Equisilk putting my Gertie blog up reminded me that I should probably update it, hahaha! Thank you, Equisilk, for lighting a fire under my tush!

Gertie is really turning into a fine little equine citizen. I am SO over the moon with her, I just can't get over it. Our rides are getting better and better, constantly refining her basics, and now that her trot is much more consistently correct, we have began to focus on the canter. What once was her easy side has become her hard side over the last few months, but with diligent work, she is really coming along fantastically with it. She is such a fast learner, it amazes me! Her little tantrums and "moments" are short-lived these days, but she still has them now and again. It makes it easier for me to focus on the work rather than her naughty behavior, we just push right through it.

Anyway, I had been having a hard time sitting her canter to the left (probably had a lot to do with my weak left leg), but since I have been working on strengthening my left leg, I'm having a much easier time of it and it has, in turn, made a huge difference in my riding/training, and her response to my cues--harder for her to ignore ;) Sure, that's a "duh" statement, but after developing a huge knot in my left pelvic muscle area, it's been a frustrating few months.

Lately, I've been working on getting her off her forehand (at the canter) and more on her haunches, using her hind-end and working through her back. She was pulling/relying on my hands a lot at first to hold her up going to the left, but with a lot of walk-trot-halt/trot-halt-trot-halt/halt-canter-halt transition work, it has really helped to understand and get her on her hind-end more. When I feel her lifting her front and being more up, light, and supple... BIG SMILES!!! The last few days has been much more consistent in her canter work and I am so proud of her. She's really happy when she gets it right and wants to keep going, I just love her enthusiasm.

Some piktahs courtesy of my friend, Alana Carden.

Enthusiastic flying change

Letting her do her own thang for being such a good girl

Another Lesson--Good Learning!

I swear I say it every time, but I am SUCH a bad blogger.

ANYWAY. Gertie has been doing FANTASTIC the last few months. Had a lesson not too long ago and she/we did great! Always learning a lot. Having my instructor's fresh eyes on the ground helps so much. I'm glad I don't need constant lessons, but I always take a way a lot from the ones I do have. Denise is just fantastic and her instructing style really clicks with me. Even if I take things a little too literal... "drop your left rein"... so I let go completely >.< Even though I KNEW what she actually meant.. my brain needs some time to catch up sometimes, bahahhaa.

Anyway, she had me working on bending and keeping Gertie straight, I have such a tough time with my left leg, even though I ride constantly, it is my weak leg. Getting stronger and I try hard to work on it (my hip drops and causes my leg to swing back, I can't 'hold' my leg properly since there is hardly strength in there) all the time; it's getting better but not where I want to be. I have little patience so, that's my issue. I'm sitting up and taller these days and am super thrilled about that. My shoulders could come back more and I've been working on that for almost a year now. It's a lot better than what it used to be! I've been such a lazy slouch-tastic person the last.... oooh 10 years of my life?? So breaking those old habits are pretty tough, but big chips have been taken out!

We worked on jumping and did a few lines. Gert isn't as squirrely as she was the first few times (so cute though) she did lines and is just adorable. She doesn't even TRY very hard, she just does it. First time she jumped over a gate, didn't care. She really really enjoys the jumping and I had to use SO much leg to keep her going while working on the flat...then we popped over a crossrail and she was ready; she found her energy, hahaha! I just LOVE how enthusiastic she is about jumping. I've been out of jumping for about 3 years now so it's been a tad rough getting back into it for me. I feel worse than I actually am or look (from what Denise and friends told me).. I just feel like I'm too far forward, when in fact, I'm a hair bit back! That and my stupid shoulders come forward and my left leg slips back some.

Oh well, good things to work on! Another lesson next week and we are aiming for a few shows this summer :D As nervous and terrified as I am (I have only shown a few times, I don't count those, and scared the bajeebes out of me--and I royally sucked except when I showed Gertie in-hand) I am really excited at the same time. I'll have to update when the time comes for that.

And of course, pictures!! Courtesy of my wonderful friend, Alana!

VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gBm8LZB1mxU

And from our last lesson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk8XG0M-UjU&list=FLNBQX3ndUo_wRUkWLdxa2_g&index=3&feature=plpp_video

Gertasaurus Rex--The Jumper

I really haven't been paying attention to any of my blogs. Except the photography blog I started on my website. Watch, that one will last all of a month before I forget about it too. I can't even recall the last time I updated this...and I am SO lazy, that I didn't even care to look and find out.

ANYWAY. So, here's my Gertie update for those of you I haven't blasted with it yet.

Breakdown:

January: really great progress, but still carrying herself on the forehand. Learned flying lead changes in November/December as if they're nothing and started doing them automatically on her own.

February: did a front somersault in the large roundpen at the barn. No, seriously it was an actual somersault. She sprinted off in a run but her left front buckled when she landed on it, went down on it, scuffed her knee a little bit, hit her face in the dirt and flipped over and landed on her right side and rear pretty damn hard. She was off and incredibly sore for 3 weeks following that. About three days after the accident, she had a massage to help with the soreness, then it was cold hosing and hand-walking twice a day for three weeks plus liniment/icy hot mixed with a little bit of DMSO...and she was fine. I was going to have a chiropractor work on her too, just in case, but she seems to maybe have kinked herself back into place with her fall.

March: Worked slowly for about 3 weeks to work out the soreness and get the muscles working again. Then started back into medium work to get that topline built back up again. It's crazy how fast they lose it and how long it takes to rebuild. Figures! Most of March was spent just getting her back into better working condition.

April: She has been a PISTOL since getting back into shape. At least it's her way of telling me she's feeling great, so I try not to complain too much. We got the cover over the arena finished and have started working in there. The new footing was rather deep, so she struggled a bit in there. We've really been working on getting her to work more off of her hind-end and she really started to pick up on that. It's a WHOLE different feeling with her and I love it! She's learned it so fast and can hold herself up longer than before. We worked on it a lot on our own and Denise had us work on it some more as well. I'm always so proud of her, even on the days I want to kill her. We actually had a lesson back in November and it was awesome. We recently had one last week and we worked on getting her to bend more on a circle from her ribcage. She fought with me a little bit (more-so when she saw my friend's trailer pull in that was hauling her bestest friend Tori--a Holsteiner mare owned by my friend. It's hilarious how my horse knows Hillary's trailer!), but did really well. Denise also had us work on teaching her to pick up her canter leads properly instead of letting her pick it up on the forehand as she was used to. She's athletic and smart enough to start learning it now and she did fantastic. Me, not so much at first, hahaha, but Gert had her lightbulb moments and now picks up the canter on her hardside lead every time. But, then on my own, I started having trouble getting her to pick the right lead up on the good side! It was my fault and after two days of schooling, I figured out what I was doing wrong: putting too much weight on my inside seat bone. Figures, those little things. Mare is pretty sensitive about many things, which I need to remember sometimes. Riding and training a horse from foal to riding and being the only person to do the work has been tough. I'm thankful I have Denise to help me brush up on my basics and fine tune myself of the things I have forgotten...those little beginner things you tend to throw out the window when training a young horse. They're important, but it's hard for me to remember sometimes.

Anyway, during our lesson.. my idiotic mare decided out of NOWHERE (she really gave NO indication or warning sign) that she wanted to roll in a softspot of the new footing. Just dropped to her knees so fast I had no idea it was coming; had no choice but to hop off. No amount of tugging, smacking, kicking, or yelling would get her to get up. She would not get up until she had a good roll.. ON MY SADDLE. She's such an asshole, seriously. Funny, as I was telling her what an asshole she was, another trainer that was in the arena...was laughing, and came up to tell me, "Your horse is such an asshole today!" TRUTH! LOL She's a really nice lady, and was 100% correct. Denise and my friends were all standing near the jump that Denise had been setting up while I was letting G catch her breath... staring and saying, "Is this really happening right now?" Oh Gertie...

At least she had the decency to make it up to me. She did her first jumping line ever. Normally she's gone over a cross-rail fence or two, but not in a line. At first she was a bit squirrelly between the jumps until she figured it out. She also jumped a small gate for her first time EVER as if she's been doing it forever. SO proud of her. Alana and Jennifer happened to get some fabulous photos that I will share here.

We have a few more lessons scheduled to get me un-rusty and to get her thinking more. I want to get her a good foundation that we can work off of on our own with some lessons in-between..here and there. I would really like to take her to a few shows this year. I recently found out I need braces, SO we will see how the showing will go, lololol. If anything, my boarding facility is hosting 4 Tucson Hunter-Jumper Association shows, so I can enter her in a class or two then. She'll absolutely be ready by then.

So, pictures. Hopefully I'll continue to update this thing. Maybe my friends should nag me.

There are a crapload of photos below, so just keep scrolling.

Oh Miss Gert

She amazes me, hahaha.

She's still a bit funky in her hind end, but NOOOO it's not LAMENESS, crazy people who think they know my horse better than I do. More than one professional has noticed an "off" ness, but not in the sense of lameness, but in the exact reasons I have given before. She's weak in her hind-end and I know why. We haven't been doing as many other gymnastics as we used to since we've mostly been focusing on lateral work. She's doing great with her lateral exercises; our circles are actually circles now instead of egg-shaped, hahaha. We did some spiral ins and outs the other day and it was just awesome. I am so proud of how well and smooth she is at her turns now. Not always but it's a lot more consistent these days.

SO my new game plan. I'm going to set up 3-4 trot poles in our dressage arena. Work on letting her stretch her neck down, to stretch out her back and hind-end. Figure eights over one ground pole (it really gets her to disengage her hind end a lot more and stretches that booty)...and more trot poles at the trot. We haven't been doing them as we used to, which was a few times a week, and I think she's just gotten lazy and stiff since we haven't done them and developed other muscles that have also made her tighter in her hind-and stifle area. Man, but when she moves... she moves SO WELL! I can't believe how amazing she is feeling these days. So proud of how far she has come. Lessons are to be coming soon and I'm very excited! Just to get some on the ground pointers/perspective to help me out on the things I can't see that we're doing. At least once a week or so with my friend and eventing instructor. Don't think we're going to the show this weekend, but maybe next month. I feel there is more for us to work on a bit more before going. I don't want people thinking she's lame cause her hind end is still funky.

Last thing I need is for people to get all bitchy with me...again. BUT that was just the internet, bahahhaa, where people think they can diagnose a lameness from a video of a few riding clips that aren't in order. Oh people.. make me laugh.

Anyway! OH and Gertie neck reins now! I taught it to her a while back ago and she wasn't that great at it so we forgot about it. I don't know why, but today I got the inkling to see what she'd do. I took all leg off of her and only steered her, with one hand, neck-rein style and she turned in each direction I asked her to. SO STOKED! BAHAHA Totally made my day! She's so great <3