Cob Jockey

I was already thinking this year I wouldn't do my usual year-in-review on the blog - this was a transitional year full of things that, frankly, make for boring blogging.  Spending as little money as possible on horse things, not showing, over-analyzing biomechanics and hardly going anywhere fun?  I won't make you sit through that a second time!  So I'm joining in Amanda's blog hop.

Favorite Show Picture

PC: Karen

This year was H-A-R-D in a lot of ways.  But we made a great deal of progress, and our second and final show of the season proved that to me.


Favorite Non-Show Picture

PC: Leah

I still have to pinch myself sometimes and remind myself that this really happened.  I'm still so grateful to Karen for including me in her contest winnings.  Sidenote: KPG came back to our area to clinic recently and the prices reminded me I definitely could not have done this if it wasn't for that contest!


Favorite Thing You Bought



Due to my spending freeze, I have a short list of 2018 purchases to choose from.  This saddle was a 2017 purchase, but having it professionally fitted in July is definitely my favorite purchase of 2018.  Especially after discovering Connor is exceptionally hard to fit in a Dressage saddle, seeing how well this one sits on his back now just feels like a miracle to me.


Favorite Moment on Horseback


This whole clinic.  How could it not be?!  This photo is KPG gushing over our shared love of Welsh Cobs.  She may not be competing one in the Olympics, but once a Welsh Cob lover, always a Welsh Cob lover.


Favorite Moment out of the Saddle



Moment?  How about weekend?!  Flying to Colorado with Connor's breeder to meet Erika, and to watch both Castleberrys Dillan and Castleberrys Gavin go in the RMDS Championship show was so amazing.  It was so cool to watch Connor's breeder watch her "kids" go, and and to understand that dreams 15 and 13 years in the making were realized for her that weekend.


Favorite Between the Ears Picture



On one of the last warm fall days this year Connor and I wandered the open field at just the right time of day, just enjoying each other and the warm sunlight and the beautiful surroundings before winter set in.  This picture is my cell phone background now, and I get a little zen every time I look at it.


Favorite Horse Book or Article



It's not a horse article, but nonetheless, Simone Giertz's TED talk had a profound impact on my horse life.  And then shortly after that, Matt Brown's CoTH series dialed in on the same ideas.


Favorite Horse Ridden Aside from Your Own



I only rode one horse that wasn't Connor this year and it was a great one!  Riding JenJ's T in January (then Second Level, now Third Level) was incredibly enlightening and really shaped my whole 2018.  He helped me realize I was as crooked as a pretzel and as tense as a vice, and that sparked a quest to fix all of that, even if I didn't initially understand what was happening.


Favorite Funny Picture of Your Horse



There was LITERALLY NO REASON for this!


Favorite Movement That You Conquered



I wouldn't call mediums 'conquered' yet, but this is the first year in which I actually felt some lengthening at the trot.  Such a simple thing, but so much went into that from a biomechanics, strength, feel, and straightness perspective, it feels like an achievement (in progress).


Favorite Horse Meme



You have to have a sense of humor to own a Welsh cob, as Dr. Marks said so many years ago!

I mentioned yesterday how the biggest takeaway from the clinic was KPG saying "close your outside hand" to me.  I learned something about Connor and something about myself in that moment.


Look, I know that doesn't seem like earth shattering advice, but the way she said it and the timing of when she said it was a huge lightbulb moment for me.


No one has ever said "close your hand" to me before.  To convey the same thing, they've said "half halt in the outside rein", "close your outside rein", "he's drifting to the outside, straighten him out", things like that.


What all those have in common is that they're trying to convey the same thing to me as "close your outside hand" but they're telling me what to do, not how to do it.  When KPG told me both what to do, how to do it and said it at exactly the right time, in that moment I did it correctly, and I felt a huge difference - Connor went from feeling like "warmup Connor" to "working Connor" immediately.

(Or - once again, Dressage is a series of learning "inside leg to outside rein" in new ways 😂)


Looking back on other situations now, it's clear that the way I learn best is someone telling me both what to do and how to do it - which is why I keep asking various people to explain the aids for bringing Connor from a lengthened canter back to working, and no one has given me an explanation that clicks yet.  I get a lot of "use shoulder in" and "use a circle" and "You're really good at that transition in the trot, do the same thing," and that helps but none of it really clicks.


Since then, I've been using the "close your outside hand," with great success.  Turns out I haven't been doing that - I've probably been pulling instead, knowing me.  Pretty cool to have taken something that useful away, and also learned something about the way I learn.

When I walked into the ring with Connor, last of the day, a chorus of "awwww"s went up from the audience and KPG turned around and squealed when she saw him.  I swear she went from professional rider to 10 year old horse crazy girl in a second, it was so cool!

All photos in this post by Leah unless otherwise stated.

"What is he?!" she asked.  "Welsh Cob," I said.  She squealed louder.  "I have a Welsh Cob!  Here let me show you pictures of mine!"


In the end, it meant a lot to have someone that understood the breed teaching us.  Not only because they need a slightly different approach in general, but also because Connor started out the lesson being kind of a twit, and given KPG's experience with the breed, I was totally chill about it.


He was quiet as could be all day, but when I rode him into the covered he started doing his "Connor being ridden in a new place" thing - whinnying, running through my hands, and one short bolt.

KPG is not like any other clinician I've ridden with.  You can tell she does more riding and training than teaching, and that she's pretty far removed from the lower levels of Dressage in terms of knowing the tests.


But that said - none of that mattered one bit.  I loved riding with her and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  It was so cool to see how an Olympian would approach riding and training my horse, and it was also nice to get some validation that our approach is correct.


She started us off on a 20m circle, just a lot of transitions - mostly walk and trot because every time we cantered he got strong and started whinnying.  But she didn't avoid the canter completely, just had me do it in short intervals on a smaller circle.


Once he'd settled down some and had a brief break, we moved on to using the full arena, transitions within gaits, and leg yields off the centerline in both directions.  Up until the leg yields, he was still running through me, and I was pulling against him.


She said she wanted to get him to lift from the base of the neck, and her feedback for me was to sit more deeply in the saddle, and that "with a hot horse, you need to keep your leg on, he needs to learn that your leg isn't going anywhere."


This was about the time I also got my biggest takeaway from the clinic.  We were on the left rein coming into a corner and she told me to "close your outside hand".  I know that seems minor, but it isn't, and I have a whole other post coming about that.


Finally at the end, she asked me if there was anything else I wanted to do.  I said I didn't know, that there's a lot we need help with but it all goes back to what I told her in the beginning and what she understood better than most people: that a lot of my problems stem from the fact that this is a breed historically bred to pull with their front end rather than shift weight onto the hind.


So she asked if we wanted to try half steps.  Neither one of us have ever done anything like that before in our lives - sure!

She had me revisit what we did earlier in the lesson - transitions within the walk, forward walk, slow as you can go walk, forward walk.  When he was suitably slow and I had enough contact to keep him in place, she had me "tap tap" lightly with the whip.

PC: Karen

This was interesting to me, because I've heard other upper level Welsh Cob dressage riders say they need to introduce the half steps to Cobs sooner than most breeds, because until they have them, they don't understand collection or develop a true lengthening.  Whether that's true or not obviously I'm not experienced enough to say, but I thought it was neat that KPG had me do them.


I had no idea what I was looking for in the half steps, but with KPG next to me telling me when to praise him, I developed a feel for it.  It felt like his whole body went up instead of forward for one second.  Not something I'll try without someone like NK next to me anytime soon, but it was really really cool to have tried it!


In the end, this will go down as one of the coolest horse experiences I'll ever have in my life.  Cannot thank Karen enough for giving us the opportunity to do this!

Let me tell you, I've done a good job of keeping my KPG clinic-related crazy off this blog so far, so most of you guys don't know what my brain has been like the past week.

Normally Connor and I have a pretty quiet spring, but not this year!  Connor's going to think he lives on my trailer.

Er, um, what spring?  This was four days ago.

March 31: Off-site lessons with my regular trainer

April 3: KPG clinic

CAN'T WAIT

April 13-14: Heartland schooling show at the HHP (We're doing 2-1)

April 20-21: Found out NK is teaching a two day clinic at a barn an hour and a half north of me that I've never been to before, and signed us up.  She never teaches on weekends normally, so I was all over that.

May 12: IDS Schooling Show (Not sure what we're doing here yet)

Also, Bay area people!  I'm going to be in Palo Alto from June 10-20, which should include one whole weekend and one half weekend (and more than enough time to not be jetlagged this time!).  Would love to catch up with you guys while I'm out there!

When I got to the barn last night, I realized I'd forgotten my bridle at home.  I thought I might lunge instead, and then I saw my mud-covered, hairy, dirty, possibly feral horse:

Who you calling feral?

And remembered suddenly that The Clinic is one week from today.  Honestly with all of this new job stuff, I hadn't forgotten it was coming up, but I had forgotten it was so close.

Ombre highlights?  Nope, just mud on flaxen.

And I thought...maybe taking the night off to do some grooming isn't such a bad idea.

Just...how do they even do this?

Since they'll be in the rest of the week thanks to:

Deeeeeelightful.

I judged that it wasn't a total waste of time to do a first pass on feathers and tail.  So we did that and some mane pulling. 

Unfortunately there's nothing I can do about him looking like a moth-eaten mottled half-seal brown/half chestnut whatever he is right now as his summer coat starts to come in just the tiniest bit:

Or if you DO know of something I can do to make this look better, holla.  Wish he still looked like this:

This was good.

I also started to pull his mane.


It's not the last big grooming we'll do before next week, but we had to start somewhere as we come out of winter hibernation!

I am reeeeeeeally careful about what I put up here.  I don't post pictures of other peoples' animals without their review and permission.  I don't post other peoples' news, and when I do, I get permission.  So I've been sitting on this particular piece of information for so long, I forgot that I never shared it.

You know how Karen won that Dressage Today contest, and one of the prizes was a clinic with an Olympian?  (Let's just revisit the fact that, for once, those contests picked a SERIOUSLY deserving winner, hats off to them!)  She's picked me and Connor as one of the pairs that get to ride in the clinic too!


My first reaction was just total shock and gratitude.  I did not expect to be included and was just awe-struck at the opportunity.  We just don't get clinicians of this caliber in this part of the country, this is a really big deal.

My second reaction was EXTREME EXCITEMENT because the Olympian Karen chose, KPG, took a Welsh Cob Sec. D stallion to PSG:

Getting to ride with this caliber of trainer under any circumstances would be amazing, but one that has worked with your exact off-breed in your exact sport?  Totally awesome.

My third reaction was WOW I'M NOT QUALIFIED FOR THIS.  But man has that been great off-season motivation.  Karen asked me to be in on it in...October? So this whole winter, everything I've done has been with the goal of showing up and looking halfway competent at this clinic.

(No really, every time I think about staying in my warm house instead of getting bundled up to go to the barn and ride, I make myself think about embarrassing myself at this clinic because I didn't put in the work over the winter.  It's fantastic winter motivation, can we all chip in for a big pre-show season clinic every year?)

Me, five seconds before remembering this clinic is less than two months away.

My winter goals have been to fix his stupid long warmup, which I think we've done, and implementing\solidfying all of the other big pieces of info I've gotten from JenJ, NK and my trainer over the last six months - chest up, sitting evenly on my seatbones, following hands, etc.  I want to be really solid in our basics so that we don't spend the whole lesson working on his warmup, for example.

Future Jen says "Put your damn torso forward!"

I'm like 10% nervous and 90% an even mix of grateful and so excited I can hardly take it.  Can't wait!  Thank you, Karen!