DefinitelyDressage.com

MsM

I have always insisted on standing still. It has rewarded me now that I am old and my leg sometimes has trouble getting over the cantle! With current horse we have a tall mounting block. Once I convinced him that he didnt need to climb it (pervious "liberty" training!) I taught him to line...

MsM

Exvet, your description of Brandon's attitude made me laugh. It is so much like my Morgan's "bully" behavior!

MsM

It is hard to keep up when riding is intermittent whether due to time, weather, soundness, etc. I know people talk about training for the next level in winter, but I am generally happy if we can just maintain. I have become a cold weather wuss in my old age, so don't ride as often! Exvet, I am to th...

MsM

MY old horse was a bit unpredictably spooky. The joke was that you could fire up a chain saw by him without a spook, but then he will spook at a butterfly. Fortunately, he usually took me with him. Unfortunately he tended to hold onto the tension so the rest of the ride was rarely relaxing. Current ...

MsM

Age hasnt done much good for me. But it seems it has done some good for my horse. For the past three years Alfie has suffered from the Winter Sillies. Excessive energy that I couldnt really tap into under saddle, and amnesia about recent training. I still chuckle over people talking about "walk...

MsM

Yay for Golden Morgans! Coast to Coast!

: Aflie portrait small.jpg (27.17 KiB) Viewed 7169 times

MsM

Hmmm, must have been live only. Isnt on the website now.

MsM

I have only seen sessions with Sabine and George on demand. Guess the others aren't available? I was so glad that rider got that pinto horse through the test. Spooky arena!

MsM

My biggest accomplishment recently has been surviving the holidays! I get a lot of anxiety around them because a lot of bad stuff has happened in that time frame. Not this year. :D I gave Alfie some time off. We had been on and off anyway due to weather, farrier, teeth etc. But I decided to delibera...

MsM

I laughed ruefully seeing the first post. It is winter now, and my horse gets a bit "fizzy" and views walking as too boring. So we have to practice walking calmly! Quite the opposite issue.

MsM

Sounds like I'm not alone in dealing with weather-changing sillies! My mellow summer horse is morphing into a pushy. hyper winter horse! So we spent some time doing work and then walking "calmly" Rinse, repeat. Needed reminders that half-halts are still a thing to be respected and faster i...

MsM

Our big achievement has been finding an instructor to come to the barn to teach me! She is well qualified and so far her methods and philosophies seem to work very well with me and what I have been taught. I got her to ride Alfie for part of the lesson. This was the first time anybody else has ridde...

MsM

Hoping to make some progress this Fall! Through some networking and help from BO, finally found an instructor who will come to the barn. Had an actual lesson last week. :D Although her GPS let her down and it took her a while to find us, we had a productive lesson. She seems to think Alfie is about ...

MsM

Still trying to progress mostly on my own. My instructor used to come back to CT from Fla monthly. Covid threw a wrench into that and I have had 3 lessons in the last 15 months! I am the only semi-serious dressage rider at my barn, so getting someone in for me and maybe one other rider has proven im...

MsM

I am glad to read that I am not the only one perplexed by Bella Rose's super high piaffe scores. Certainly much to like, but often with no sitting. Kind of reminds me of the discussions about Rembrandt many years ago. The quality of the rides was amazing, almost without exception. So nice to see so ...

MsM

My instructor finally ventured North and I got my first lessons since November! My horse, Alfie, didnt seem as thrilled with the idea since he tried a couple of ways to avoid them. First, about 10 days before he came in from turnout with a small cut on his hind leg but definite swelling so that the ...

MsM

How is your dog doing now?

MsM

I remember lessons - vaguely! Since my instructor moved out of state (and then Covid) it has been a struggle to get a lesson. My last was in November, and my next will be in June! :o It is tough when you do not have a dressage instructor at your boarding barn. And being pretty much the only dressage...

MsM

I had Alfie re-evaluated by my vet. (he had an injured DDFT Dec 2018 and Navicular changes per MRI) He has seemed sound since rehab, but I was really nervous. Vet palpated and hoof tested and pronounced him solid like a rock. Then he watched him move and said he is "not just sound but damn good...

MsM

Congrats!
But I will think of him as Potsie! (Watched way too much "Happy Days" in my youth)

MsM

Well, we are progressing. Probably not as fast as we could or as smoothly, but still progressing. I had one lesson in 2020. One! My instructor is based out of Florida. Before Covid she came back North once a month during the warmer months, so I would get 8 or so monthly lessons. I like working on my...

MsM

Congratulations!

If you put him in training, are you close enough to see him a lot? I would definitely want to get to know him on the ground, but I would be concerned about bringing him home and letting him get comfortable only to change everything again in a month at a different place.

MsM

I have a horse with "navicular changes". He was suddenly lame and the vet was coming to the barn the next day anyway. Not reactive to hoof testers, couldn't get a decent block on the foot, but radiographs showed changes. I opted for an MRI to better see what was going on. (By the time we w...

MsM

My goal for the winter was to ride enough that he didnt backslide in training and I didnt lose all my riding muscles. I think we have managed that. For March I hope to solidify his leg yields, and shoulder-ins and to work on his haunches in. Continue to work on self-carriage and listening to the sea...

MsM

It would be nice to deal with a more "normal" (for horse people!) seller. Still, if this one checks your boxes better than the QH, I would grit my teeth and try to find a reasonable way. The seller of my current horse was a bit squirrelly. Even after I thought we had a deal she decided my ...

MsM

Sounds like you have a good feeling with this one! That means a lot. He looks level-headed with all the stuff in the arena and a new rider. I appreciate that more and more as I get older. My guy was six when I got him but super green. (Had barely cantered under saddle) While he travelled with a lowe...

MsM

More stops than starts for me recently. First bitterly cold days and now snow! This is a little of my boy after being inside for just one day... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4OXM8FVz5M

MsM

I dont have a Pivo yet. Current phone isnt good enough! But I do have an old camcorder that I set up in the corner of the arena and catch a lot of my ride (albeit in poor quality). Of course important stuff invariably happens in the "blind" corner :lol: But do you have the experience of th...

MsM

I am a Morgan person. On my second purebred. I like a more cobby, shorter, upheaded horse and (mostly) enjoy the Morgan overachiever personality. Of course, some are dressage-suitable and some are not and they do tend to be too small for really tall people. And there are not as many around as QH or ...

MsM

The gaits in scoring has been an issue since I can remember. I audited part of an L program maybe 20 years ago (one of the earliest ones anyway) and heard the same thing about starting with the gaits score. The justification was first that you needed to use that to separate correctly done movements,...

MsM

Some good ideas in watching this. Unfortunately I OD'd on the visualization stuff. I kept flashing to "The Music Man"

MsM

Modest goals for winter months! My main goal is to ride enough to maintain some training, confirm what he knows, and benefit from practice. I am past the stage of dealing with really arctic temperatures, so I ride when it is not totally frigid. We need to build up strength in canter and consistently...

MsM

Good luck! He looks like a really nice boy. I am impressed by his balance at this stage.

MsM

Yeah, thought of that, but difficult to do that right now as the fence attaches to the open side of the turnout shed (they have separate sides) and we have a foot of snow on top of frozen ground. :( The good news is that the other boarder agreed to trying to let them be together and take that portio...

MsM

Ugh! My horse got tangled up in the electric fence! Tore a large portion down breaking insulators etc, and got some wrapped around a hind leg. So back to the barn last night checking the burn on that leg and consulting with the vet. Then helping the BO try to recreate the fence by cell phone light. ...

MsM

BO finished the footing in the indoor! Base is nice and level now - base and compacted footing were kind of rolling before. Sand is lovely and soft. Needs to settle in, but the horses are handling it well. I particularly like it for my guy's feet and I feel like I can ask for lengthenings without wo...

MsM

Good news and bad news. Good news is that the BO is redoing the footing in the indoor! Bad news is that it is unusable until they finish. And of course once they started we had snow and ice so most of the outdoor ring is unusable as well! My boy does not do well with much time off. Especially in the...

MsM

Thanks all. It sure got complicated!

MsM

As winter sets in, I am daydreaming of warmer times and perhaps getting to a show or two. Some of this is fueled by my instructor's enthusiasm for my horse's talent and potential (me, not as much!) as she (who has her rider gold medal) thinks he can do "really big stuff!: :D This is totally pre...

MsM

Because I have one horse at a time and it is as much pet as it is athletic partner, I found that I just have to look until I find one I "click" with. I pretty much knew the one I wanted, though I twice fought against buying that horse because he didnt check all the boxes (wrong size, or to...

MsM

At this stage it is hard to know how much of a push ride she will be. I thought my horse was going to be a push ride. In fact another buyer passed on him because she couldn't get him forward! Once I got him home and allowed him to go forward, he was quite, um, enthusiastic. (Actually I suspect the t...

MsM

demi - my "video" is totally old school! I got a used camcorder off an internet tag sale group. It records onto a mini DVD. I just set it up in a corner and aim it to cover most of the indoor. Of course there is a corner that is out of view and I have plenty of video in which I can hear bu...

MsM

My first update are some steps forward, some back. :roll: We had some really warm weather which I appreciated but the hairy boy with only a bib clip sweated up quite quickly. I am actually glad to see the sweat as we had an issue with him not sweating last year. I have been getting better about keep...

MsM

A lot of his breeding would be considered "Foundation" but there is a mixture of other lines. I wish I could say that he was the product of thoughtful sport Morgan breeding. Actually he came from a hobby breeder who was overwhelmed with high horse numbers, drought and life changes. (and he...

MsM

Connecticut! Between New York to the south and west, Massachusetts to the north and Rhode Island to the east.

MsM

Okay, first goals! After my lesson I need to work more on suppling and helping his balance. I have some physical issues that I need to work around so I need to work extra hard to stay centered side to side and to sit up (sigh) Its been an ongoing project and improvement is slow with regression when ...

MsM

It worked! His glamour shot:

MsM

Lets see if I mastered this...

MsM

HI! After lurking for quite some time, I decided to take the leap and register. I was a casual poster on UDBB and still am on COTH. I have enjoyed following all the training journeys posted. I am a retired (YAY!) teacher from CT. After losing my old retired Morgan to colic 4 years ago, I thought I w...

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