What I've been up to
Aug. 20th, 2010 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
goddessfarmerTamarack HIll Farm adult Eventing camp. aka Camp Denny
This was my second year attending this camp. Last year, I somehow managed to have time to write about my daily experiences on the evening of the day they happened. Not so, this year. This year, it was get back to my lodging past 9 pm every night and collapse into bed. The really short form for this year was that camp was fun and just challenging enough. Having established a good working relationship with Sue since last year's camp, I was able to get affirmation that I'm going in the right direction despite my recent lack of lessons, and work on some much needed details that had been missing from the overall picture on the flat. As usual, Denny doesn't have much to say about my jumping except that I need to have more confidence. From that confidence will come better use of my leg toward the jumps. The theme with Denny is "go do it." Practice. Nervous for Show Jumping - go to Jumper shows. Nervous for Dressage - go to Dressage shows. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Sunday nights arrival: I did manage to arrive before dark, for which I am grateful. Skip came off the trailer and was happy to get into his stall and have dinner. I ended up being about a half-hour late for my dinner, but I didn't miss the opening remarks by Denny and Sue. Denny commented on the difference between "lessons" and a "clinic." It was made clear that we were here for the latter. He was going to be teaching to the group, and bringing together ideas, concepts and riding skills for all of us to learn both as we were riding and as we watched the other groups. The question posed to us by Denny was "what do you want to get out of this week?" Several items were presented, and Denny took them as a whole and quoted Jack LeGoff as saying that the three most important things a rider needs are "a good seat, a good seat, and a good seat." He did not intend to have us ride without stirrups, but implored us all to go home and do so. His emphasis was on becoming one with the horse. Lofty goal, that. How do we get there? Practice.
Monday was a day of two rides. Before that, Skippy had the opportunity for some turnout. He rolled a lot and then proceeded to run around bucking as high and twisty as he could. I suspect that he was trying to crack his back. When he finally settled, he realized there wasn't much to eat in there, and stood at the gate waiting for me to bring him in. In the morning I rode in a jump set. I jumped pretty well, for the most part only having to do each exercise once. It was a 'feel good' lesson, except for the small problem of my boots. A couple days before leaving, my good boots had broken, and although I did manage replacements, they were not very broken in yet, and quite tight around the calf. It rained on our set, which I think helped break in the boots a bit more quickly because by the next time I used them (Wednesday) they worked much better. Our lunch demo was Denny riding his current Training level horse, Union Station, over some jumps. He demonstrated correct use of the half-halt in taking a horse who is galloping between jumps to a could spring ready to go over one. This was a lesson repeated many, many times during the week. Denny calls it "cocking the pistol." After lunch I had my flat lesson with Sue. Skip was all loose still, and as such was very good. I asked Sue about some issues I'm going to be presented with in the test for my competition this coming Sunday and then practiced the counter canter. She pointed me in a useful direction to working the skills I'll need if he breaks or swaps leads during the test. We worked canter -> walk -> canter being very careful to choose the lead, and sometime picking up counter canter and sometimes true. Skip needed to be through and listening to me for this. He is much more through than he was, but it's still not great. He was listening this time though and we had some pretty nice work. After my riding, I drove to West Lebanon NH to take my broken boot to a cobbler. Our Monday night speakers were Ann Kitchel, the owner of Huntington Farm and breeder of Oldenberg horses, and Mo Swanson and Holly Simensen, Oldenberg breed inspectors. They talked a lot about how stallions are chosen as approved and what kind of horses were allowed. They were very enthusiastic and discussed the history of horse breeding in Germany and the US at length.
Tuesday was Cross Country day. I watched The first morning set, and then spent time tending Skippy for grazing and turnout. This time he was very quiet in the turnout. Our lunch lecture was given by Pinky Han, who used to be a professional show groom, on grooming for shows. She demonstrated tail pulling, some different braid types and how to make a quartermark. It wasn't anything new to me, but a lot of folk gained new information. My cross country ride was very positive. Not every jump was perfect, but a lot of it was good. Denny was concerned about jumping a pair of really narrow chevrons without flags or any sort of wings on them, and I pointed out that we had jumped them that way last year. So he made me go first. They were fine. The next person to go, who is a significantly more experienced and higher level rider than I am actually had his horse run out at the second on the first try. There's no accounting for horses. We got to do some really extreme downhill jumping, which was something I needed to practice, but did very well. One of the drops was like dropping off into space because after the drop the ground continued to slope down pretty steeply. That was fun and reminiscent of fox hunting (coyote actually) out in Colorado on the eastern plains where there were lots of big drops into sandy and/or wet gullies. I also got to jump the irish bank again, which had made me so nervous last year, but was quite fun this year. The evening speaker was Martha Cooke, of Trafalgar Square Publishing, a publisher of horse how-to books. She talked about the history of the company; how they started because Sally Swift needed a publisher for Centered Riding. She talked a little about the publishing process, and then discussed some upcoming projects. All of this discussion and dinner was held around a bonfire. The warmth of the fire was quite welcome before we got done with the discussion as the evenings have been quite cool. Good sleeping weather.
Wednesday was my personal worst-riding day. Our jump plan for the day was a pre-set course that we would each jump at the height we wanted. I wanted to be a little challenged. We had a good warm up but then failed at the first fence on the course. I stayed on, but there was a tense few seconds of sending rails flying and straddling some barrels. It seemed like forever, but when I watched the video it happened really fast. I remember seeing the rails between Skippy's legs and thinking that I could, in that instant, choose to stay on, or come off. I decided that the effort of staying on would be less painful than landing in the mess of rails and barrels. The cause of all this was not having my leg on enough coming to the jump combined with a bad take of spot from which Skip could not jump the fence. So Denny lowered all the jumps, and schooled me some more, and then we went and jumped around pretty well. Not great, but ok. Later in the morning we had another dressage lesson. Sue watched me ride my dressage test for this weekend, gave me pointers, and I rode it again in a much improved fashion. I need to remember thumbs up and hands together, don't loose the outside aids around the 10 meter 1/2 circles. These are really basic concepts, but for the Preliminary tests if I fail at them it's really obvious. Over the past two days I'd been having some pretty serious allergy problems. Having forgotten my Clarinex, I drove down to W. Lebanon and attempted to get my prescription transferred. That took all afternoon and I barely got back in time for evening feeding. It was worth the time, because now I could breathe. Our evening speaker was Jim Gornall, a TD and course designer. There was a lot of discussion between him and Denny on the evolution of courses over the years and some visits to the way-back machine. It was really cool. Something I didn't know and found surprising was that in Stadium Jumping, the jumps can be up to 2 7/8" over maximum height and 4" over the maximum width to account to variability in the jumps. The TD (Technical Delegate) has final say over all the jumps and arenas and really most of the competition. That's the person who is there with the rule book to make sure they are followed properly. The topic came around to safety and if the sport has gotten less or more safe over the years and some of the reasons for the increase of rotational falls at the higher levels. The reasons are far too many and complex to go into here, but include types of jumps, complexity of combinations of jumps, the demise of the long-format, horse breeding, over-regulation, and rider experience. An interesting point he made as an observer of riders at events is that most of them don't look like athletes. People who are less fit overall are less able to withstand a fall. There are ways to train for falling too, and most riders don't consider learning it. As Denny stressed over and over again during camp, practice and training and more practice and cross-training. It's important to do the cardiovascular work and resistance (weight) training (which I do, but maybe not enough).
Thursday was our last day with 1/2 day of riding and videos and photos at lunch. I had a short jump school with Sue to get my confidence back over the larger jumps that I will have to Jump on Sunday. I think that the pressure of having Denny watching really affects my riding, and not in a good way. Sue did make an adjustment to my stirrup length today that made a big difference, in addition to not feeling so pressured. It's funny with Sue, because she pretty much read my mind about what I wanted to do which was to ride a couple 3-4 jump courses at Preliminary height (3'7"). So she set them up and I went over them. No problem. I like having that kind of a rapport with an instructor. At lunch I got to see the video of my crash from the day before. Yes, everything came down, but it didn't look nearly as bed as it felt. This convinces me even more that the cause was 75% nerves. After lunch, I packed up everything and Skippy and moved him down to the place I've been staying, which is right next door to Huntington Farm, where I will be competing on Sunday. Skip got some good turnout this evening and is well settled in with his new friends.
This was my second year attending this camp. Last year, I somehow managed to have time to write about my daily experiences on the evening of the day they happened. Not so, this year. This year, it was get back to my lodging past 9 pm every night and collapse into bed. The really short form for this year was that camp was fun and just challenging enough. Having established a good working relationship with Sue since last year's camp, I was able to get affirmation that I'm going in the right direction despite my recent lack of lessons, and work on some much needed details that had been missing from the overall picture on the flat. As usual, Denny doesn't have much to say about my jumping except that I need to have more confidence. From that confidence will come better use of my leg toward the jumps. The theme with Denny is "go do it." Practice. Nervous for Show Jumping - go to Jumper shows. Nervous for Dressage - go to Dressage shows. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Sunday nights arrival: I did manage to arrive before dark, for which I am grateful. Skip came off the trailer and was happy to get into his stall and have dinner. I ended up being about a half-hour late for my dinner, but I didn't miss the opening remarks by Denny and Sue. Denny commented on the difference between "lessons" and a "clinic." It was made clear that we were here for the latter. He was going to be teaching to the group, and bringing together ideas, concepts and riding skills for all of us to learn both as we were riding and as we watched the other groups. The question posed to us by Denny was "what do you want to get out of this week?" Several items were presented, and Denny took them as a whole and quoted Jack LeGoff as saying that the three most important things a rider needs are "a good seat, a good seat, and a good seat." He did not intend to have us ride without stirrups, but implored us all to go home and do so. His emphasis was on becoming one with the horse. Lofty goal, that. How do we get there? Practice.
Monday was a day of two rides. Before that, Skippy had the opportunity for some turnout. He rolled a lot and then proceeded to run around bucking as high and twisty as he could. I suspect that he was trying to crack his back. When he finally settled, he realized there wasn't much to eat in there, and stood at the gate waiting for me to bring him in. In the morning I rode in a jump set. I jumped pretty well, for the most part only having to do each exercise once. It was a 'feel good' lesson, except for the small problem of my boots. A couple days before leaving, my good boots had broken, and although I did manage replacements, they were not very broken in yet, and quite tight around the calf. It rained on our set, which I think helped break in the boots a bit more quickly because by the next time I used them (Wednesday) they worked much better. Our lunch demo was Denny riding his current Training level horse, Union Station, over some jumps. He demonstrated correct use of the half-halt in taking a horse who is galloping between jumps to a could spring ready to go over one. This was a lesson repeated many, many times during the week. Denny calls it "cocking the pistol." After lunch I had my flat lesson with Sue. Skip was all loose still, and as such was very good. I asked Sue about some issues I'm going to be presented with in the test for my competition this coming Sunday and then practiced the counter canter. She pointed me in a useful direction to working the skills I'll need if he breaks or swaps leads during the test. We worked canter -> walk -> canter being very careful to choose the lead, and sometime picking up counter canter and sometimes true. Skip needed to be through and listening to me for this. He is much more through than he was, but it's still not great. He was listening this time though and we had some pretty nice work. After my riding, I drove to West Lebanon NH to take my broken boot to a cobbler. Our Monday night speakers were Ann Kitchel, the owner of Huntington Farm and breeder of Oldenberg horses, and Mo Swanson and Holly Simensen, Oldenberg breed inspectors. They talked a lot about how stallions are chosen as approved and what kind of horses were allowed. They were very enthusiastic and discussed the history of horse breeding in Germany and the US at length.
Tuesday was Cross Country day. I watched The first morning set, and then spent time tending Skippy for grazing and turnout. This time he was very quiet in the turnout. Our lunch lecture was given by Pinky Han, who used to be a professional show groom, on grooming for shows. She demonstrated tail pulling, some different braid types and how to make a quartermark. It wasn't anything new to me, but a lot of folk gained new information. My cross country ride was very positive. Not every jump was perfect, but a lot of it was good. Denny was concerned about jumping a pair of really narrow chevrons without flags or any sort of wings on them, and I pointed out that we had jumped them that way last year. So he made me go first. They were fine. The next person to go, who is a significantly more experienced and higher level rider than I am actually had his horse run out at the second on the first try. There's no accounting for horses. We got to do some really extreme downhill jumping, which was something I needed to practice, but did very well. One of the drops was like dropping off into space because after the drop the ground continued to slope down pretty steeply. That was fun and reminiscent of fox hunting (coyote actually) out in Colorado on the eastern plains where there were lots of big drops into sandy and/or wet gullies. I also got to jump the irish bank again, which had made me so nervous last year, but was quite fun this year. The evening speaker was Martha Cooke, of Trafalgar Square Publishing, a publisher of horse how-to books. She talked about the history of the company; how they started because Sally Swift needed a publisher for Centered Riding. She talked a little about the publishing process, and then discussed some upcoming projects. All of this discussion and dinner was held around a bonfire. The warmth of the fire was quite welcome before we got done with the discussion as the evenings have been quite cool. Good sleeping weather.
Wednesday was my personal worst-riding day. Our jump plan for the day was a pre-set course that we would each jump at the height we wanted. I wanted to be a little challenged. We had a good warm up but then failed at the first fence on the course. I stayed on, but there was a tense few seconds of sending rails flying and straddling some barrels. It seemed like forever, but when I watched the video it happened really fast. I remember seeing the rails between Skippy's legs and thinking that I could, in that instant, choose to stay on, or come off. I decided that the effort of staying on would be less painful than landing in the mess of rails and barrels. The cause of all this was not having my leg on enough coming to the jump combined with a bad take of spot from which Skip could not jump the fence. So Denny lowered all the jumps, and schooled me some more, and then we went and jumped around pretty well. Not great, but ok. Later in the morning we had another dressage lesson. Sue watched me ride my dressage test for this weekend, gave me pointers, and I rode it again in a much improved fashion. I need to remember thumbs up and hands together, don't loose the outside aids around the 10 meter 1/2 circles. These are really basic concepts, but for the Preliminary tests if I fail at them it's really obvious. Over the past two days I'd been having some pretty serious allergy problems. Having forgotten my Clarinex, I drove down to W. Lebanon and attempted to get my prescription transferred. That took all afternoon and I barely got back in time for evening feeding. It was worth the time, because now I could breathe. Our evening speaker was Jim Gornall, a TD and course designer. There was a lot of discussion between him and Denny on the evolution of courses over the years and some visits to the way-back machine. It was really cool. Something I didn't know and found surprising was that in Stadium Jumping, the jumps can be up to 2 7/8" over maximum height and 4" over the maximum width to account to variability in the jumps. The TD (Technical Delegate) has final say over all the jumps and arenas and really most of the competition. That's the person who is there with the rule book to make sure they are followed properly. The topic came around to safety and if the sport has gotten less or more safe over the years and some of the reasons for the increase of rotational falls at the higher levels. The reasons are far too many and complex to go into here, but include types of jumps, complexity of combinations of jumps, the demise of the long-format, horse breeding, over-regulation, and rider experience. An interesting point he made as an observer of riders at events is that most of them don't look like athletes. People who are less fit overall are less able to withstand a fall. There are ways to train for falling too, and most riders don't consider learning it. As Denny stressed over and over again during camp, practice and training and more practice and cross-training. It's important to do the cardiovascular work and resistance (weight) training (which I do, but maybe not enough).
Thursday was our last day with 1/2 day of riding and videos and photos at lunch. I had a short jump school with Sue to get my confidence back over the larger jumps that I will have to Jump on Sunday. I think that the pressure of having Denny watching really affects my riding, and not in a good way. Sue did make an adjustment to my stirrup length today that made a big difference, in addition to not feeling so pressured. It's funny with Sue, because she pretty much read my mind about what I wanted to do which was to ride a couple 3-4 jump courses at Preliminary height (3'7"). So she set them up and I went over them. No problem. I like having that kind of a rapport with an instructor. At lunch I got to see the video of my crash from the day before. Yes, everything came down, but it didn't look nearly as bed as it felt. This convinces me even more that the cause was 75% nerves. After lunch, I packed up everything and Skippy and moved him down to the place I've been staying, which is right next door to Huntington Farm, where I will be competing on Sunday. Skip got some good turnout this evening and is well settled in with his new friends.
