas. Just like an upper level horse after a cross country run, you need to get ice cold water on that horse as soon as possible. Granted you shouldn’t be working your horse to this extent, this is just an extreme.

Just as important as your cool down is your warm up. Always doing a 5-10 minute warm up no matter the work you are doing is important to get your horse’s blood flowing and heart rate up slowly. You wouldn’t hop right out of bed and go sprinting without warming up. Especially on your gallop days, you want to make sure to start out with a solid trot set. With Hannah her trot set warm up is 20 minutes before she does her gallops. Starting in the beginning you start with shorter times, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and building until you are at the desired time for your horse’s required level of fitness.

Conditioning Ourselves

So we spend all this time conditioning our horses but what kind of attention are we giving ourselves? I think it is just as important to condition yourself as it is your horse. If you expect your horse to be in top physical, mental and emotional condition you need to be as well. Being aware of your own physical fitness can be hard, especially at a younger age, well maybe even more at an older age! I just began working one on one with a personal trainer to begin to educate myself more about physical fitness and nutrition. Just like we study how much to feed our horses and when and what supplements they need and how much work they need – we must do the same. Make sure you stay physically active and eat healthy. Your parents or a personal trainer can help you come up with a fitness and nutrition plan for yourself. Also it is important to eat quality foods when doing harder work, at a horse show especially. Too much sugar and candy will make you crash, you want foods that will give you energy and keep you energized throughout the weekend. Electrolytes are a good way to replenish salts that you sweat out in your body as well. Same for the horses!

Friday, March 2, 2012

New Year

Ah well I haven't even posted a 2012 blog yet! Happy 2012! Already so much has happened and I can't believe we are almost heading into March and yes of course I am still stuck in MN. Although the winter hasn't been too bad, we still don't have any shows like they do in the south!
Although I wish I could be showing right now, we have had a fun time up here in MN. I have been hosting monthly group jumping clinics with ground demos like braiding, wrapping, conditioning, etc and hope to continue those throughout the year - of course depending on how many open weekends we may have!

I finally put together our tentative show schedule for the summer and I am SO looking forward to it! OF course it depends on how the spring is and if we can get out schooling. Right now we have plans to school before our trip to ROLEX, but of course we will not know if that will be happening until the day of!

Speaking of ROLEX - I am so excited to be attending this year! The last time I was at ROLEX was 2004 and worked on the Safety Committee with Katy Bloomquist. It was great to get to see behind the scenes and everything. I am so excited to go this year with my clients and new barn owner, Tracy Adams.
Well this blog is all over the place - lets get down to it! Here is the calendar so far for the year!

APRIL:
April 14-15 – Ralph Hill @ NBEC
April 21 – OCF XC Schooling (Lucy & Hannah)
April 26-30 - ROLEX

MAY:
May 4-6 – Catalpa Horse Trials
Liz on Lucy – Novice
May 12 – XC Schooling
May 17-20 – OCF Spring
Liz on Lucy – Novice
Liz on Hannah – Intermediate

JUNE:
June 2 – St. Croix Dressage Show
June 3 – Carriage House Combined Test
Liz on Lucy – Novice/Training
Liz on Hannah – Advanced
June 8-10 – Dressage at Alpine
June 16-17 – Ralph Hill Clinic @ Wildwood
June 20-24 – Alpine Farms H/J
Liz on Lucy
Liz on Hannah

JULY:
July 7-8 – Dressage at Alpine
July 13-15 – Roebke’s Run HT
Liz on Lucy – Training?
July 20-22 – Pony Cup (kids)

AUGUST:
Aug 2-4 – C3, B, A Ratings (Morgan-C3, Maria-A)
Aug 4-5 – Ralph Hill Clinic @ Jane’s
Aug 9-11 – OCF Summer HT
Liz on Lucy – Training?
Liz on Hannah – Intermediate
Aug 18-19 – OCF Dressage
Aug 21-27 – Richland Park HT (MI)
Liz on Lucy – Training?
Liz on Hannah – Advanced?

SEPTEMBER:
Aug 31 – Sept 2 – Steepleview HT
Liz on Lucy - Training
Sept 8-9 – Ralph Hill Clinic @ Schweiss
Sept 20-23 – OCF Fall HT
Liz on Lucy
Liz on Hannah - Intermediate

OCTOBER:
Oct 5-7 – Roebke’s Run HT EMILY
Liz on Lucy

Of course note the ? marks following the levels in the fall - it all depends on how the season is progressing and how the girls are doing! That would be the goal assuming all goes as planned, but as we all know with horses, that is a rare occurrence!

So in preparation for what is going to be an amazing year, I myself have hit the gym in order to get myself in the best physical shape that I can to be able to perform my best. Just like we do for our horses, we must do for ourselves. I started my personal training sessions at SNAP Fitness this week with my trainer Sam, she is great! We are making a whole new nutrition plan as well so that I can start fueling myself properly to become the better athlete that I want to be. I will be meeting with Sam 3x/week and she will give me a plan for the days I am not with her. Whooop! Fitness and better health here we come!

The girls are doing great! Coming back into full work now. Schooling movements on the flat, jump schooling and getting some indoor trot sets in! I can't believe it is almost time to start gallops! I hope the snow melts quickly & March is a friendly month for us! Lucy's jumping is getting much better. She is much straighter and thinking quicker on her feet. Thanks to my crash test dummy, Maria, who has been jumping her weekly! The bounce and gridwork seems to be helping her a lot! Hannah is jumping of course too, she is always so much fun to jump. Although she has quite a unique way of going, I like that way and am accustomed to it. I love my Hannah B. Of course 'I Love Lucy' too! They are both going to the Leatherdale Equine Center at the end of the month to do some demo rides. Hannah will be demoing a Preliminary dressage test with Kate Phillips and Lucy will be demoing a show jumping course, how to ride a course, with Jane Braddock. Looking forward to getting out of the "house" for the first time this year! The vet is coming soon to draw coggins tests on all of the horses so we will be all set for the year! This is the first year in awhile that my good friend Jen Johnson won't be doing our coggins! She is living in Washington now with her family and animals! We miss you Jen!

On another note, we finally have snow here! We got hit hard Tuesday night and a little more last night. Although the snow we got was heavy and wet - it did make everything look more beautiful! Of course until it melts and we have mud lakes in our pastures! It has been a good winter this year! I guess that is all for now - stay warm, drive safe and get those ponies back in shape!