Ian Stark Clinic; 16,689 steps to enlightenment by marla

This weekend marked the 13th annual Galway Downs Fundraiser Eventing Clinic.  It was, as always, an amazing experience for riders and spectators alike.

Poor Barkley!

Carolyn and I came down Sunday to watch Scottish eventing guru Ian Stark teach his cross country clinic.  The day started with the typical Galway welcome - high wind gusts strong enough to knock your socks off.  But what's a little free dermabrasion between friends, right?  The first group of riders with Ian, including Hawley Bennett-Awad, did an amazing job.

Jack and Cappa over the brush

Then we were off to watch Cappa and Sherry ride with Gina Economou.  Both riders and ponies brought their "A" game to the party, achieving the quality of canter needed to accomplish their goals.  They ended their session going over a Training oxer and corner.  Woo hoo!!!

Look at the snow!!

Later, Tina had her round with Susan Friend and wow, what a difference a year has made.  Destino looked like a grown up pony, doing his fences straight and right out of stride. Ok, Tina probably had something to do with it but the duo never looked better.  They also ended their session on the Training corner, so kudos to all "eTwisters" all around. 

The star of the day, as always, was the incredible Ian Stark.  The most fun was watching him with his Preliminary group, including our old friend Madison Loving on her dollar horse, Dan. No kidding, he cost a dollar.  They shaved a few tail feathers off the duck in the water complex but overall did an outstanding job.  All of us spectators had several laughs off Mr. Stark, including the moment he told Gina Economou to stop being such a woman and just go.  Or was he talking to the nervous mare she was on, a new partnership that was on their first cross-country go?  His decidedly dry sense of humor and brilliant insights into riding drew a bigger crowd of spectators with every set of jumps he tackled.   The great thing was that the man seems to have infinite patience for helping riders over rough spots, while keeping the session light and stress free as well as just darned funny.

Ian's biggest tip of the day that seemed to be recurring theme in all the groups - ALLOW, ALLOW, ALLOW.  The most gasp inducing jumps came from riders picking too much in front of the fence.  Words of wisdom I hope to use some day when my horse is back to work.

Other trainers who helped make the fundraiser a success included Fredric Bouland, Barb Crabo, Robyn Fisher, Erin Kellerhouse, Debbie Rosen, Alice Sarno, Kim Scheid, Tamie Smith, Sarah Vandenberg, and Wendy Wergeles.  Seriously, if you've never been and you're committed to the sport of eventing, you've got to make effort to come to one or both days of the clinic, either as a rider or an auditor.  It's worth the drive down.  

A special thanks to our friends Larry and Pat Sawyer, who wined us and dined us and let us drink all their Edradour scotch before crashing on their couch the night before.  Being an hour closer definitely made it easier (although not easy after all the wining and dining!) to get to Ian's first clinic at 8am.   Oh, and the 16,689 steps?  That's how many steps we walked during the day to keep up with everyone's rides.  Just saying....

Congrats to the eTwister girls and their ponies for a glorious day!

Moving Day by Marla

Sadly, a few of us had to leave the lovely Day Creek Ranch and head for a barn closer to home.  No, we weren't thrown out for bad behavior :) -- it's just the damn economy.  We needed to bring Junior (Mints) and Reese ('s Pieces) closer so we could assume the mantle of riders and ride our ponies ourselves instead of leaving their care entirely in the hands of our trainer.

The day dawned windy as heck on the other side of the hill, but perfect for our new destination, Lakeview Terrace.  Good omens all around. 

Thanks to the help of good friends, the move went smooth as silk and in short order we were popping the cork and drinking champagne toasts at our new digs.



Sherry, victim of silly horse accident #2 couldn't hobble around to help, resting her foot on a bed of ice instead.  (Hmm, darned convenient timing though, eh?)


The boys fit right in, and in not time Junior (how do you spell that again?  :0)  was cozying up to Reese.

Later, Carolyn thanked all the helpers with a fantastic meal at Sherry's house (ours was geographically inconvenient).  Suffice to say, as at any EWAT event, a good time was had by all. 

Sherry had such a good time, not only did she keep her ankle elevated, she got a chronic case of hiccups.  The cure, as seen here, is a bit dubious unless you have someone to help you hold your ears or plug your nose or some such thing.  Or is this just an excuse for Brent to get crazy with his wife?  :) 

Looking forward to all new adventures from our new barn in 2011!

First Outing of the Year!

Congrats to all the Twisted Eventers who met up at Meadows of Moorpark Equestrian Center on Sunday for a great day of schooling.  Though a little chilly (perhaps I should ask East Coasters if that's true?  :0) the footing was perfect for a fun and - best of all - safe day of cross country.  Kudos to Randee, Tammy and their crew for grooming their new and improved footing to near perfection.  Considering all the rains we've had lately, it was amazing.

Getting there?  Well, that was a whole new adventure but let's just say it only cements the idea that if you aren't sure where you're going, DON'T ASK ME.  I get lost getting out of the back of the trailer, for Pete's sake!  All was well eventually and we even managed to find our way home without (much) incident.

Sadly, my still camera ran out of battery power almost as soon as the horse & rider combos took to the course.  Even worse, I missed the shot of Boy sleeping in the most awkward position in the truck on the way home, but without the sound affect of his snoring it probably isn't the same anyway.

Jimmy Wofford Clinic at 3 Day Ranch

Jimmy Wofford:  "Ride like you’re going to live forever"

Despite some bad weather on Saturday, it was a “double rainbows all the way” kind of weekend at 3 Day Ranch with Sherry, Nahmi and Brent at the Jimmy Wofford clinic.  (If you don’t get the reference, go hit You Tube and then come back to the blog.) It rained, then it was hot, then it was cold, then it got windy… and that was all just by 11:00 the first day!   Still, if you’ve never been to a Jimmy Wofford clinic before, I highly recommend going even if it’s just to audit.  From the very first morning, it was a completely game-changing experience. 

 Jimmy starts every day of his clinics with an hour of lecture beginning with, “Ok, who’s got the first question?” It’s an open forum, although both days once the group started on a particular topic most of the questions were all related to the same topic as we all hungered to learn more details about whatever he was discussing.  For instance, the first day was about training an event horse and rider, the fitness schedules that he’s been successful with for over thirty years, and the techniques he advises to keep our horses sound and sane at any level.  The most effective tool is the calendar, as he drew up an example of how he picks a “destination event” whether it’s Rolex or a Pony Club horse trial, and back times as far as ninety days, planning what the horse will do each day to be prepared for the show.  A lot of walking for the horse is a big part of that plan, and in the process he hates gadgets of any kind for riders but most especially iPods!  Even at the walk we should be communicating with our horses.

Boy being walked by new friend

After possibly too much red wine and a freezing cold, sleepless night in Nahmi’s usually cozy trailer loft, I was perfectly happy to skip the lecture and remain bundled in both hers and my sleeping bags for my first warm moments in what seemed like weeks.  (I’m a wimp about being cold, I admit it.)  But, as luck would have it, nature called and I had to get up anyway so I begrudgingly joined the lecture.  It turned out to be another amazing one, getting through even to my fuzzy brain the importance of rider position for the horse to be able to do his job.  Another fascinating point was the absolute necessity for the horse to be relaxed every time he’s ridden.  For upper level horses to achieve dressage movements, for instance, they must have a relaxed enough back to be able to move correctly.  Otherwise, it’s like trying to touch your toes when your back is too stiff – all you get is a sharp pain in your back and can’t achieve the motion.  Sure, there are times when a putting your heart into a good smack is required, but overall for any horse to be that relaxed, every ride needs to build their confidence and be a good experience. 

“You get the horse you ride”

Watching the riding portions of each day, I didn’t learn so much specific information (that was often given individually to each rider in a way that was often hard for us railbirds to hear) but learned A LOT about how we affect our horses.   For instance, in nearly every group, from Novice to Prelim/Int., there was at least one person whose horse looked hot and explosive as the rider battled to keep their heads lowered and in a relative frame.   Jimmy had those riders turn their reins around in their hands; that is instead of the rein coming up under your ring finger and back out between your thumb and forefinger, the rein came directly in and out between your thumb and forefinger.  In that position, the rider no longer had as much pulling power and guess what?  The horse’s stopped pulling.   The rider in the Novice class even said her horse has never been this soft before.  One rider in the Prelim class rode that way, came off over a fence, got back on and continued to ride that way, seeing marked improvement over the next fences.  My hat was off to her – if I’d have come off, I’d have been tempted to sneak my hands back to the way I was used to riding, but she gamely stuck with it and was rewarded for her efforts. 

That’s the big thing about riding in a Jimmy Wofford clinic; you really need to bring you’re A-game and be willing to do whatever he tells you.  One rider, for instance, stopped doing the exercise Jimmy set up for them to do and by the end of the weekend, they had the least improvement in their riding.  The man’s a legend, for Pete’s sake, why would you spend all that money to get his feedback and then ignore him?  Naturally, both Sherry and Nahmi definitely brought it to the clinic and had amazing rides.  I’m in particular awe of Sherry who rode without complaint with a smashed up knee that she could barely walk on between rides.  If it were me, I’d have put on some kind of bionic man/Mad Max knee brace contraption so that it was clear I was playing injured.  On the other hand, I probably wouldn’t have gotten much sympathy from Jimmy, who in his late 50’s is still an amazing force of nature.  Sherry is definitely tough as nails and is my new hero.  Nahmi rode spectacularly as well, going over some jumps that would have required a change of pants for me.  And she did it all in style on cross-country day, with butterflies flying in formation on her vest and saddle pad as her Halloween costume. 

 

Nahmi gave Mr. Wofford a bottle of Edradour scotch from the “Sapphire Girls” and it was pretty cool to get an e-mail the next day thanking her for the gift (did he not realize it was a bribe?:p) and reported that it was definitely being added to his list of favorite scotches.  The man is undeniably a real gentleman. 

Margie Molloy, owner of 3 Day Ranch, was a fantastic hostess for the weekend.  Breakfast and lunch were included with the clinic and I have to say, the lunches were amazing.  For Saturday night’s dinner, Margie was kind enough to loan us her grill and Brent BBQ’d some awesome steaks while Sherry manned the microwave veggies – ah, nothing like roughing it in a live in trailer!   Nahmi got to deal with her own soy-cutash – don’t ask. 

The facility was just gorgeous, perfectly ridable to most all the fences both days despite the rain.  The range of fences they have to offer on the course designed by David O’Connor is great, with small fences side by side with progressively larger ones asking the same question of horse and rider, allowing both to learn and build their confidence in relative safety.  It would be nicer if it weren’t so hard to get to, but it’s definitely worth making the effort once you’re there.  

The Greg Best Clinic At Flintridge Riding Club

Olympian Greg Best giving advice

It’s amazing to me how much you can learn at a clinic even if you’re just hanging out.  I went to the Greg Best clinic held at the Flintridge Riding Club Oct. 23&24 just to cheer on Cappa and Sherry.  With my pony (and riding) sidelined for the foreseeable future, I wasn’t really looking to learn any great revelations, but it’s interesting how much you absorb if you keep your mouth shut and eyes open.  (That, by the way, is probably not one of the lessons I learned, so don’t count on that happening too often!)




Here’s some of the “Best-isms” that I picked up:

Riding a jump course should be like riding a dressage test with 8 – 12 “elevated steps” along the way.  Each jump should be approached like a movement in a dressage test; if you biff one, get over it and focus on the next movement.  Like a dressage rider, you can make an error on one movement (in our case a jump), but if you focus on doing your job on the next element instead of lamenting about how you screwed up, you can still score a 10 on the next movement.  He also pointed out how the lines and the turns are connected, you can’t just ride the jumps, you have to ride the turns as well, it’s all part of the same dressage test/jump course. 

A rider’s job is to ride straight, with impulsion, and some third thing I forgot.  Hey, it was cold out there, give me a break.  Hopefully Cappa or Sherry will remember.  That’s it.  When he asked the three riders (Cappa, Sherry and a 10-year-old girl who as an obnoxiously good rider and student) what your job is over the fence, there was a lot of hemming and hawing before the most popular answer came up – staying out of the horse’s way.  Makes sense, right? Wrong!  According to Best, your job over the job is exactly the same as your job on the flat and in between fences.  If you have to correct for your horse’s left drift coming up to a fence, that’s still your job over the fence.  Feels like it all relates back to the idea that this is like a dressage test with elevated steps, not a journey tackling one obstacle after another.

Cappa was not so happy to demonstrate how much the shape and consistency of your back, especially your lower back, can influence your riding not just on the flat but over the fence as well.  It also dramatically affects your leg position; the more curled your back, the farther out in front your leg slipped.  According to Best, while a dressage rider wants their butt to stay connected to the saddle, a stadium jumper keeps their back more still, causing the saddle to tap the rider in the butt with the canter rather than keeping their buns in the seat.  (Mind you, that’s my paraphrasing; not his exact explanation but you get the picture.)  Though he did smilingly admit that for an eventer, whose main focus is “to survive” (his words that time) he could understand the need to sit a little deeper in the saddle to a cross-country fence. 

To me, it looked like a very light version of two-point, with your crotch being the point of consistent connection as the horse’s back and your saddle comes up to meet your butt.  By putting an upside down crop through Cappa’s belt so that is smacked her in the face every time her lower back moved, Best demonstrated both how important and how difficult it is to keep your back still.  As always, Cappa endured the torture like a sport!

Best pointed out that your back position is something you can practice while just sitting on the horse, you don’t have to wait to be in motion to work on it.  I’ve taken it one step further, trying to maintain that perfect posture now in the car, mowing the lawn, even while typing this.  And no, I’m not so dedicated that I have a crop hitting me in the face when I lose my position.

An interesting idea Best brought up was that just like when you’re driving a car, you need to slow down around turns.  Like a car, your horse needs that collection to maintain (or re-establish) his balance.  It’s the rider’s job to get the horse to move forward up out of the turn, however.  Gunning them isn’t the answer, much like gunning your car out of a turn is ridiculous, but getting back that forward canter you had before the turn is pretty important as you head towards your next jump (or dressage movement if you want to keep with that analogy.)

Along those lines, Best asked another crowd stumper (ok, except for Carolyn, who gets all these theory questions right) – what should your upper body do as you come out of the corner then?  Most of us went with stay still – wrong!  Best points out that if you lean forward, what does your horse do?  It goes faster.  So a little lean forward will encourage them to move up.  Conversely, a horse slows down if you sit up straighter and taller in the saddle – not if you lean backwards, which only drives them with your seat.  So sit up tall – and by that he actually means sit, have your body connected to your saddle, not hovering over it – to collect in the turn. 

It was a little bit of a mind blower when Best told Cappa and Sherry’s class that he doesn’t really worry too much about changing his speed to adjust for the next fence being a vertical versus and oxer.   Keep the horse straight, keep it moving, and that third thing that I forgot and that’s all you need to do.

Leaving no illusion unshattered, in Michelle’s class Best corrected a rider who looked at her next fence as she went over the one in front of her.  He knows that’s what we’ve all been taught, that’s what Pony Club tells us, but “they’re wrong.”  Again, thinking of a jump course in terms of a dressage test, you don’t see a dressage rider complete a move and then look 100 yards forward, they consciously ride every single stride.  In a jump course, how you ride the turn is just as important as how you ride over the jump (maybe more from some of the riding we saw this weekend) so you have to be looking at where you’re going in the next two strides, not ten away.  He advocates using landmarks when walking and memorizing your jump course, not just learning the jumps in the order they appear.  For instance, from jump #5 go around the corner and at the third tree turn left towards jump #6. 

I was truly impressed with how fast Best was able to get a handle on both horses and riders.  In no short order he pegged Poznan as being lazy and Jack as truly lazy.  Sorry girls, that’s what he said.  He liked them both, don’t get me wrong, but while it’s possible for a horse to have good initiative or bad initiative, Kong and Poppy had “no initiative on the first day and even less on the second day.”  It really didn’t seem all that unusual nor a bad thing in young horses.  Much of that, including Poppy getting over his “butterfly brain” is something that they’ll gain with maturity and training.  Now Cappa’s self-professed butterfly brain, hmmm…..

Apparently, after a week of rain and hand walking, Gordo apparently found his “on” button out in Flintridge’s cross country field.  Michelle bravely agreed when Best suggested removing his bit (holy socks!) and using a very simple English hackamore.  It’s really just a noseband with a place to attach the reins and while it seemed to reduce Gordo’s fussiness, it exposed a whole new steering issue Michelle didn’t even know they had!  Undaunted, she came back the next day with a similar simple hackamore (as opposed to the mechanical one with the long shanks) and had a beautiful go with Gordo over all the fences.  Ok, sure, collecting him back on the downhill line as a little tough, but she got the job done. 

Hats off to Cappa, Sherry and Michelle for great rides.  Kudos to Flintridge as well for a really well run clinic.  Despite the fact that their arena footing had taken a beating from the rain, the footing out on the cross country field was in great shape so they adapted and held the stadium jumping clinic out in the wilds where many of their riders aren’t used to going.  Special shout out to Chris Warner, who was so friendly to everyone during the clinic and kept a nice, warm crackling fire going in Flintridge’s massive fireplace.  Wish we had one of those at Day Creek for the damp winter days ahead!

Most importantly, many thanks to Greg Best for an entertaining and educational experience.  If you want to learn more, go out and buy his videos http://www.horseplaza.com/people/gregbest/index.htm. 

New List of Nicknames for Poznan that came as a result of the clinic:

Scuba – due to love of water. 

Scoobie – because Tina totally ruined Scuba for me – ask her to explain

The Dude – because of his sun bleached tail and surfer dude attitude

The Dude – re: The Big Lebowski (same name, different reason)

Let the name game continue this weekend at the Jimmy Wofford clinic…

Schooling Day at Shepherd Ranch

All the cool kids from Sapphire Eventing went up to Shepherd Ranch yesterday to school the cross country fences as a prep for the upcoming show.  It took 3 trailers (and a little bit of persuasion to get Junior into one) but the group got there in time for what felt like the highest temps of the hottest day of the year.  Still, everyone had loads of fun.  Sherry, LOVE the Aloha pad - I'm voting that as the official barn show pad!

A big "thank you" to Dusti for catering the schooling and taking one for the team when someone left the door open and killed her SUV battery.  Sherry came to the rescue by being one who actually KNEW how to use jumper cables.

Important to note: Barkley cannot be trusted loose on his own.  His spirit of adventure caused him to go missing twice.  At least he didn't eat a tent...

In the first group, Gordo and Michelle E. look good and on their way to a great partnership. Tina & Destino are getting more and more professional - like, been there, done that.  Chris and Prince had some tough rides, but both preserved (my money is always on Chris).  Our adopted German exchange-working student Isa had perhaps the most interesting ride on Vinnie, who returned to his racehorse roots after having not one, but two pasture horses gallop at/past him.  Fortunately she met the challenge with a smile and laugh!

While waiting for their turn, Junior and Poppy amused themselves by taking turns splashing in the water bucket, forcing Sherry to refill it at least four times before it was their turn at cross-country. 

(Is anyone else seeing a pattern here?  Seems like Sherry was doing all the work!  ha ha)

In the second group, Michelle E. was up again, this time on Junior who was a super star!  The new place, the loose horses and of course, being well-hydrated brought him out a little wound up, but from the very first log he jumped you'd have thought he'd done this a hundred times before.  His mummy was very proud!  Michelle C & Jack put on their big girl pants and showed their stuff by going over some Novice jumps with ease.  Each time Sherry & Poppy go out, they just keep getting better and better - it's so exciting to see the baby of the group grow up!  (and Poppy too - ha ha).  Have to say that with Isa giving Louie just a brief warm-up, Madison and Louie were just adorable.  They are turning out to be quite the young event team!

(Evidence that Marla was not there -- no G&T, all business that day!)

click here for more pics

Those who procrastinate...

I bought Jack.  He are big, red, and gud. 

Cappa