Here, There, and Everywhere!

Hi guys!!

I just went through, found, read, edited, and ultimately deleted literally 4 posts that I have started to you since my last one, and then got sidetracked on before finishing. What an awful blogger I am! So sorry!

Per usual, life has been insane around here. This month has been a particularly busy month, coupling horses with really cruddy weather has not done nice things for me. I've had two trainee horses come and go (Sunny and Gunner), and practically no time for my own ponies, mainly because every waking moment at the barn NOT in the pouring rain (and/or snow!) was being spent putting time on the horses I was being paid to play with. It's a wonderful concept for an LBE, being so busy you don't have time for relaxation, but it got a bit overwhelming toward the end. Fortunately things have calmed down here, and I can now relax and breath a little. I'm looking forward to having the rest of the fall to develop and advance my own horsemanship and focus on my students as well.

I have some exciting upcoming events around here--I have a lesson weekend in Mosinee (Near Wausau, WI) planned weekend after next (if Anyone is near or around Wausau, and would like a lesson, please contact me (savvyup@yahoo.com), I'd be happy to swing by Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, November 6th-9th.)

On November 12th, I'll be heading down to FL for a week. As of right now, my plans are to ride down with a friend who's going to the Parelli Center for a month, (that'll be an adventure in and of itself--the two of us in a truck for 26 hours is a hilarious thought!) and I'll stay with my friend Susan, in Orlando. I'll be teaching, riding, and just re-connecting with friends and enjoying the nice warm weather :)

Finally, schedule pending, Farrah Green may be in the area teaching in late November. Hopefully that happens--it's been discussed. If that is the case, I will be filming part of my Level 4 that weekend. Won't THAT be neat? Freestyle for sure, hopefully my online, as well. If not then, I'll do it sometime before FL--our freestyle especially is just SPECTACULAR, I'm so proud of Prinny!

Anyway, I think that's all for now--I'll leave you with some fall photos from the Brown Coulee Farm Paddock! Enjoy!


Prin came trotting to me when she heard me call this afternoon--it warmed my heart to see that eager expression, had to snap a photo :)


What a pretty face, despite the mud! Such an exceptional girl!


I've been lusting over Crest since I downloaded this photo. Isn't he just GORGEOUS?! And check out those leaves!!

My *Potential* Audition

Hi all,


Here is the potential last leg to my L3 journey, my liberty audition. I think it turned out fairly well, but I did have one concern that I wanted some feedback on before I sent it in. We live a hop, skip, and a jump up from a river, and so during the summer months, we've got a horrific deer fly problem. We practically bathe our horses in flyspray and it hardly dents the issue. Anyway, in this video, my horse does a lot of tail-swishing and head-nodding. While it's evident through the video that it isn't directed at me, what I'd like feedback on is whether or not you think it detracts from the quality. Also, if there are any glaring horsemanship things that need fixing (like Pre-L3 things), feel free to point them out as well.




I'm not really looking forward to the prospect of filming it again, but if it needs to be done, it's done. I don't feel 100% confident about the quality in this audition, so please give me some feedback.

Thanks!

F

Audition Results!!!

EVERYONE got their auditions back today, it seems. First of all, I'd love to give a huge shout-out to two of my students, first to Arianna Halverson and her pony Princess, they passed their Level 1 audition today! These two are the most awesome students ever, very focused and determined. YAY! Red String here you come!


Secondly, congrats to Sherri Anderson and her mare Cerra. These two just passed their L1 AND L2 today! I did the filming on their auditions, and am pleased to say the results and feedback were positive and useful. Can't wait to see those pretty colored strings on your belt either, girl! How exciting!



VERY proud of you both!


I'd also like to announce that I received my results on my Level 3 Online and Freestyle (still pending on the Liberty). I passed both those auditions with L3+ and FANTASTIC feedback. I'm not entirely pleased with L3+ (perfectionist, I know!), but I take comfort in the fact that they're almost 3 months outdated, and I KNOW that Prin and I have improved far beyond that. I'm also really happy to say that we received L4 on our relationship, rapport, and Level 4+ on mounting, friendly game, and one other (don't have the specs sitting right in front of me)...not to mention tons of L3++'s and a few L3+'s. I hope to hear about liberty next week perhaps :) I'm REALLY proud of my girl, and am very happy to have finally heard back. The feedback received was useful and wonderful.


So YAY!

Congrats to everyone!

Where Has She BEEN?!

Some day, I swear, my life will slow down...maybe not in the foreseeable future, but ONE DAY! So...where have I been? What have I been doing? Why haven't I blogged? Where are my priorities? How are my horses? What are we playing with? All very good questions. I'll try my best to get things sorted out for ya ;)

I have been what seems like all over kingdom come and back in the past couple weeks. I got home from my travels with Farrah on the afternoon of the 23rd of June, and hit the ground running. Teaching, trimming, training, all of that good stuff. Mostly trimming, I must say though. I get home from 5 weeks off, and every single client I have has a horse with long toes, go figure. So needless to say, my hands have re-calloused, and my hoof jack feels far from neglected.

I'm in the process of tying up loose ends on the plans for another lesson...weekend with Farrah--July 11th-12th, Pepin Trailblazer's arena. I currently have 3 participant slots left, one on the 11th and two on the 12th, with several people pending. Cost is $120/90 minute lesson, auditors welcome at $10/day. PLEASE let me know if you're interested in coming, I'd love to see you there!

My horses are doing quite well, I returned home to find both Prin and LB fat and out of shape (My last 12 days with Farrah were completed with Crest). Prin had absolutely no topline, a half inch of extra hoof, and a pot belly. Okay so that whole body condition thing? It doesn't keep itself up. So, we're currently playing with..well..getting in decent condition again. I trimmed her 3 days ago, and now we've been going for long trots/canters to get the muscles moving again. We're also playing with stretching, and building more flexibility, especially in the hind end. Not that Prin's got problems, but being that she's build like a QH, and not for collection necessarily, I figure it can only help.

Yesterday a friend called just as I began my session with Prin, and so I needed something to play with that didn't involve a lot of use of my arms. I stood her up on the pedestal at first. Incidentally, standing with only the front feet on the pedestal is a great stretch and rotation that causes the shoulder apparatus to open up and lift. Great for the topline and movement ;) I had her stand for a couple minutes, and then had her hop off. She offered to sidepass over it, so I took it, wondering what I could play with from there. As we were doing it, I remembered Farrah mentioning that she had taught Caesar to sidepass over a pedestal and put one back leg on and hold it, and that it had helped the flexibility throughout his hind end, and ultimately aided in his ability to do flying lead changes.

Though Prin and I aren't nearly to the point of flying changes that Caesar and Farrah are, (don't I wish I could do 3 stride tempis in near-perfect rhythm-haha) I thought it might be a fun pattern to start building on, so that when she fully understands the concept, she'll be physically fit to do it. Neato, huh? So, with that in mind, that's what I taught her yesterday. Today she did it without question, and I'm going to slowly start building the amount of time I ask her to stand there. I've noticed small improvements already :)

Crest is learning to be a more reliable and respectful riding companion. During our time with Farrah, she caught some subtleties in Crest's behavior that have totally changed his attitude towards being with me and performing for me. He's learned (and practically mastered) a Level 4 porcupine game, that is learning to hobble. He has greatly improved his level of patience with long sits both tied and in a trailer, sees me as a provider and partner, and he's learned that I can indeed communicate with his hind quarters and dictate how fast he backs up. He's also figured out (after much hassle and giggles with a dressage whip and cookies) how to Spanish Walk, and now I have TWO Spanish-walking fools in my pasture ;) Very cool stuff, and I've really been enjoying his company.

I've also personally been playing with improving my own balance. I'm not going to sell myself short--I'm an excellent bareback rider, but beyond being able to stick to just about every antic a horse could throw at me, I'm useless. (Yes, I know, I'll stop, but this is MY goal for self-improvement, bear with me) So...what have I been doing? I've been teaching myself to Roman Ride. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm not screwing around, I'm really, genuinely, honestly learning to Roman ride. That, and I've been learning to ride standing up on one horse, too. The reactions Prin and Crest have had have been hilarious, I'm pretty sure they both think (as well as my students, and barn owner) that I'm totally insane. But they're tolerating it well, and helping me learn to balance on a new level. Oh what fun :D

So that's pretty much what I'm up to. I have an early morning tomorrow first cutting firewood with my dad then helping a friend/student film her L2 auditions, lesson at another student's place, and then 3 trimming jobs. Life is busy and insane, and I'm pretty happy :) I promise I'll be better about updating now. I can breath again :)

Savvy on, I sure have missed ya'll!

F

Life's a Dance...

Especially when you're riding Crest out for the first time all year :)

I had a VERY successful horsey afternoon with my kids. First of all, I did a practice-film of my L3/4 online audition. It was really good quality as far as play went, but the footing was so terrible that I could hardly ask her to canter, and thus could not submit it for L3/4 had I wanted to. But that's okay with me for now. The intention was not to ace it, but to get a feel for what needed doing, and how I might go about it when the footing was good. And honestly, I LOVED it. I was disappointed when my camera-person called the 8 minute warning ("I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO SHOW!" was my thought)and I feel really confident in filming when the ground hardens (a week or two, yay) So I'm really glad I got that taken care of :)

After that, I went out on a really lovely ride with Micky and our mutual friend Sarah. Sarah took Prin, who was a gem, Micky rode Amigo (she's decided to do this more often, we could tell he missed being out), and I took Crest, which brings me to my title line. Today was our first "real" ride out this year, and Crest was...well...a total LBE-on-adrenaline dancing queen. I had saddled him up in the fluidity (MAN I MISSED MY SADDLE!) and had a new bit I wanted to try with him. He was fantastic, behavior wise, but totally high on life and thus very hard to ride because of his perpetual bounce tendencies, that were magnified by 10. The result? A passaging, dressaging, haunches-inning Warmblood-wanna-be who had ALL the moves.

I kept track, and Crest performed like 4 grand-prix level dressage maneuvers when asked, simply because it involved being fancy. I got like 150 yards of lovely passage, a hilarious set of VERY collected tempi-changes, and about 3/4 of a canter pirouette. How funny *eye roll*

So all in all, a very nice ride. Fun was had by all, and I'm really looking forward to progressing with Crest, now that his TRUE athletic ability has been revealed-LOL.

Savvy on, I'm off to bed EARLY tonight :D