Daily Quotes to help inspire you

My Dad use to always say;

“The horse can do all the movements but we are the ones who have trouble communicating with the horse.

He also said the horse only asks for Food and shelter in return for all we ask of them.

George Morris said,
“The greatest reward you can give your horse is good riding!”

Saturday ride on Catalina

My ride on Catalina this past Saturday was the best ride I’ve ever had on her.

She was very relaxed and was much more willing to flex and relax the neck muscles as well as use her back.

Her halts are improving and when I halt and ask her to flex she no longer wants to back up.

Carole had given me some exercises to do before the Shannon Peters clinic and Shannon gave me more exercises along the same lines which were very helpful.
Now that Catalina is understanding to follow the reins better and also to yield the leg in a more relaxed way it’s time to move on to more excersises.

I’ll be working with Carole again next week to begin the next step of doing more transitions and teaching Catalina to use her back more.

As her halts get perfected the turn on the forehand will get better as well.
I had already started turn on the forehand before the Shannon Peters clinic but she was critical of me doing the movement when Catalina was not on the bit.

In light of that I have been working on simple halts and flexion, and now Catalina understands that light contact and flexion does not mean to back up.

Catalina will make her first outing off the farm at the end of July in the Debbie McDonald clinic.

Thursday ride on Catalina

Catalina was really good today

She has been staying in the main barn more lately and getting use to less turn out.
Last year and the beginning of this year she was a bit too fresh and nervous when not living outside, but she is getting better all the time about being inside and also being well behaved.
She is trained to the hot walker now and seems to except changes in her routine better.

Our next goal is to prepare her as best I can for the clinic with Debbie McDonald at the end of July.
I think this will be a good outing for her.

I want her to see the world this year without the pressure of showing.

I’m going to apply for the Stephan Peters symposium; but I’m not sure if they will be needing a 4 year old.
That symposium is the weekend before our Annual Dressage Retreat.

I’m also going to be riding Catalina in the dressage retreat and am really looking forward to allowing Catalina to get use to the activity of all the people during the retreat.

She is a really level headed young horse but very sensitive and spirited.

She is slowly accepting the contact more and getting better on m y leg.

She is also getting use to staying more concentrated when distractions happen like my son running in the ring and the dogs coming in and out.

She has always been good about people and other horses; in fact she seems to like that.

If the rain ever stops I’ll get her outside on a regular basis and do my video needed for the application for the Steffen Peters symposium

Look for updates and video on Catalina working outside when we get an improvement in the weather.

August Dressage Retreat

Look for more writings on the dressage retreat.
I would like my readers to know the details of the clinic.
Horses can arrive Friday anytime.
If riders would like to arrive earlier they can make arrangements with Tonya to do so.
Some riders may  like to come in early and take a few lessons from carole or tonya to prepare for the clinic.

You may research Mette Rosencrantz and Susan Harris if you are not familiar with them.

My in hand work is good for any age or level horse and is designed around what the horse needs.

Saturday night will be a dinner and movie clip and demo in the indoor arena.
We will have soda water and food. Riders and auditors may bring their own drinks if they desire alcohol of any kind.

we will feed horses and clean stalls saturday and sunday included in the fee of $850
each rider will work with Tonya one time and have one lesson by each trainer per/day.
So the horses go to the ring 2 times a day
Riders and weekend package auditors will work out in the early morning with fitness instructor Lisa Wolfe.

We will also do night check at 9:00 each night.

We have space to hook up 2 campers if anyone needs on site camp hook up please call Tonya

There is also a camp ground 1 mile down the road and many hotels in the area.

For hotels check Fenton or Hartland area.

we only have 3 riding spots left but will start a waiting list if needed.
Also we have a lot of room for auditors so auditors may  pay at the door however for our dinner and demo we request that you please send in your form and check so we can plan for seating and food.
We usually save about 5 extra seats for walk in dinner tickets.

Hope to see you all there; this could be our best year.

Happy riding and learning, Tonya

Funny Quotes from my parents

My mom once said
"It takes 3 life times to learn to ride dressage"
My take on that is that you better enjoy the ride.
The path to success is much more enjoyable if we remember to stop and enjoy the small accomplishments.
many small improvements in one's riding lead to big changes.

Carole Grant Funny Quotes:

"That has nothing to do with Dressage"
"Stop screwing the saddle!"
Chuck Grant funny quote:
"You can do it like that if you want; but it won't work"

FUTURE CLINICS AT EQUISTRIDE INTERNATIONAL

FOR ALL INTERESTED I AM TRYING TO GET ONE MORE DATE FOR THIS YEAR AND ONE DATE FOR NEXT YEAR FROM SHANNON PETERS.
SHE IS HOPING TO MAKE THE OLYMPIC TEAM NEXT YEAR MAKING HER SCHEDULE A BIT UNCERTAIN BUT I AM WORKING ON A DATE AND WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW AS SOON AS I CAN GET ONE.

WE ENJOYED SHANNON VERY MUCH AND LOOK FORWARD TO HAVING HER BACK

ALSO STAY TUNED FOR NEWS ON A CAROLE GRANT CLINIC AT EQUISTRIDE INTERNATIONAL
WHILE MANY PEOPLE IN THIS AREA RIDE WITH CAROLE WE RARELY GET THE CHANCE TO GET TOGETHER ON THE SAME DAYS AND SEE EACH OTHERS LESSONS
I'M PROPOSING A TWO DAY CLINIC WITH CAROLE AT EQUISTRIDE TO NOT ONLY GET GREAT LESSONS FROM CAROLE BUT ALSO LEARN FROM EACH OTHER BY WATCHING OTHER  PEOPLES LESSONS

Short term goals for Catalina

Catalina and I are now preparing to get comfortable with more contact and connection and also get comfortable outside.
I'm looking forward to more training with my mom in the next month and my goal will be to get Catalina stronger and more connected for the next clinic with Debbie McDonald.

I am also planning to ride catalina with Susan Harris in the dressage retreat in August

Please stay posted for more news on Catalina;

Our 2 year olds will be starting to have saddles put on next week.
I like to get them use to the saddle in free lunging first and then introduce the bridle; so between now and August we'll get them use to the equiptment as well as more daily barn activities

More about the Shannon Peters Clinic

Shannon Peters worked on each rider’s position throughout the clinic

The theme was rider position being perfect first and foremost and then teaching the riders to get their horses looser through the shoulders in half pass and all lateral work.

Shannon pointed out that many riders make the mistake of trying to fix the position of the haunches before positioning the shoulders.

Some riders were critised for giving too many aids to the horse at the same time therefore making what the rider wanted unclear to the horse. Shannon described many aids at the same time as being like “white noise to the horse”

She mentioned pointing the inside toe toward the marker in half pass work. This was something I had never heard of before but I’m looking forward to trying it.

I will say that it did improve the half pass when the riders did this; however I would point out to my readers that they must be well versed at leg position to do this without mistakenly putting the spur in the horse as that was not the intension Shannon had.

Shannon used a long whip and put it upright at the back of the saddle and allowed the riders at halt to lean back against it.

She was trying to get the riders to use their back and core to resist being pulled out of the tack and loosening their seat.  As a teacher I found this to be a useful tool.

Shannon used the long line with one horse with the rider on his back which was wonderful to watch.

This should never be attempted by someone who is not well versed in long line work as it could put the rider in a bad spot, however Shannon was very confident and knew what she was doing. She used this excersise to stabilize the rider and horse on the outside rein and stabilized the rider’s position.

Several times Shannon came behind horses with the whip. Again this should never be done by someone who does not have good timing and respect for the horse. Shannon was able to help the horses from the ground for more jump in the canter and some passage and piaffe work.

Shannon kept on one subject until both horse and rider achieved the goal. She kept everything simple and pure and there was no flash and dance just correct classical teaching always fixing the rider before the horse.

Shannon Peters Clinic

I had a great lesson today on my 4 year old mare Catalina
There was a lot going on and she handled it really well.
Shannon worked on my position to help straighten her and influence her to better bend around the corners.
She dropped my shoulders and elbows and had me turn my belly button toward the turn using my outside leg to help her come through the bend.
It's important for people not to misread this and think they should turn there whole body toward the turn.
Your hips should always remain straight with the inner hip forward however the upper body apart from your hips and seat may turn in toward the inside.
The mare responded very well.
Shannon was quick to add the mare must release the muscles in the neck and i i will be working on asking Catalina to except more flextion without backing up.
This can be done from the ground or with someone on the ground helping me because from halt when i ask for flextion she wants to back  up
(quite normal for a young horse)

i learned a lot and have many more notes to take tomorrow
I"ll share with you more tips from the more advanced lessons tomorrow.

Time to get outside

                   First Day outside with my 4 year old

Catalina’s first day outside went very well.
We did take her outside last year as a 3 year old, but have kept most of her training inside.

Yesterday I lunged her outside in our arena and she was very good.
I will begin riding her outside this week.

Keep in mind we only have a show ring set up so there is no “real fence “ in our outdoor which means we need to go slow with the babies in the outdoor.

We have many deer, coyotes, and cows near by the ring which is great atmosphere for all horses but they need to get used to it.

We also had a new motorcycle track put up on our neighbor’s property which surrounds our property and is not far from the outdoor, making yet another challenge for young horses.

However I feel lucky to have all this atmosphere right at home to help prepare my young horses for the “real world” meaning horse shows.

Everything can be used as a training tool if one is patient and persistent, giving horses the time they need to handle new things both mentally and physically.

I always work on my young horse’s minds before making anything to difficult physically.

Just like when you go to the gym and are lifting weights or doing a new aerobic move, it’s important to learn to do the move correctly before adding weight and it’s important to also teach the aerobic move in a slow way before making it quicker.

The same holds true for training our horses.

They must understand what to do with their bodies and how to do it, so we do exercises to help the young horse have “body awareness”

Cross training young horses with jumping is a great way of doing that as well as ground work such as jogging, reining back  and high school work such as bowing.

If you are not a jump rider or do not have access to a good jump rider; free jumping works just as well to teach the horse about their body.

Without body control and mind body awareness the horse will never be truly trained.
This is the difference between “riding the horse” and “training “the horse.

My Dad always said “The horse can do all the movements; we are the ones who have trouble communicating with the horse”

Catalina

I had two great lessons with my mom Carole last week.

I've spent the last year really working on Catalina's mind as she is very sensitive and started out as a 3 year old on the hot side.

Now she is ready to begin building her body muscles up and except more aids for straightening and using her back.

I was given a good classical exercise for her and she is already starting to come through her back better.

In rising trot i turn to the quarter line with my inside rein and leg sending her a bit forward.

I then turn back to the wall with my outside rein and leg toward B or E

When I get back to the wall I begin a 12 meter circle sending her forward with a following inside rein through the circle.

Upon returning to the track I regain my outside rein and go straight.

In direction right since she falls on her right shoulder too much I need to put gentle weight on her right hind leg and then ask her to follow the outside rein (left rein) and enlarge the circle many times.

As she begins to follow the reins better she loosens her middle part of her body and begins to stretch.

Carole said she must use her back to become straight as she is naturally quite crooked.

However i can't stress enough when we are teaching a young horse to use their back the trainer must NEVER force this or force the head of the horse down as this causes at best the horse to go on the forehand and worst to feel pain through the back and top line.

Remember in the end the horse should LOVE to go to the ring and LOVE their work or we have failed in our training.