Cob Jockey

I'm so glad I did the second Mary clinic this year.  In May, my first time riding with her, I got two private lessons because the clinic didn't fill, and it was absolutely an overwhelming amount of feedback.  If the second clinic had been like that, it would have been hard.  But it wasn't like that at all, and it wasn't just because I was in the more normal semi-private rides this time.

This time, she gave me a LOT of compliments for my improvement since May.  If you remember in May, she was almost apologetic, was somewhat reluctant to get after me as much as I needed it, and wished it wasn't my first exposure to her methods.  I get the feeling she's taken some heat in the past from riders who were angry and embarrassed the first time they rode with her, which is a shame.

If you know me IRL, you know my torso is much less box shaped than it looks right here, which is a great thing because it means my bear down is strong.  Yes I'm crooked, but I've figured out something big in relation to that since then, and that's a post for another day.

This time around, she had piles of compliments for me - about how much more organized we were, how much better I was at controlling the tempo, how "overall you've done a great job", how I was using my suction cup seat even though she hadn't covered that with me yet, and more.  She also called me and CGP the only two high tone riders in the clinic and said everyone else needed more tone.  That's not always a good thing depending on which type of horse you're riding, but I'll take it anyway.

The walk we got immediately after she asked me to slow the tempo of the walk with my seat

I don't live for external validation, but man, I couldn't have been happier if she had given me an actual ribbon.  These past couple of years have been such a struggle biomechanically, I'm going to keep that "well done, you" in my head for a long time to come.

Some of my main problems now are:
- My right foot moves a lot when I post (but my left one doesn't)
- When I go to put weight in my thighs, I put it into my knee more than anywhere
- When I go to put weight in my thighs, I tighten my glutes because I have a hard time separating those muscles

Mary with her hand under my butt trying to help me find my seatbones.  If you aren't comfortable being touched more or less literally anywhere, this isn't the clinic for you.  She has no chill about it, in the best possible way.

- Posting too hard and too fast (which means I've overcorrected from where I was in May, so that's not a bad thing but it does need to be fixed now)

Mary describing how I was posting, and what the chewing gum image should do to fix it (see next section)

- Not keeping my back "edge" on the saddle in the canter

Describing back edge in the canter (before I've even cantered for her, she gave me a bunch of positional cues just based on how I rode at walk and trot)

Some of the cues she used to fix the above on the first day are:
- Lengthened my stirrups three (half) holes.  Remember this is the first time I've ridden for her in this saddle.
- At posting trot: making sure my knee points down and my thigh rotates over my knee, to avoid making the rise by pushing into my heel
- The criss cross laces I mentioned in my previous post
- Hooking two fingers under one side of my gullet and using them to snug the opposite thigh into the saddle properly
- Thinking about my knees being connected to a steel bar going between them that prevents them from pinching
- Thinking whether I can feel my seatbones on the saddle or not
- Thinking about posting with wads of chewing gum on the saddle that make strings to slow my rise and draw his back up slightly with me.  But this does NOT mean I should do an "incomplete windshield wiper" and not make it all the way up like I used to.  Same rise, slower.


Also - we have graduated to cantering with Mary!  If you remember, we only walked and trotted in May.  On this first day we didn't mess with it much, beyond talking about needing to get my back edge down.  She said my bear down is stronger in canter than trot. 

I'm annoyed with how much less my hands move in canter than walk and trot after reviewing the video - hence the head nod.

It's been a heavy couple of days around here, how about we end the week with something funny?

MW is the furthest thing from someone who wears her heart on her sleeve.  She's all business, all the time.  But even though she'd never admit it, she seems to have a soft spot for the only UK-native breed equine in our clinics.


She'd snuggle his head every now and then, and talk to him about Wales.  Brits seem to have an animosity-in-jest relationship with the Welsh, and the way she talked about him and to him was hysterical.  Enjoy a few MW Welsh jokes!

MW: "A good Welsh Cob spends Monday through Friday herding sheep on mountains, building stone walls, all that kind of thing.  Saturday, takes the farmer and his family to market.  Sunday, takes everybody in the cart to church, brings them back home.  And then the farmer goes off to the pub, and the pony waits outside, and then somebody loads the farmer drunk into the cart and then the pony brings him home.  And that's a good Welsh Cob."  (I want to get that embroidered on something 😂)

MW, to the clinic attendees who had just asked what breed Connor is: "Welsh Cobs are trotters.  They trot off with you most of the time." [clinic attendees laugh]

MW: "The Welsh people are missing out, they really need to start marketing the 'Welsh Warmblood'"

MW to Connor: "[Cincinnati] isn't really your scene is it?  You need a few more mountains."
Me: "And a few drunk Welshmen?"
MW, laughing: "And a few drunk Welshmen, yes."

There's a lot you get out of riding with MW.  There's the obvious - thighs of steel and being in better harmony with your horse's movement - and the less obvious - the communication framework, and learning how to learn.

Part of what makes Mary's methods so successful is that she not only uses images and language that make sense to the rider, she also makes that communication structure standardized and repeatable, because unlike most clinicians, she also has a series of clinics in which she teaches trainers how to teach.


A lot of her images are designed to build on each other.  So for example, in my first clinic with her last May, I heard "weight in your thighs, make a wall with your stomach and push your guts against the wall, lean into my push" and several other things on repeat over three days.

Last weekend, I heard simple phrases that combined the first clinic's images together, like "remember your laces", which stood for "imagine there's a string zig zagging from side to side starting at your abs and going down past your bikini line to 2/3rds of the way down your thighs, like a corset, and you can pull on the string to tighten it".  The "laces" trigger reminds me to do several things she taught me in May with a single phrase, because I've internalized the first set of images.

This is how you learn - you internalize the A-F concepts, and then you get a G and an H to work on, and you keep internalizing and learning down the alphabet.  She had a good metaphor about how people learn riding that made me feel better about myself and I suspect I'm not the only one, so I'll share it here.

Mary telling Connor the Cincinnati geography isn't his scene, and asking him if he misses the mountains of Wales 😂

A naturally talented rider (let's call her Charlotte for no reason at all 😁) might be born innately knowing the A-G skills - the second she sits on a horse she accidentally does the basics correctly, so she never had to struggle through learning them.  So by age 15 or 16 Charlotte's already working on K and L, and then quickly she gets to Y.

But when a less naturally talented rider (let's call her Jen) asks Charlotte how to do X, Charlotte can't break it down as deeply as Jen needs her to in order to understand it, because half of Charlotte's recipe for X is "be born knowing A-G", which is a recipe ingredient Jen will never possess.

So Jen thinks X is this mysterious movement that she'll never master because she's a bad rider/not smart/a slow learner/etc, when at least part of the problem is that Charlotte isn't explaining X in a way that someone at Jen's point in the alphabet would understand.  (And side note, that explains why I can't get a straight first toolkit answer when I ask upper level riders things like "how to ask for collected canter").


I wasn't even gifted the letter "A" at birth, and have had to scrap and struggle for every letter I've learned.  This is why, as grateful as I am for being included in Karen's clinic and as cool as it was to ride with an Olympian, I have to admit KPG wasn't nearly as effective with my lesson as she was with Karen's.   KPG is one of those naturally gifted riders who, I suspect, has not had to teach many lower level riders yet.

So it's not that I'm a bad rider or slow learner, but it IS that I'm not a naturally talented rider and that's important for me to understand.  That needs to inform who I choose to ride with; there are instructors out there that will start too far down the alphabet for me to get anything out of riding with them.


This is part of the reason CGP - who has been riding with Mary for 10 years - has been so effective with me, and it's also part of the reason I've had a great lesson with my own trainer since the Mary clinic, which she attended with me.

My trainer can now say things like "Remember when Mary talked about the water wheel..." and jump a whole bunch of alphabet letters with me, and likewise, I'm also much more capable of articulating back to her what I'm feeling - something that Kate can attest I have not always been good at.  But my lessons now are a constant flow back and forth of feedback and communications, and they're better for it.


I'll leave you with one final anecdote that illustrates why this communication stuff is so important.  There was a trainer riding in the clinic this time, riding with Mary for the first time, who made some great positional changes, but when Mary asked "How is this different from your old position?", the rider kept saying variations on "It's different." And Mary would reiterate, "But HOW is it different?" and started to get frustrated after several awkward minutes of this, back and forth.

Finally Mary said, "It's great that you made these changes in your position, but all this is for nothing if you can't articulate what's different.  You will go back to riding the way you were before."  Basically - nothing sticks until you understand it enough to describe the change out loud.  And that nails it for me - in addition to helping me make the physical changes, she's also given me a language for them, and that has made all the difference in actually helping it to stick.

Me five months ago - I have since sold every single piece of tack he's wearing except the polos, the pad and the irons, lol

When we last left off on my Dressage saddle search, CWD had agreed to make a demo saddle to my exact specifications way back in June, on the same tree as my jump saddle, with a forward flap and as small of a knee roll/pad as I could get.

It arrived the week of my birthday in early October, and I had visions of writing the check to give myself a new saddle for my birthday.  And...







It was gorgeous.  But it was a total miss.

It didn't feel like my jump saddle at all, and it was significantly out of balance.  The rep told me after it arrived that the trees in the 2019's are all new and are made out of a mix of carbon fiber and wood (even the non-2GS) and it's possible that the new trees fit differently from the old trees.

But instead of recommending that I adjust my panel numbers accordingly, I was taken quite literally in my request to give me a Dressage saddle just like my jump saddle, and they took my old panel numbers and put them on the 2019 tree, which resulted in the wrong fit.


We shimmed it, and that improved the feeling I got that I was being thrown forward in it, but I still had to fight for my balance.  Former A+ CWD saddle fitter best friend Mary came out to look at it, and ultimately decided that the biggest issue is that it's fighting my 45 degree Mary Wanless thigh.  Even though it's a forward flap and a minimal knee roll (according to CWD anyway!) my knee is squashed up against the knee roll, and that's throwing me off balance.

Smallest and shortest block they make on this model.  I had asked if I could get the thigh block from the deep seat model, and they said no

Best Friend Mary decided what we would need to do is replace the pro panel with a standard panel, and remove the knee rolls entirely. But...I'm not sure I want to do that.  I started with CWD because if they had managed to do what I asked, I would've signed away any amount of money.  That jump saddle is a magical unicorn that makes everything I do in it easy.  But they did not deliver on my ask (although I have to admit they've been super accommodating in wanting to make it work for me), and that makes me want to see what else is out there.

Mmmmm, not yet broken in buffalo

What I want in a Dressage saddle isn't popular right now, and I've never in my life sat in a Dressage saddle that fit me.  When I asked MW to expand on her comment about what makes a Dressage saddle diabolical, she did, and then she said "I'm sorry to have to say this, but with your body type, you're not going to find anything off the rack that works for you."  So it's just all around not going to be easy, and I'm increasingly positive CWD doesn't have the capability to accommodate my body type and my riding style combined.


So I've decided my next step is to try everything I can get my hands on (which is not a long list in Indiana).  In order, I have Stubben, County, Custom, Patrick Saddlery/Kate Ballard and Eq Saddle Science/Reactor Panel scheduled over the next month.  Some of those brands I'm almost positive I won't end up with, but I'm serious about trying everything I can.  Let the games begin!

As usual, Mary Wanless was amazing.  And as usual, it's going to take me some time to process and sort through my thoughts.  So in the meantime...

I made it, guys.  I made it without clipping until the third week of October.  The last two years I've had to clip the first week of October due to summer hanging on indefinitely.  Not so this year.  We've had a more or less normal fall, aside from being stupendously dry.






I waffled a LOT about how to clip him this year.  I've been having these nagging thoughts about clipping - about how I can't find hardly any published research on it, about how all of our current clipping styles are based on how people used horses 150 years ago and not actual science, about how there might be a better way to clip that looks weird but is better for the horse that we just don't know about yet.

In the end though, I A) couldn't find any research, B) didn't want to swim upstream, and C) concede that I'll be riding for more people than just my own trainer this winter and he should probably look socially acceptable.  Plus D), he's never had a problem with his hunter clip, even down to -12 F.  So I did my usual.

"You have no imagination, lady"

One thing I did differently - I wet clipped.  I've done this once before as an experiment and the results were good.  This time, I wet clipped because I clipped on a weeknight and I didn't have time to let him dry between the bath and the clip.  When you wet clip, you clip with them REALLY wet, like, just a step above soaking wet.

Them dapples

Pros of Wet Clipping

• The whole process start-to-finish takes about an hour less because you skip that whole "drying" part
• The hair doesn't blow around and doesn't get on you quite as much
• It seems to leave less lines?  The two times I've done it it's been with blades that had a few clips on them, and it still came out looking great.  YMMV.
• My Lister Star blades don't get hot at all with wet clipping.  Just warm.

Cons of Wet Clipping

• What hair does get on you is NEVER COMING OFF.  IT IS PLASTERED TO YOUR BODY.  But it's also less itchy.  Until it dries.  And then it's normal itchy.
• What hair lands on the floor is going to be next to impossible to sweep up
• Your clippers need to be powerful and sharp
• It needs to be warm enough that your horse doesn't die of exposure while you do it
• It's less satisfying.  Hear me out.  I find dry clipping oddly fascinating and soothing, the way the hair tumbles away beneath the blades.  I don't get that satisfaction from wet clipping.

Looks like a lot less hair when it's wet

You may think I don't prefer wet clipping since the cons list is longer, but overall, I think I prefer it.  You can't go wrong with either method, but wet clipping is so much faster, and my time is scarcer and scarcer with each passing clipping season.  It took me 90 minutes from pulling up to the barn to being done with clipping, and that included a full shampoo + rinse + condition + rinse.

Anyone ever tried wet clipping before?

I hauled out a day early for the Mary Wanless clinic so that I could take my second lesson with CGP.  In my last lesson, she rocked my world.  In this lesson, she rocked Connor’s world.

Connor: “...she’s going to do WHAT?!”

Right off the bat, she commented on my hands.  “They are SO much better than last month, big change!”  All month, I continued to use those loops off and on to remind my brain that my hands and elbows need to move.  That change has STUCK, and it was great to get that confirmation from her.

The TL;DR for the bulk of the lesson was “He’s no longer allowed to lean forward over his chest and he has to respect the bit every step he takes for the rest of his life, end of story.”  Also we made HUGE improvements in the c-w!!!

From the moment he walked off from the halt, she pushed us to be better.  He leaned over his chest to walk off, and she had me issue a series of short, sharp, fast, upward half halts on the reins to get his attention and get him off his forehand.  They were given alternating as each foreleg was in the air, with care taken to not make it a see-saw motion.  “You need to be fast with your aids,” she said a lot.

Cooling out on their 1/4 mile gallop track.  I constantly see people riding out here, which is impressive for a Dressage barn!

At the same time, we also slowed the walk down and brought his mass over his hind end.  “Like we want him to be rectangle-shaped instead of rhombus-shaped?” I asked, and she said “Yeeessss,” in a mildly skeptical way that I read as “Where did you learn that...” #bloggerpower #sorrymegancantfigureouthowtolinkpostsonbloggeripad

For the entire lesson, Connor never got the easy way out.  He was never - even for a second - allowed to lean on me.  Those annoying half halts happened if he did.  He was never allowed to tune the bit out, I was to communicate with whisper quiet aids and wake him up if he didn’t pay attention.  He wasn’t allowed to rein back at hyperspeed with his weight on his forehand.  And he wasn’t allowed to barrel over his chest like a bowling ball running downhill.  “This horse needs to live in a world where a down transition could happen at any moment.”

Cares more about snacks than down transitions

And I don’t mean to say she was unfair to him.  It’s just that I let him get away with all this, consciously or otherwise, and I have to stop that if we’re going to progress.  So she helped me lay down the law, but was equally good at helping me release and praise at the right moments to release some steam.  At one point, she actually walked alongside us with a whip and tapped his chest if he rolled forward through me - and you know Connor hated that - but even still she knew just when to back off.

Then we cantered.  And guys.  This is where the power of laying down the law became clear.  When I’ve gotten a c-w transition in the past, it’s usually on accident, and even when he does it, his front end slams hard into the ground.  But today, we got FOUR crystal clear, delicate, soft, butter smooth, easy canter-walk transitions, out of a canter that was one of the most uphill I’d ever ridden.  And a bunch more transitions that were “almost” there in one form or another, but still WAY better than my usual.

Taken 0.5 seconds before he dropped out from under me in a huge cat crouch spook because...fall?  IDK

We’d pick it up out of a self-carried walk with his mass over his hind end, and at first, I asked for it with a bunch of those annoying upward half halts.  She explained it as: “He’s ignoring you, and those half halts make it annoying for him to ignore you and to continue cantering.  We want to give him a reason to pay attention and avoid you being annoying.”

It was amazing how quickly Connor figured it out, and I was able to decrease the annoyingness of my aids accordingly.  You listen, I’m less annoying, that’s the deal.

I have a feeling we just learned a really important lesson.  Hopefully this one sticks as well as the last one!  Mary tomorrow!

Twas the week before Mary Wanless and all through the barn, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Yeah that's not right at all.  We're busting our asses over here guys 😂

Connor and his mini-me

It's been six months since I last rode with Mary, and it feels a little bit like I'm in college about to have a final exam leading up to my second clinic with her at the end of this week.

Yes of course I've been showing up to all my classes and doing a lot of homework over the last six months, but I also know I've let some things slide, and I need to cram.

Mary DGAF about ribbons!

So I've been reading her books, which is interesting because SO much of my last lesson with CGP was straight out of the part of Ride With Your Mind Essentials I hadn't gotten to yet, and it was great to get more of a deep dive, off-the-horse explanation of what she taught me.

I've also been doing position hacks out in the field, where I focus almost entirely on what my own body is doing and only ask him to do transitions on big figures.  I'm also planning on riding with my weight belt on Wednesday of this week, and I have a lesson booked with CGP on Thursday, since we'll be at her facility Friday-Sunday for the clinic anyway.  What's one more night of hotel?

Fingers crossed we win the completely-non-existent-made-up Most Improved Award!  And holler if you live in range of Cincinnati and want to come audit!

In addition to trying out all the gear I reviewed this week, I did actually show my horse at the horse show, and it was the absolute best we've ever done 2-1.  And even though the whole point of Dressage is that it'll never be perfect, I am so proud of it.

THIS has changed a lot!

It was the first time we didn't get against each other halfway through the test.  It was the first time we've both stayed relaxed and present.  I actually had the presence of mind to think "Damn, this is the best 2-1 we've ever done" as I finished the first counter canter here:






We may have stayed relaxed, but I also rode hard.  The first thing my trainer said afterward was, "I just watched that entire test with a huge smile on my face.  That was a HUGE improvement!  You rode that with conviction !" And one of her other students said, "You made that look so easy."  That comment meant a lot, because 2-1 did feel easy, for the first time ever.

When I had to basically pick him up and carry him through the counter canter in the tough direction

What was different?  A couple of things.  My trainer warmed us up, which rarely happens, and she did an outstanding job of it.  She has a knack for knowing exactly what the horse needs in the moment, and it was an exceptionally effective warmup.

Relaxed!

I also had CGP's lesson ringing in the back of my mind, and kept my elbows soft and the contact following through most of the test.  I got a little stiff in the canter work, but did a great job with it elsewhere.  I also had a better idea of how to sit in my jump saddle for maximum Dressage position effectiveness.

Perfect?  No.  But believe me when I say this is the best medium walk out of the halt/reinback we've ever gotten.

And, it just felt like progress.  We're better than we were in April.  We've learned things.  And because we're showing, we have this objective measurement in addition to the glowing feeling I came out of the ring with after that test.  68.919%!  A high score by nearly 5%.  It's a fantastic feeling to head into the offseason with.  And it's exactly the reason I show even though I'm not motivated by awards or regionals or anything like that.  Measurable progress!

Check out how straight his tail is after his bodywork - he's carried it to the left the whole time I've known him

Three years ago I left this show feeling dejected, because nothing had changed over the season and I knew I wasn't riding well but I didn't know exactly what was wrong or how to fix it.  Ending on this note this year after all the progress we've made was just so gratifying.  I'm sure some people will look at it as "She's only gone from 1-3 to 2-1 in three years,"and that's totally fair, but there's a whole lot more to the story than that.


Looking forward to really putting in the work over the winter and seeing where we are in the spring!

My old horse show garment bag was the last thing that wasn't working about my show setup.  It was an eBay score probably made in the 1980s that hung so far down on me, even folded in half, it made it hard for me to walk.  When I found myself actively trying to avoid using it, I knew it wasn't working for me anymore. So I replaced it with a convertible garment duffel:

There are straps at the bottom to keep your clothes taut so they don't fall down and wrinkle.

 As well as a side pocket meant for shoes, where I keep my stock tie:


 And a couple of inner pockets where I put things like stock tie pins:


As an unexpected bonus, it's the perfect size to store my tall boots inside as well, making it a single grab-and-go bag for all my show clothes.  Any taller than me though and this won't work for you!


The only thing I wish it had was a hook for hanging.  I could solve that pretty easily with a carabiner through the handle though, or by getting dressed with it hanging in my trailer's dressing room depending on how close I'm parked to my stall.



Bottom Line:  Necessary?  Not entirely.  Improvement to my show life?  Definitely.  Knowing all my show clothes are kept in one place in an easy-to-carry bag is a major de-stressor when packing for shows.  Grab and go!

What: Convertible Garment Bag with Shoulder Strap, Modoker Carry on Garment Duffel Bag for Men Women - 2 in 1 Hanging Suitcase Suit Travel Bags
Price: Currently $40.99 with coupon, I paid $32.99 during an Amazon lightning deal
Where to Buy: Amazon

Told you it's product review week.  Although to be fair I've made all these purchases over the past two months so it's not like I just dropped a bunch of $$ all at once!

Pretty quickly after I started shopping for a stepstool replacement, I knew I was going to end up with something "extra".

I'm very short, so I need all the height I can get, but none of the stepstools were doing it for me.  The tallest ones were A-frame which meant I wouldn't be able to get as close to the horse as I wanted to, and the non-A frame ones weren't as tall as I wanted.

So I turned to the home improvement section.

Pony for scale

I ended up with an aluminum work platform.  It's just a smidge taller than a 2 step mounting block at nearly 20" tall, 31" wide and 12" deep, and has a rung on both sides so that you can get onto it easily.  It also folds nearly flat, has a nice carry handle, weighs only 11lbs, and hangs nicely on my gridwall.

Things a mounting block can't do

Of course it made things like hanging my fan easier (and safer), but it also made my braids come out nicer.




The #1 rule of Dutch braids is that you always braid up toward the sky, because that makes the braids sit on top of the neck rather than against it.  The 20" tall walkboard made it easy to get way above Connor in order to do that (YMMV on a full-sized horse, of course).

And - since the walkboard is long as his neck, I didn't have to get down and reposition it every two braids like I did with my old stool.






In addition to all of the above, it also made a great mounting block, table and foot rest.  It was nice to have a flat surface off the ground where I could throw things, and I had several people walk by it at the show and murmur to each other what a good idea it was.

World's Tiniest Horse Trailer next to some normal-sized trailers

Shown next to a haybale for scale

The only downside to this is the price.  At $62.99 I felt it was steep, but justified it by how much I'd use it even outside of shows.  And that's definitely been true, so far I've used it for painting at home, for washing the horse trailer and for all kinds of grooming situations at the barn.  There are cheaper ones, but the reviews weren't as good, so I went with this one.

Bottom Line: If you're a shorty like me, this is a great multi-purpose option to replace your mounting block/braiding ladder/table at shows, and you'll probably find other uses for it around the house and barn too.

What: Finether Aluminum Work Platform Drywall Step Up Folding Work Bench
Price: $62.99
Where to Buy: Amazon