Winter Diaries

[Linda Baia]

What type of riding do you do by the way?

 

Right now NONE!  

My 3 1/2 years old son is on holidays. School starts on tuesday hip hip hip HOORAH !!! So this august month I help my trainer with Linda, but I cannot ride as such because I do not have a baby sitter for Olly. Fortunately, at the barn there are lots of children, who play and entertain Olly while I care for Linda. But I am always checking him out. There are more than 50 horses at the yard, an accident can easily happen.

As far I remenber I have always been horse-mad. But our GP said I could not start before I was 10 years old  :(  So I rode when I was 10 in a horse-riding school. It was general english schooling, flatwork, jumping etc.. It was a country-side horse riding school and very low key, so our horses were not great but "sympathiques".  We did not compete

When I was 16 years old my parents finally bought me a horse! A 3 years old French trotter stallion, We had at the school for re-schooling while we built a stable for him at home. He came home, I had him gelded,...and he died of the surgery 3 days later for my Dad's birthday  . I only had him at home 4 weeks! I did not want to do any schooling anymore! So I hacked my friends'horses. Green broken young mare who would pirouette any time a car took us over   and a Anglo-arab mare, who almost killed her beginner owner. The mare was temperemental, but not mean.

Then it was University, I had the time to ride but not the money. Then a job, I had the money but no time to ride. I am now Mum-at -home, so I have the time and my Husband's money   :lol:

I am French, my husband is English and we are living in Italy. Our life is a bit stressfull, Italy is a difficult country to settle down. When we arrived in Italy, I wanted to assimilate the italian culture. Stay at home life is very isolating. So I though of starting riding again. I found a yard in april 2004. It was my life saver. I learnt iatlian faster, and I made some friends.

I rode the school horse for 4 months, then I took a horse on lease, a  6 years old arab polish X QH, who was abandoned by his owner. We re-schooled him english. He was broken western riding at 2 years old, then left in a box for 4 years!!! His owner "sold" him. We did not buy him, my DH did not like him. Then we bought Linda. Suposedly green broken.

We are now training her. I am working with an experienced trainer, her disciplines are endurance and cross-country. So we are developping this strong lower leg!!     I am riding my trainer's TB schoolmaster for lessons.

My goal for me and my horse is to event  at the lowest level and to have fun certainly in 2 years time LOL If we stay in Italy for another 3 years (which is not sure), I would like to buy a second horse for doing endurance and TREC.

What is a bit irritating in Italy is their lack of horse-culture. I am reading, studying anything I can find, but I also need to meet people with experience, hmm which is more difficult! So that is why I am on this board.  :P

Voilà, sorry long post. I will surely ask you more questions in the future. You are very lucky to have a horsey family!!!

 Muriel  

[Linda Baia]

Hi Anna,

Here is another webside having a go on "deep and low".
http://www.allege-ideal.com/
 It seems to be a counter-thinking in dressage. People are more and more voicing their concern on dodgy methods.

I see the same done by reiners, here in Italy. Western riding is quite popular in Italy. And the Italians have good results on world championship.  But it is not nice training. they use twisted wire snaffle. I see horses having their lips cut. They also use "correctional bit with a high port, which acts on the horse's palate... and very long shanks on top draws reins....I often leave the arena side in hurry feeling sick, it really disturbs me, but it is western riding so I feel less "involved" I would be really chocked if it was dressage riders :ouch:

Reining is the equivalent of dressage. Hmmm... I am really not heading into dressage, there is no distinction between the people, who work intelligently and sympathecally with their horse, and the ones who use crude and cruel methods.

A remark on your jumping. You are a more advanced level than me, with more experience. But I find interesting that you say "he starts to take over infront of the jump and choose his own stride, taking off too far back, I have to ride him right to the base of the fence, don't give up and let him do what he wants. "  
  I just read an article in "Horse and Rider UK" which says the reverse. Carolyn Anderson says "Many riders think it is entirely their job to sort out the stride, and become obsessed with getting it right. If they can learn to leave that part to the horse and simply follow him when he takes off, then they'll get a lot more good jumps than bad ones. After all, the horse has a better idea of when he can clear a fence than his rider".
Pippa Funnel in her book on young horses said she had a problem with Supreme rock for jumping      . (Sorry I have lent my book so I cannot be more precise. I will when I get it back) She tried to correct him without success. Then she adapted her riding to him, and they had very good success indeed  
Let me know what you think.

Have fun

Muriel

[Linda Baia]

well done Anna, look you had great fun on your first ODE of the season! Your cheek were very red  :P What was it a bit cold?

Muriel

[Funky MeerKAT]

A remark on your jumping. You are a more advanced level than me, with more experience. But I find interesting that you say "he starts to take over infront of the jump and choose his own stride, taking off too far back, I have to ride him right to the base of the fence, don't give up and let him do what he wants. " 
  I just read an article in "Horse and Rider UK" which says the reverse. Carolyn Anderson says "Many riders think it is entirely their job to sort out the stride, and become obsessed with getting it right. If they can learn to leave that part to the horse and simply follow him when he takes off, then they'll get a lot more good jumps than bad ones. After all, the horse has a better idea of when he can clear a fence than his rider".
Pippa Funnel in her book on young horses said she had a problem with Supreme rock for jumping      . (Sorry I have lent my book so I cannot be more precise. I will when I get it back) She tried to correct him without success. Then she adapted her riding to him, and they had very good success indeed 
Let me know what you think.

Hi Muriel,

Very good point, and I have perhaps not worded that particually well. What I mean is that the horse must stay with you, he must saty driveable and under control. Just like in dressage if he is getting too strong in the hand he is running thru the bit, he is no longer with the rider and he is not 'on the aids'. Same goes if he gets behind the leg, he is no longer with the rider.

Infront of the jump the horse must stay on the aids, he should neither back off nor run thru the hand. When I say that Mate is taking over and choosing his own stride I mean that he is running thru the hand, when this happens he is no longer under my control, I should be able to pull up completly at any stage if I wanted to, but when this happens I don't have a show. Its more a feeling, that I could make a transition right infront of the jump or I could shorten the stride so that I could get say, 5 strides in a line instead of four, or three instead of four. Also, he doesn't know what is coming up in the course, for example if he takes a flying leap into a short double we can get into trouble.

Once he is listening and soft infront of the jumps, then I can start to leave him alone more. That is when you can just set him a rhythm and stay in it allowing him to just take you to the fence without interfering. I read in an article in The Horse Magazine (which I am going to try and find tonight cos it was very good) that you should find the spot for your horse three stridesout from the fence. Just in front of it is too late. You take you horse to just the right spot for you to get three even canter strides keeping the rhythm you are in, and then you just let him canter down to the fence.

This is exactly what I am trying to get with Blackie, he sees a fence and he trys literally to bolt at it, if I hold him in he throws his head and bounces up and down, if I let him go he gallops. So that is what I am trying to straighten out in our pole work, without having a jump to worry about.

So yes I absolutly agree, the rider should do as little as possible, but the horse has to be on the aids first and ready for the rider to take over at any moment.

Anna

[Funky MeerKAT]

well done Anna, look you had great fun on your first ODE of the season! Your cheek were very red  :P What was it a bit cold?

Cold, no. It first of September was spring and it is starting to get very hot!! I am not good in the heat, I'm not looking forward to summer, it is going to be a very hot and dry one!! You should have seen the amount of clothes I had on underneath my jacket, I wasn't prepared for the heat we got!!

[Funky MeerKAT]

Here is another webside having a go on "deep and low".
http://www.allege-ideal.com/
 It seems to be a counter-thinking in dressage. People are more and more voicing their concern on dodgy methods.

I see the same done by reiners, here in Italy. Western riding is quite popular in Italy. And the Italians have good results on world championship.  But it is not nice training. they use twisted wire snaffle. I see horses having their lips cut. They also use "correctional bit with a high port, which acts on the horse's palate... and very long shanks on top draws reins....I often leave the arena side in hurry feeling sick, it really disturbs me, but it is western riding so I feel less "involved" I would be really chocked if it was dressage riders :ouch:

Reining is the equivalent of dressage. Hmmm... I am really not heading into dressage, there is no distinction between the people, who work intelligently and sympathecally with their horse, and the ones who use crude and cruel methods.

Very interesting web site. Did you see the article I wrote up in my blog, 'Dressage Torture'? I too see horses being worked very deep and round, I cringe every time. It is a method used by some of our top riders in NZ and is somewhat of a fashion around the world to work the horse very deep to get him very 'over his back'.

[Linda Baia]

Did you see the article I wrote up in my blog, 'Dressage Torture'? I too see horses being worked very deep and round, I cringe every time. It is a method used by some of our top riders in NZ and is somewhat of a fashion around the world to work the horse very deep to get him very 'over his back'.

Yes I have read it! I think it is a fashion to work "deep and low". On another forum there are two thread of argument about "rolhkur". A German lady translated a article from a german mag. Really interesting.

http://chronicleforums.com/groupee/forums/...911/m/269204527

http://chronicleforums.com/groupee/forums/...911/m/179204527

http://chronicleforums.com/groupee/forums/...911/m/190205527

The threads are long but very interesting.

Thank you for the feedback about jumping   It is always enlightening to learn how you work your horses.
How old were you when you started riding?

Have fun.

Muriel