Dressage Queen or Jumping Princess - not quite sure yet. Today, well lets actually move back to Thursday - my usual lesson day. I contacted Mistress Brianne (as a sign of respect to a dominatrix you must use the title mistress, I learned this from CSI) to say lets move my lessons to Saturday - during daylight. Now our arena has great lights, but when you've worked all day, to put on clothes and go outside to ride in the dark and cold, and be back for dinner with hubby doesn't leave alot of time to absorb the lesson. So we moved them to Saturday, BUT I went on Thursday to ride, to practice - hey for you other students out there... this is a word your coach will love to hear you say - PRACTICE - better yet, they would probably pee their pants if you said - I have PRACTICED this week between lessons!!! Watch them fall out of their seat.
Anyhow not only did i go to practice what we had learned the past Saturday, but I also voluntarily - again I will say VOLUNTARILY PRACTICED without stirrups.... yes its my self pain now. Some people purge, some people cut, I ride without stirrups. And not just for a lap around. We started off our 1/2 hour session with three laps one way at a trot without stirrups and three laps the other way without stirrups. Now if you can't believe that - wait it gets better - then I used no reins - yep I took back the stirrups and practiced riding with my hands at my side and not with reins - then being the masocist that I am, I also tried 2 pointing without the reins. And as weak as I am, I was able to go for four beats before falling on my ass... which for some of you - may be nothing, but on our last lesson, I couldn't even stand up without the reins.
Of course Ozzy loved this 30 minutes session, as all he had to do was go around the ring over and over again. No collection, no bending, nothing. But i did feel better for doing this myself. And I can totally feel now when my leg is in a questionable spot and when its completely wrong - well for the most part I can feel when its right and when its wrong. And right does feel better.
So today, despite it was slushing outside I headed up to my lesson, but we decided to move it to an inside arena. Now there are plenty of indoors in the Okanagan, but some don't allow lessons, some are ran by crazy people, and some are more suitable as a round ring to Oz then an actual arena. But I contacted Wendy Wise of Hillcrest (or formally Hillcrest, not sure what its new name is) to see if we could ride there. Talk about drop in, and bless her heart she let us come in. Wendy and I go back to boarding together at Hillcrest for about 6 months before they closed down. She was also my coach during my time up there. And I she is wonderful and busted our ass for 60 - 90 minutes a lesson. Both Oz and I were always dripping with sweat after the lessons. She has stayed someone I like to call a friend since we separated with the closure of the barn. Over the recent months she has re-opened Hillcrest, and in talking with her today, I think at least for a few months we will move our lessons or some of them up to the indoor. Our outdoor is perfect, as there is plenty of salt and such, but sometimes its just nicer to not deal with slush or snow, or the glare of winter.
Anyhow, there were standards set up with poles on the ground that then became jumps shortly after we entered the ring. And as soon as we got into the ring, ooohhh boy you could feel Ozzy was on his thoroughbred mood. He was fast on the forehand and feeling good. A couple of trotting laps around the ring, and that calmed down a bit. And then we started over the jumps. Boy did I suck - yep I'll admit it. I had a great time as always, and always come away trying to remember something, but this lesson I felt sucky. Totally collapsing in the saddle over some jumps, yanking on his mouth on others. Almost like we hadn't jumped ever before.... I think we went around about a dozen times, some only being a couple of jumps, other times the mini circuit. And out of that I think I felt maybe 3 good jumps where it felt good, and I felt my position was good, speed was good.... but 3/12 - hell I'd be grounding my son if he came home with marks like that. Now one of those jumps though, it felt good going over top, and as we came down and cantered on, Oz tossed his head around and it almost felt like a little buck. He was feeling FINE!!! Enough of this flat work, bring on the jumps he was thinking. And through out our lesson I kept having to contain the canter he wanted to do. The jumps were small and a canter wasn't really required. But really it was he and I against Mistress B..... she wanted us to concentrate on my leg, hands, position and speed, and really Ozzy wanted to canter the whole thing, and I was cutting corners all over the place... lets face it - we had jumper brain. Clean and FAST, screw the equitation and using our corners....
Oz was certainly DONE by the end, hot and sweaty and needing a full cool down - where were you aunty sherry!!!! But we will head back up there next Saturday afternoon to do another lesson.
FROM THE MANURE PILE...
Now I had a topic as of today, as they usually come to me when I'm in the saddle, but I'll be damned if I remember what it is. I'm heading off to the hockey game, so I will think of it as we are drinking beer and watching the Rockets play whoever - frankly I'm going for the company and free beer. Okay now I remember what I was going to beef about. If you remember I think a couple of weeks ago in the manure pile I was complaining about not so good coaches. So with that in mind, here's a manure pile about students, and boarders. Now I'm not perfect as a student... and have probably done some boneheaded things myself...
First coaches.... show up on time, that doesn't mean if your lesson starts at 2pm, that your pulling into the driveway at 1:50pm thats not on time. Allow yourself time to get your horse groomed, tacked up and warmed up. Second, take notes on your lesson - at the end of your lesson talk to your coach about things that you learned that day, or exercises that you should practice on, keep a journal on your lessons and your progress. Third, Practice, practice practise.... if your have a lesson once a week don't make the next time you ride your next lesson - how could you have worked on anything you learned at your last lesson if your only riding during your coaching sessions. Fourth, listen to your coach, if she is repeating something over and over and over and over and over again, then stop and ask for some different direction. Obviously its not working and maybe you need to have it explained differently, if its something that is a overall weakness, then ask of ways to improve on it, and DO IT! Fifth, remember if its just not working out between you and your coach there is nothing wrong with looking elsewhere, but talk to your coach, explain why your leaving, perhaps he/she can give you some direction of where they think you would happier.
Second barn managers.... First read the barn rules, learn the barn rules, live by the barn rules... you may not like them but its NOT YOUR BARN. If there are rules that you don't like, ask why they are there if you wonder, and if you still can't live by them then - look for another place. Second, likely you're not the only boarder there, so the barn manager doesn't want to have daily phone calls or emails from you wondering how your horse is doing. Unless your horse is recently recovering from an illness or injury then if you're wondering if little trigger is happy, then haul your butt up to the barn and take a look yourself. You need to trust that your barn manager is going to contact you if something is wrong with your horse - if you don't hear anything then pressume everything is fine. Third, although this falls under number one, but I'm going to point out two common rules broken, food in the tack room... Hello people, food + rural setting = mice. And you may think, hey my tack is old, and my brushes are dirty and I don't mind mice peeing, eating and crapping on my stuff - thats fine, except mice don't think hey Suzy left carrots in her tack locker, lets only eat her tack, no all tack is up for the eating. Nothing annoys your BM and your fellow boarders then having them try to keep their tack locker clean and following the rules only to have your mess cause ill effects on their property. Fourth, CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR HORSE.... if your horse craps PICK IT UP, even though its a barn and acreage it doesn't mean that crap should just be left lying around. If your in the arena after you finish with your horse go back into the arena as its likely trigger pooped while you were riding and you don't know it. And if there is poop in the arena and your unsure if its yours pick it up anyhow. Fifth, if your farrier is coming, or your vet don't assume your BM is going to be there to hold your horse. IF you can't make it out when those people come, either call your BM and ASK - not tell, but ASK if they are available to hold your horse, (and your horse better be respectful and not an ass while being handled - if trigger is hard to catch, bad to stand, walks all over people, then don't ask anyone else to take care of your problems) should the BM be available, ensure you pay her/him for their time - yep THEIR TIME. Because your time was too valuable to leave whatever you were doing to deal with YOUR horse, your BM's time is no less valuable. If your BM is not interested in holding your horse, then change the appointment, because surely you would have asked them, well in advance of the pending appointment.
I can go on and on, but my shoulders are sore from today fall (yep didn't write about that... got to save somethings for later) but just to finish.... I want to repeat ! READ THE BARN RULES, LEARN THE BARN RULES, LIVE BY THE BARN RULES, OR LEAVE THE BARN!!!!
I almost let it go - but then I remembered that I hadn't mentioned about my latest coach/student torture lesson. You know to the mild mannered student when you meet Brianne you think - what a wonderful coach, but I think in her past life she was a Dominatrix. Thursday's lesson originally got bumped due to my boss being in town, then Friday we had a wind storm kick up that from no where, and would have blown me off Ozzy. So we postponed it until Saturday morning.
Saturday morning, was a nicely warm morning, everyone was happy and pleasant, my coach was smiling... I saddled up Oz and off we went to warm up. Then smiling she tied up my stirrups and off we went for 3 laps going each way. Sitting trot - which as nice as Oz is to ride - he is AWFUL to sit a trot to!!! So once my thighs, butt and girly parts were significantly screaming in pain - I got my stirrups back - only to have my reins taken away. Now at a walk this wasn't so bad, and even at a trot - not terribly bad - but to two point without stirrups - was hell! I swear she knows when I start thinking all cocky, like hey maybe I can actually ride well, and then she throws that at me and its a humbling fall to the beginning all over again. Poor Oz was so patient with this out of shape middle aged woman flopping all over his back. Then FINALLY we got our reins back also and worked on lengthing the trot and also sitting and turning him tightly. Almost felt like it was a turn on the haunches at the end of the length wise serpentine.
We finished off with a couple of jumps both ways. But we worked mostly on flat work again. Stressed poor Ozzy's brain, and stressed my poor thighs (I think today is the first day and its Monday that I feel no pain). But again, we end each lesson feeling like I have accomplished something new, or atleast that it finally sunk in. I love jumping but I'm seeing where the flat lessons are definately a huge benefit to us when we start jumping again. But I'm also really loving the feeling of him when he goes beautifully on the bit. So dressage is also in our next year.
November and December will be hard months to keep up with a full riding schedule. I had wanted to ride a minimum of 3 days a week, but when its black outside, AND freezing cold, AND blowing either snow or wind its hard to get motivated to ride in those conditions. Top that with Christmas parties and other winter events, it does leave one frusterated... but anxious for the new year to come and us to get back on schedule. But the thought of taking a full month off is even more depressing and something I don't want to do even slightly.
I am looking forward to hitting spring, fit, in shape and a strong team.
From The Manure Pile
After our lesson the four of us headed up to the Armstrong Valley Auctions, more for entertainment and socializing then looking for something to purchase. Now I understand what an auction is, and I know that a local farm auction in mind November is not going to be full of 10 - 15k horses. Thats just not going to happen. But what gets my goat is these people that drop the horse off with no information on it at all.... instead of having you go through the expense of hauling the horse down, and paying the auction house their commission, why not just take it straight to the meat buyer directly. In most cases I believe they will even pick up. After all if there is NO information on your horse, not a breed, age, general information - where else do you think its going to go?!!
And for those of you that do stay with your horses and provide information - you know breeding is ONLY going to get you so far!!! Guess what well bred parents can still produce P.O.S (piece of sh**) babies. So if your horse can ride - then either you or pay someone to ride them in. If your telling people that the horse is bomb proof to ride, but your leading it in - people are going to wonder why.
AND PEOPLE BRUSHING YOUR HORSE IS NOT HARD - I can count EASILY of how many horses went through the sale clean and fully brushed out. And I can count those horses on one hand. I don't care if your only selling stock off the ranch - it takes what 2 minutes to run a brush through a tail and clean out the burrs - and maybe 5 minutes to wipe off the horse crap from its legs. Food is also fairly important to selling a horse..... there were a number of them there that frankly looked like skeltons! If you can't afford to feed your horse, then yes the auction is a good place to get rid of them, but if you should also know a couple of months ahead of time that you aren't going to be able to feed them - so find them an auction immediately or sell them for a couple of hundred dollars to the meat man - at least there they will see a meal a day! Also if your horse has an obvious injury, which two very nice looking horses did - deal with it up front, I suspect both those horses could have gone on to bigger bids if the people in the stadium were told why the obvious injury was there. Possibly as simple as a bang on the head, or something cosmetically broken, or anything that could be simply explained away, by not referring to what EVERYONE is seeing, just makes people wonder why are they not mentioning it.
And finally if you are BUYING a horse from an auction - YOU ARE NOT RESCUEING THEM!!!! I'm getting so sick and tired of seeing ads reading that so and so rescued this horse and is now trying to sell them to a new home... knowing full way I watched them purchase the horse for a tenth of what they are currently trying to sell them for. And they claim to rescue from the auction.
According to dictionary.reference.com the following means to rescue:
res⋅cue /ˈrɛskyu/
verb, -cued, -cu⋅ing, noun
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Tomorrow is my lesson day, and yesterday we went for a 3 hour trail ride, in the rain. Well in the sprinkle - as it didn't really rain when we rode, or where we rode. It was a great ride and work out, and as we were heading close to home, I was finally starting to get tired and cold. It was unfortunate that we went all the way up, up, up (couple of thousand acres of private land to ride on!!! The luxury of boarding at Bresing Farms!!!) and the point in which we thought, okay the horses are starting to get tired, its time to turn around and go home - this was about 1.5 hours up, and equivelant time back down. But at the turn around point, we hit some of the real pretty landscape, area's canopied by trees, it was warming up, and the path was solid, wide, flat and clear ahead - perfect canter spot! But we had a couple of tired ponies. We've decided we'll haul up there in the summer and start our ride there and spend a few nights on the mountain. On our way back as we headed down, a big healthy, fat coyote came trotting up our path - directly towards us. It wasn't till Sandra started to call out to it - about a hundred feet away from us - did it stop, stare at us and then trot up the hill. Wasn't really that scared. Then as Sandra continued to call and cluck to it, it sat above us on the hill watching us. Not scared or anything, almost as if it was waiting for the wide load to pass so he could continue up the road. It was wonderful!!!
Today is a non riding day, probably much to Ozzy's glory, but I was flipping through Mellissa Carls photographs from Lindsay's last show in the summer. Picking out my favorite from over 200 photos of us. Let me tell you thats not easy! But what I did notice, was a more clear idea and sense of where my position was lacking - thank you Mellissa - I've used these as a great learning tool. For the past week, thanks to fellow boarder - Kendall, I've been reading up on some old - and many of them, Practical Horse magazines. And reading as many of George Morris columns as I can handle. And some of those things that Brianne keeps telling me, things like leg on, leg on, proper release, yanking on his mouth, leg falling back, jumping ahead - when she's telling me them while I'm on the horse, for the most part I understand, but in many occassions - I think, "I AM DOING IT". Like leg on for instance. When I'm riding I feel like my leg is on. But now after reading and looking at the photos I FINALLY have the light bulb moment - ah huh! My leg isn't on, I'm pinching with my knee. Or when I thought my leg was on, it was either pinching with the knee, or just gripping with my thighs, my lower leg being completely off. And the release! NOW I GET IT! Amazingly there are some shots where it looks like I might just have proper release, or at worse enough slack in my rein so I'm not slaughtering his mouth. But not near enough!!!
Frankly I'm not sure I'd have as much patience with me, as Brianne has! So as a coach/trainer - you honestly couldn't ask for better. IF YOU have the opportunity to have a photographer take some shots of you, preferably in sequence this is an incrediable learning tool. And honestly I have to thank Mellissa for this opportunity - wish I could buy up all the photos! The next step will be for someone to video tape me, but the still photos are excellent, just because they give you that stop and look option for you to truly exam your strengths and weaknesses! Definately worth it! When I was taking golf lessons, they did the same thing, a quick speed camera took shots of your swing so you can go over each image with your coach to show exactly where you went right, and the results of it, and when you go wrong, what the end result looks like.
Now for my beef of the day!
Photos - I have had the incrediable fortunate to have a very photogenic horse. And everyone with a camera seems to take amazing shots of him, pro's and ammy's. And I have seen some amazing photos of him. And if I suddenly went senile, and forgot who I was, and what I do, and insanely tried to sell Ozzy - I have so many great shots of him to put on for sale ads. And frankly if I didn't I would pay someone to take some professional shots of him, I mean I'm trying to sell him right???!! I can't tell you how crazy it makes me to see people put up ad's of their horses, where any or (shakes my head) all of the following is happening:
The horse is dirty, hasn't been brushed for days or weeks
Is not set up to stand square
Legs, back end, head has been chopped out of the photo
Its as blurry as pictures of the sasquatch!
You only provide an ass shot - and only an ass shot
The horse has a blanket on it
The photo is of when the horse was a year old, but your selling him as a 12 year old
Blurry photos
Someone riding the horse poorly
The horse is rearing
The horse is standing in a stall that is a foot deep in manure and nasty bedding
A 6'3 man sitting on a yearling
A 2 year old child, with no helmet or saddle sitting on your "stallion"
Frankly any of the above is bad in a free online ad, but I shake my head in amazement when I see these shots in magazines where you have paid GOOD MONEY to place the ad. Seriously people how hard is it to groom your horse, find somewhere on your property that isn't covered in crap, and stand the horse square! At worst its going to take you maybe an hour - thats if you are someone that suddenly relized you had to place an ad for your horse, and you haven't brushed him in a month, and he's laid in every mud spot out there. Then maybe it will take an hour - otherwise what a half hour at best. Do you honestly think someone is going to pay $10k, $5k, hell even $1000 dollars if your horses photo looks like hell. Honestly, how many cars do you think Saturn would sell, if they never washed them, cleaned out the inside, had it smelling nice, had up to date information on the car... um none!!!!
Also spell check, spell check, spell check - I'm not sure how many times I can mention that - probably as many times as I should mention focus the camera, focus the camera, focus the $%*$&( camera!!! It is a bridle - not a bridal (the latter one refers to a white dress, and a big ring!), conformation not confirmation (again change one letter and it means something completely different - I confirm that you have a 5:00 dinner reservation), purebred not pure bread (One has papers the other is what you get at a bakery). I understand that some people have issues with spelling, which is obvious in my own blog, and sometimes these freaking computers don't cooperate and change your word, but when every second word is spelled incorrectly, well you've already lost a sale. People aren't going to take you seriously.
Hmmm my beefs seem to be getting longer then Ozzy's blogs.... I guess I should call it something else, and maybe move it to its own blog area - The manure pile - yep that's the part of my blog when frankly I will be just writing entirely IMO entries.
I have to say firstly how much I hate some computers - in particular this one. For the record I typed out this lengthy wonderful email about our lesson today. How he had total jumper brain because he had to do flat work in the arena while there was standards put up. And all about our lesson today. Lovely, wordy, descriptive - usual blog information and then my $&%@*$& computer deletes it. No there was no saving it. I used to type this out directly on weebly, but that program also seems to like to delete my entries. So now I type these out on my hotmail account as a draft and then save it and transfer it to weebly. So today there was no going back to undo the delete or to find it anywhere as I hadn't saved it at that point.
Frankly this is why some laptops are p.o.s. and this particular laptop is one of those.
So we will keep this to a short and frank blog. We rode, we jumped and then I went home. Yeah like thats all I'm going to write. Als watching football, so I think I've got maybe another 10 minutes before he starts to complain I'm on the computer too much. Don't blame me, blame the addiction that is facebook.
So as a particularly difficult flat work session, because Ozzy has become a jumper crackhead. And if there are perfectly good standards up in the ring, then WHY are we focussing on flat work! As much as I love the enthusiasm he shows towards jumping, frankly I would just appreciate a horse some days that listens to me and my leg and doesnt have a single brain focus. He was certainly in his cracker warmblood mood prior to us working on the poles on the ground. And I've also created a rail monster of a horse, outside leg what outside leg, if we are on the quarter line then frankly we should move over to the rail. I remember going up the long side at one point on the 1/4 line and Brianne said move him to the rail - well she praised at how quickly he went, when quite frankly I think he just heard her instructions and shot over before I had a chance to ask for it. So we will be workign on more flat work, off the rail and while standards are set up in the middle of the ring.
Then we moved to poles on the ground, to work on my form. After hiking my stirrups up so my knees were jumping against my ear lobes, we moved to working on my form while jumping a cross rail. We know Oz can jump, so we don't need to be working on my form and have him jump over 3' - 3+ height. Remember people YOUR HORSE ONLY HAS SO MANY JUMPS IN IT!! So my form needs the most amount of work, heels down, eyes up, releasing, back straight, etc, etc... So after not properly releasing and having a bit of a death grip on his face, Brianne said jump the next one with your inside hand on your hip. Now this makes sense as it will give me the confidence to reach back and tap his butt mid jump if I have to while holding on with the outside hand (crap the computer is making those warning signs again.... frankly if it poops this blog out - you guys are all on your own!!). So we did that once, and it felt okay, not as scary as I originally thought - now we do it with the other side, again not a problem. Now I hear no hands - um HELLO !!!! Have you seen me ride. Let me remind you if you've forgotten my knees are around my eye sockets my stirrups are so up! Well needless to say the first couple of times of this - it didn't work out so well - so you can imagine what my homework is. The third time I could put my hands on the crest of his neck or grab some mane if need be. And that time felt a wee bit better, but not impressive at all..... so definately will be working on a posting trot with no hands this week on the flat homework. Then we moved to the next step, I can have the reins back but no eyes. I warned Brianne then that I would pay her back in this blog if she made me do this, (hahaha like thats going to happen) So I swallowed my fear - along with my gum, and went at the jump and did close my eyes - nope didn't cheat or peak at all. And the first jump felt incrediable, I have no idea what it actually looked like, but it felt amazing to have to focus on feeling your horse instead of using your eyes. We did this a couple of more times - and now I'm convinced that I can actually ride 3 day event now. Stadium Jumping - well not really an issue, we are working on that, Dressage - again not a problem, we are focussing on that now, and the Eventing phase - well frankly this will be my easiest part. I plan to do this while keeping my eyes closed the entire time! No sight - no fear!
No people I am not going to start cross country eventing - that will happen right after Oz and I try bungie jumping!
But it was an incrediable feeling and something I definately want to try again. But todays lessons were definately defining where I so need improvements, and focus on using other parts of my body. Yes I know this means I have to build up my core strength - yuck this means the gym.... I hate the gym!
Tomorrow is my day to spend with Al, so no riding - instead draggin him to the huge crafts fair, - now if there was just some craft I could make from hay binder twine, and sell it off there. And of course a few stops at some wineries as well - so not a lost day. But we will be trail riding on Tuesday, and I think by then I will have I'm sure another beef to write about. I will try to keep it equine related.
Okay now, please please please - save draft and then save and hopefully upload okay. Did I mention how much I love this computer ?????
So as you can tell, I've been very bad on Ozzys blog. I'm not real happy with the quality of this website, and am thinking maybe I should just focus on the facebook group, as it seems easier to update and add photos to. The photos on here seem to loose their quality.
So I need your feedback Should I either look for a better host or should I just keep to the facebook group and blog on that. Or maybe I should just focus on a blog group. Something like fugly horse does. So I want to know from you all.
Also want you all to know Ozzy is available for commercial shoots, and or store openings and that sort of thing. If your interested give me a call to work out the details. Once the weather changes to warmer, we can also go and visit schools, daycares, nursing/retirement homes.
Today was our first ride of the winter season! The last time I rode was the Saturday before the daylight savings time. We went out on a trail ride with Brianne and Sandra, and it was wonderful. Never would I have had so much fun on a trail ride - which means that it really does come down to how warm you dress and the company you go with. I'm looking forward to this winter, and doing the trail riding to keep Oz in shape. I've committed to riding 3 times a week, although I already broke my committment this week by only riding twice. Thankfully Brianne is wonderful and rode him on our usual Thursday when I had a prior committment to deal with.
We have been focussing on the flat work as of late, only because we are both a bit out of shape, myself more then him. And between me being out of shape and not feeling well lately, we've kept the jumping to nothing. At first I thought this would be boring, but I'm actually getting quite a great sense of enjoyment in riding a well moving, and nicely framed horse. We even worked on shoulder in and shoulder out work - which feels amazing when he does it. And when he's on the bit he feels like riding AIR. We will definately be taking in some dressage shows next year, but won't ever leave our real love of jumping.
Tonight it was dark, cold and raining - and yet, yes wait for it, yes we actually rode in it. Ozzy was not thrilled by any means. And the look on his face when I started to bring out his tack was of 100% utter disbelief. What do you mean we are actually going out in this? I'm warm, in my stall, with my mum and step mum, and with hay.... and you want me to go outside and get WET!!!
Um yeah - I think so.
I did ride in my new horsey rubberboots - which I just love! Except when I'm riding. They fit in the stirrup just perfectly, and are loose enough for me to easily drop my heel down. But to put leg on - well it pinchs and pinchs badly! And folds back onto my shin painfully. But frankly I'm lazy and getting down to change my footwear and then crawl back onto my huge horse was just not going to happen tonight. So I didn't expect wonders tonight - and really only needed to ride for a half hour to be happy with tonights progress. But Ozzy was on his A game again. He had great movement, moved instantly off my leg, and really worked not only his butt but also his brain. And within a short period of time he was steaming and done. What a GREAT boy he is!
We have a lesson tomorrow morning and then maybe plan a trail ride during daylight hours on rememberance day. Guess I should let the others know hey - um Brianne, Kim and Sandra - do you want to ride on Tuesday? We will take some Timmys - or my new addiction, Starbucks Hot Carmel Apple Spice drink! Totally addictive! And probably accounting for why my pants aren't quite fitting.
I will try to blog about our rides -- key word TRY
So for all Ozzys fans - you can probably quit reading now, as I have a grievence to blog about. Well not really a grievence.. well okay sure now that I think about it I actually have two grievences.
The first one is an old one, but as soon as it popped into my head, I remembered how pissed off I was about it. At the last show - which was Topline there was a lady sitting up on the benches that was slagging me and my horse because we couldn't see distances. Now based on your critiquing of me, I doubt very much you're reading this, but should I be so lucky. Listen why don't you get off your fat butt and actually try riding a 2000 lb clydesdale over jumps. Lets not forget both he and I are green, and everything comes with time. And that is what these small shows and schooling shows are for. Do I think I'm ready for Spruce yet - no not YET but it will hopefully happen. But hey seeing as you believe openly enough to flap your lips out loud while others were sitting around you, that you think you can do a better job. Then the offer stands - you try jumping this horse... Its not nearly as easy as we've made it out to seem.
My other grievance is - certified coaches. I have read on our local cities website (Castanet) horsey ads from people I know and have met, and have seen teach and ride - and they claim to be certified. Now frankly most of these individuals should note that there is a huge difference between certified and certifiable! And trust me people you are more of the latter then the first!
If your yelling at a child or even an adult beginner rider - then frankly you shouldn't be coaching. Never forget we pay you! YOU work for US! Unless a rider goes to you and says hey I want to be in the next Olympics then chances are they just want to ride for enjoyment or small shows.
If your students don't wear a helmet, or rides wearing sneakers - then frankly I don't care if you are certified or not - you have no business teaching!
If you're teaching your students that turning the horse left means you crank their face around till it hits the riderin the foot - then again you have no business teaching. Frankly you need to go back and learn some more riding lessons yourself.
Western riding is just as much an art as english riding. And it doesn't mean you park your butt in a saddle and just steer with the horses face.
Okay so I deleted some more opinions as they are so obvious of the people (yes people not person) I'm referring to - its a wee bit close to bitchiness.... although thats really never stopped me before - I must be getting old.
And to all those that see these ads, talk to other people in the horsey world, find out what they have ACTUALLY done, and find out who their old students are and talk with them. Some coaches will do nothing but blow smoke up your butt to convince you that they are the best for you. Remember you are paying for this time - they are not doing you a favor! Now I am not blasting all coaches, because the Okanagan has some fabulous coaches/trainers out there. I have gone through both the good bad and ugly, and now frankly as is obvious on our blog, with the one that I think is the best. But should she ever leave us, which I pray that never happens, there are a few others out there - but not a whole lot.
Now I've grown up with horses, and they have been my life long passion - and my head is usually buried in magazines and books learning more and more about them. (Also a reason why the blog is usually out of date). Having been a hack rider most of my life, and then moving onto a breeder, and now moving on to my current focus - actually enjoying my horse both socially and competitively - I believe I have a great deal of experience with horses. I'm pretty sure I could pass some sort of certification that is out there - but does that mean I'm accomplished enough to teach riding - are you kidding me! Not a chance. This is an art form, and takes years of practice, dedication, education and actual competition. What I'm saying is its just too easy to write on an ad "Certified coach" when in actuality the only thing that they should be coaching is "This is a horse, and this is a llama - and this is the difference.
Now enough with my ranting. I'm going to end this on a good note - Congratulations all you American citizens! Not only did you chose an incrediable president but the next most amazing world leader
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