Circle Right 20 Meters

Remember that girth I mentioned watching on ebay. It was nice, leather, used, but after I got outbid 2 times I decided I didnt like that the elastic on the buckles was white. I much preferred the black that I was seeing on most other girths. So I let it go. But I really needed to get something in soon so I went back to all my usual websites and looked at the options I wanted (roller buckles, elastic on at least one end and most importantly comes in 22") and came across some high end leather ones that had buckle guards. The light bulb goes off- "hey that would hide my billet straps that are so faded and ugly looking until I can get them replaced!" But to the tune of $150 on up it wasnt happening. Really my budget was about $40. I really didnt need leather altho I wasnt sure if leather was required at shows (I know in AHA huntseat you have to have a leather girth). So I expanded my ebay search and found this:

Its a used leather Schleese in a 22 with buckle guards, but the BIN price was $85. Right now I couldnt swing that even with what I had in PP. So I gave up on the idea and figured I would have to just get something somewhere in neoprene wether it hid the ugly billets or not. I found a perfect one on a company site, at least I could tuck the extra strap into the girth sleeve, but it was out of stock until the end of July. Then I just gave up for the night.

I also have another hobby, it also can be expensive (though I am often on the hunt for excellent pieces at a bargain price and dont get to add much to the collection these days). But I do sell and trade pieces on occassion and I happened to make a small sale that put just under $50 in my paypal account. The first thing I did was run to ebay and look at this girth. It was still there, ending in about 12 hours, and it DID have the "or best offer" on it. Now I dont take pride in lowballing and I dont always appreciate it when people lowball me but it all depends on how desperate a person is for a sale. I usually take them, at least on used tack. I know Schleese is quality expensive stuff, but no one has done the BIN yet,its ending before too long and the market for a 22" girth has got to be small. Soooo I did it, I put in an offer of $45. I figured what the heck, if the dont take it they dont take it. And then I went to bed.

I forgot about it this morning until around 11 am I got an email from ebay saying congrats you bought this item. WOOHOO! Paid for it right away (had to take just over $7 from checking to cover the difference with shipping) and within minutes it was marked SHIPPED! UPS ground should get it here by mid next week? (no tracking number at the moment)

I wish I had it tomorrow as its looking to be an awesome day for a trail ride. I can use my 24 if I throw on another pad maybe. I dont want it moving around too much and making her back sore. Or I could go back to my trailer and lug out the Tucker Endurance saddle with cushy seat and stirrup pads that I keep getting tempted to sell....

Working Trot Rising at M

So now the real work starts, our first official dressage lesson. I recently moved her to a barn that has a dressage trainer that comes in for a couple people for lessons. Its very rare to find someone who will travel around like that so you dont have to be at an official dressage barn (which somehow raises the price of board automatically) with a trainer there full time (wether you take lessons or not). I was able to observe lessons a couple times over the last 6 months and I very much liked her style. Explains things well, is good at what she does and does a ton of POSITIVE reinforcement. Shes been fairly booked but one of the boarders horses has been lame so she was able to fit me in, for a while at least. Not sure whats going to happen going forward.

So the day before I rode in our new saddle for I think only the second time (darn pleasure shows getting in the way). She was an aboslute PILL until I got fed up and got a crop. All she has to do is SEE it and we are good, but sometimes it makes her a little too hyper just knowing I'm carrying it, so I dont do it very often. I think she has some residual halter training whip fears from before I had her. (Except for when I show her in halter, she damn near falls asleep she so doesnt care, thankfully she wins on the merits of her good looks and confirmation instead of how wild eyed and snorty she gets). So that combined with our somewhat remaining cantering issues had me telling our trainer prior to the lesson how BAD we were going to be. Especially since we hadnt taken a lesson of any sort in many years. I was sure I was a complete mess, that she was discombobulated somewhere and we were going to be told in no uncertain terms that we sucked. After all the last year of hunt pleasure hadnt been going so well, tho the new saddle is helping some this year.

So we start off just walking the whole arena, little bit of trotting, just so she can do a quick eval on us before we get serious. Then asks us to start trotting circles around her. Now trotting nice circles has ALWAYS been a problem, they tend to be more like OVALs or get cut in somewhere. I also warned her of this. I started off trotting, unfortunately, in whats usually our worse direction, clockwise. It wasnt long before she had us stop and adjust a few things. First off my saddle was shifting, Diva is a PRO at blowing up as Im cinching up and always do it in increments and again in the arena, but really I need a shorter girth. I knew that, do you know how hard it is to find a 22! I have one on ebay right now Im watching but finding one locally, not so easy. Besides that I needed to get my elbows away from my sides which is more the norm for our huntseat classes, and forward but still bent and take up on the reins instead. Beyond that, its a matter of my biggest bad habit, looking down. I know I do it, I try, but when Im riding all by myself and so concerned with where her head is (this all started in western pleasure), its really really hard to break that. Once we changed those little things and made sure I was not leaning in to the circle, wallah, suddenly we could do mostly decent circles! (yep always the rider, never the horse). So we trotted and we trotted and we changed directions and trotted some more (much better in that direction anyway). Other than a short walk break or 2 I swear we trotted for an hour! We both were a bit out of shape for that :) But Diva behaved very well, unlike the day before, and proved me a liar.

So everything is going very well surprisingly and shes just loving Diva and how she moves. She has a couple other Arabs in lessons at other barns but she said Diva has the most sport horse potential of all of them. So we are getting to the end of our lesson and Im thinking good, she wont ask for a canter this first time. WRONG! I said ok, but it isnt going to be pretty. I turned around so we could start with our better direction. Well Diva had to go prove me a liar again and did the best canter shes ever done with a snaffle. Trainer says, what are you talking about thats great! Little stinker just has to keep me on my toes doesnt she, never know what to expect from day to day.

So the trainer loves her, said no problem showing in August and that I led her to believe we were going to be just awful when we are far from it! It was a great lesson!

Track Right at C

One other thing I was going to need was a new helmet. Show clothes are not required so Im good there but my velvet hunt cap with no harness probably wasnt going to fly. Well a while back thanks to http://www.behindthebitblog.com/ I found out about http://www.riders4helmets.com/ and a giveaway of 36 helmets (and some silly little thing called an Ipad2, who needs that!). So I submitted my name, along with over 3500 other people!  I then totally forgot about it until one Friday afternoon I got an envelope in the mail with a certificate good for one IRH helmet, shipping included. http://www.riders4helmets.com/?p=3542. HOLY COW I never win anything and out of SOOOO many entries. The certificate expired in a mere week and a half so I had to act fast. I got ahold of International Riding Helmets and picked out my helmet and size and a week later it arrived.

Its the Elite Xtreme in a 7 long oval and it fits! Plus it has lots of vents which will be nice since I sweat and the show is in August! I need to got a photo taken of us using it to send back to Riders 4 Helmets yet.

Medium Walk between X & C

Start slow? heck no! We dive right in and have a show to go to in August even though we just had our first official lesson. Coming from a hunter pleasure world we had a good head start so I wasnt too worried, except for one simple little thing.

da da dum....The snaffle bit

I know I know, what could be the problem with a innocuous little thing like a mild snaffle bit? In huntseat pleasure we use a kimberwick because she tends to get pretty strong in the show ring. She was initially trained western in a bosal so snaffles were pretty mild to her and while walk/trot was fine, cantering was a whole 'nother story. I know that a horse that goes well with a mere snaffle is worth its weight in gold but this was going to take a lot of work. Knowing what she does and doesnt like for western and english bits I went with the french link like the above example, probably the mildest of the mild. Ive worked on this off and on (more off than on) over the last couple years really, thinking someday maybe we would do dressage. But not seriously until the last few months, even then I spent far more time on getting ready for huntseat shows this spring. I dont like to use training aids such as martingales or anything else I cant rely on in the ring. After all if I cant get her to listen to my aids at home, how on earth am I going to do it in a hectic show environment!

But how was I going to get her to behave at the canter? I figured I would just have to stick to intro level classes in August that have no cantering in them. Ive never been bucked off or otherwise fallen off Diva in the 6 years I have owned her. She has small spooks on occasion, but never bucked, yet she had me worried with this behavior (which was not at all present when using the kimberwick). I figured I would have to wait until getting lessons to figure out how to get past this issue until I bought bargain item #2.

Your generic lower level dressage bridle with white padding and a flash noseband. I will admit this is not a top quality dressage bridle, which is against my cheap but not cheap quality policy, but I had ebay bucks that were about to expire.  Enough to nearly pay for it entirely (thats what happens when you buy 4 saddles off ebay within 3 months. I bought her a better fitting hunt saddle as she has muscled up more over the years, first one didnt fit, sold it, second one did, just like with the dresssage saddles. Apparently second times the charm with us) You wouldnt really know by looking at it, its supple and it fits, not super thick leather or anything, so what if it leaves black dye on my hands on occasion.

Anyway, the first time I used it on her, WALLA! Canter misbehavior gone. Apparently she was just evading the bit and the flash acts more like her familiar curb chain. Shes not entirely perfect yet but is safe and controllable again, phew!

Enter at A

First we did this:

 

Then we added in a little of that:

and then we though we would try this:

and lo and behold we liked it better than western.


And we did well, for several years and were happy, but both of us being restless beings and needing to be challenged I thought "hey, lets try Dressage next!"
Oh no says my checkbook, not another whole new set of tack and clothes! After all how many saddles do you NEED for one horse*?
LOTS says I, but fear not checkbook for I am bargain hunter supreme!

First saddle we tried was too narrow and did not fit me comfortably either so back up for sale it went. Meanwhile many nice saddles were sold that would have been perfect, seemingly at least. But as a fortune cookie fortune recently told me "No need to worry! You will always have everything you need." And while it doesnt always feel like it (just ask my checkbook) things do seem to fall into place when needed. I sold the ill fitting saddle and rushed over to ebay to see what was available at my low bargain price (not low quality mind you, I dont waste my money on junk).

and lo and behold look what I found, a discontinued model Thornhill Lemond Pro Trainer. Not only did I snag it for a super bargain price of $350 plus shipping, its fits her well and is super comfortable for me also. We even took it out for a trail ride and survived!

Stay tuned for a report of our first Dressage lesson (heck our first lesson of ANY kind in years, yep doing it all by myself most of the time and on a very small budget, just call me the Frugal Dressage Diva :) )

*apparently 4 at minimum