Discipline and planning

Pic.: Moulting horses - the joys! 

The weakest link throughout my ridden work is lack of schooling plan. I can discipline my riders well and work them progressively and towards goals I set in my head for them and their horses but when I school myself I don't seem to be planning as well as I would like. Which is bad as I know I don't get the results I would want. It's even worse to know that when I do plan and discipline myself throughout the schooling session I have the best of rides.

This considering I decided to never again school randomly and to really think what I am doing until it becomes a second nature.

And surprise, surprise - had the best rides for ages on both horses I schooled this morning.

One of them was on a 5 year old, super young horse, green as grass but such a pleasure to work with. Sadly for sale and will probably be snapped up quickly. 

I walked him round for good 10 minutes just thinking what shapes to ride to get him better etc So the rule No.1 is - no longitudinal flexion means no lateral flexion. This in mind I put him on a figure of eight and encouraged him to trot very slowly in as best a rhythm as possible and to stretch forward and out while staying active. At first he was rather unsettled in the contact but then got the message and started taking the rein down and forwards. 

Once I was happy with that I started bending him around my inside leg but really using the outside more to make sure he wasn't just yielding or drifting. Again at first he was quite resistant and just moved away from my leg instead of around it but I persevered in walk and then in trot and after very short time he started feeling much more supple on the outside, took a very nice contact on the outside rein and his rhythm improved too. 

Then I rode him as I used to ride Hamlet as per Anna Ross-D. instructions: asking for bend on circles and half-circles or serpentines and immediately follow that with transitions. This is apparently to put together exercises that improve longitudinal (this is a funny word by the way  - quite a mouthful for me to say it!!!)  flexion and balance - transitions - with lateral gymnastics. So as an example, I would ride a half-circle left in walk, then ask for trot right upon reaching the wall. 

It worked super with this horse and I was pleased I didn't just go 'round and round in circles' as I tend to do too many times! Still plenty to improve on that though. 

So, no more wasting time on random work.

I finished the day taking my afternoon group out for a hack and they rode very well! 

Curiosity

Ponies playing today in the arena at one of London's riding schools; they always remind me of inner city children who have no access to true countryside...

Just a quick thank you

Many thanks for the emails regarding the below post, please keep them coming, all very much appreciated and a very interesting read. I am making lots of mental notes :)

Nothing to lose so I will have a go...

It was suggested to me that writing what you will read below might be a good idea...I am not so sure if it will be of any success but I see nothing to lose in following the advice so I shall give it a go. 

Here is the thing. I need to make some decisions about how to drive events forward and although there still is some time left for me to decide which way to go exactly I am told I should look into as many possibilities as possible as soon as possible...

Perhaps there are people I already know who I might approach with this but since I am not that great with decisions in general I thought I would listen to someone who is.

Apparently good decisions take months to take and even more time is involved in thinking about them so maybe I am not that bad after all!

Two things are certain: 

1) I want to keep my teaching largely as it is now as it's what motivates me in the horse world 2) I need a small yard with good facilities to base myself at and to be able to move on with my riding plans.  

So dear readers, here is me asking you to spread the word... If you know/heard of someone who:

- have/will soon have 3-6 stables available to rent at a reasonable rate at a well run yard within 30 minutes radius of Wokingham or Reading area 

- is a decent rider, reliable and ambitious and would like to get involved (as a business partner) in a small business of bringing on/schooling and selling as well as some teaching/training 

- or simply someone who would want to offer any further advice.

Also (although this is far fetched):

- anyone interested in investing their time and money,  

then please write to me for more information on ridinginstructor at gmail dot com (written in this way to limit the amount of spam) or contact me via my website.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated so please feel free to write what you think!

Many Thanks,

Wiola

On the move

Pic.: Wokingham town centre some time ago..;)

All the food I consumed today obediently stayed in my stomach which is a bonus. Another is having quite a productive day off if I say so myself ;)

Having spent some time exploring the areas to move to we are currently settled on Wokingham, Berkshire. It seems to have a nice town centre, good railway connection with London and some of the houses are very much likable. 

If all goes to plan we shall have a look at some more properties next Monday. In a way I can't wait to move but all this house searching and organising the whole moving process is a pain in the a***e. 

post For My Grandmother

I spoke to my Grandmother today. She's not that well at all and thinking about her reminds me how amazingly cruel life can be. We are given the chance to be surrounded by people who mean the world to us. We are given moments of absolute love which gives us infinite feeling of security, of being invincible, powerful and above the law of living.

We are given those only to have it all taken away. 

My Gran has always been the most loving, unselfish person I have ever met.

She is a worrier. If she misses my call she will be calling me back every five minutes until I can pick it up. She would say she felt bad for not being there when I phoned, even if it was something totally unimportant. 

If I close my eyes I can picture her sitting in her chair in the living room, smiling and asking what would I like to eat. And you know what, if I said I want some exotic food platter she never even heard about I bet she would still somehow tried to arrange for it. 

She never asks too many questions but when you go and sit with her for a while, even in complete silence, you still feel like it was the best conversation you have ever had. You don't meet many people like that in your lifetime...

I once said to someone that when Gran goes she will take a massive chunk of me with her.  I was told that it won't be the case and that instead she will always be with me.  How good would that be.

Don't you think that having something wonderful and losing it hurts way more than never having it in the first place?

A little rest

I think I have finally found out the root of me feeling so run down for the last couple of days. Looks like I got myself a nice stomach bug which decided to attack me fully this morning. As a result I spent entire morning fighting with overwhelming nausea, went to work anyway but only lasted a few hours before deciding to escape. 

One of my riders kindly drove me all the way home which is very much appreciated both by me and my stomach!

I've been spending my afternoon reading and enjoying the speed of Google Chrome (my computer has been driving me crazy recently being so slow I could chuck it into the bin if I could replace it straight away) and I am going to brave some food in a moment - hope it stays where it should do!

Once my food intake is back to normal I am going to test a joint supplement - my knee is being a little temperamental of late so here is what I will be shoving into myself and hope it helps: Seven Seas JointCare Sport.

British Eventing dressage tests for 2009

BE 90 series

BE 91

previously called Intro 100

BE 92

new

BE 93

new

BE 94 Championship

previously called Intro 103

BE 100 series

BE 101

previously called Pre-novice 110

BE 102

new

BE 103

new

BE 104 Championship

previously called Pre-novice 113

Novice

Novice 111

new

Novice 112

new

Novice 113

new
Intermediate to Advanced

Intermediate 116

previously called Intermediate 130 with amends

Intermediate 117

new

Intermediate 118

new

Advanced Intermediate 120

previously called Advanced 140

Advanced 121

previously called Advanced 143

Advanced 122

new

Decisions

Sometimes I lie awake at night and wonder if there is enough life left for me to do what I want to do. I am not very good with decisions although if I make some I go for it 100 percent.
How do we really know what's best and what will take us that one step forward to what really matters for us?
Why every next decision has to be so complicated and why do we often feel so alone making them...would be so much nicer to have some super-wise-special-advisor helping us along the way...
"We're born alone,we live alone,we die alone. Only love and friendship create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone".

In Photos

Sorted a few things and feeling much better for it.
Here is the last couple of days in pictures.

Teaching Reading University riders:

Pic. above: I think I was saying 'Ride from behind to the front not the other way round!' ;))

Pic. above: having a chat about the horse's centre of gravity and how to keep it towards the tail rather than pushing it towards the ears!

And today I ran one of my Intensive Training Days spending several hours on putting Jo through her paces. For video and more pictures from her Day go to: http://www.trainingdays-equestrian.blogspot.com/

One of Them Days

You know how sometimes you just want to hibernate and everything seems like it happens to someone else? Well, I've been having a day like that today, feel switched off and really just wish I was 18 again and not have to worry about life's whereabouts.
Ideally I could just put my phone on silent, not talk to anybody (well, might allow a couple of people through ;), go to sleep and wake up in a less detached reality.

Work was good today. It kept me within the narrow path of heightened awareness good enough to carry on as normal.

I wish I had a wise owl sitting on my shoulder who would always listen with its eyes wide opened, be able to look right through me and tell me exactly what's best to do. Lazy me.

Rain is back

What a dreadful weather tonight. Spent the evening shivering under horse rug over my legs ;) Ah the joys of instructing job without an indoor arena!

Morning of RRR

Resting and Reading and Revising - to my Intermediate Teaching exam - is what I am doing this morning. I reckoned I should really do some BHS books reading so I do sound like I have a vague idea about the subject ;) Also managed to add some updates and more info to: http://trainingdays-equestrian.blogspot.com/
...........................
A perfect Life Recipe should include...a cocktail spoon of magic...
If I knew were to buy it I would do it in an instant, mix it with some pancake butter and make sure my dear special friend eats loads of it to last her for a while...
...........................

Starting work at 3pm today. My late night day. Hope the rain stays away. Don't feel like getting soaked today. In fact, I am wondering how many PocketPak Paracetamol 500mg caplets I can shove into my stomach to kill period pain but not the stomach lining! Grrrr

Happy Birthday to Jenny

Pic.: Jenny on Kiri (Kir Royal) yesterday

I was fortunate to meet Jenny in summer 2006 when (less fortunately) she broke her ankle xc schooling. She couldn't ride her lovely TBx, Hamlet (!!), and was looking for someone to keep him ticking over while she was waiting impatiently to be back into action. I've been on and off Hamlet's saddle ever since. We did some BSJA, BE and BD as well as having some fab lessons/trainings/clinics together with Anna Ross-Davies, Lucy Thompson and Very Strict Marianna!

So a big thank you to Jenny for letting me ride her lovely horses over the years - here is me wishing you a fantastic eventing season this year with Kiri (aka Kir Royal) and many enjoyable days with Hamlet boy. Happy Birthday! x

Meet Kiri: a mare that spends half of her life doing what she should not be doing and another at being a rather talented, athletic creature! How on earth Jenny sticks to the saddle on her remains a mystery to me - I hit the deck numerous time riding this madam! I love this photo though - So Kir Royal.



Let's not forget about Charlie - Jenny's super little pony who can turn his hoof at just about anything and is going strong at 18! He also featured as a model on my website patiently performing everything that was asked of him :)

Look who is now sound enough to be schooled again!

Hamlet is now schooling for 30 minutes and felt superb today. I love riding this little horse, hope he stays as sound and eager as he was today.
He's not really that small as he seems here, the pics are taken by J. off Kiri hence funny perspective ;)

And just a couple more, just because he is such a lovely boy: