I myself was able to squeeze in some riding during free time at the camp.  At other times, I was supervising youth or helping with activies.  During one of my free time rides, the main ring was set up with barrels from the barrel racing instructor.  For fun, I decided that Kerry and I should try out a barrel pattern.  After a little coaching from an adult leader, we rode the pattern at a trot and then at a canter/gallop.  Not only was it fun, but I had Kerry’s complete attention with her thoughts of  “whoa…what are we doing??”   It was different and fun.  I felt it was good to be reminded to step outside of our comfort zones sometimes and don’t be afraid to try something different.  If you are a ring rider, take a trail ride sometime.  If you only trail rider, maybe take a lesson in a ring sometime.  We need to keep things different for our own benefit and for our horse’s sanity!  Below is a video of Cowboy Dressage.  I thought this was a fun video that clearly showed a mix of riding disciplines and the beauty to that mix.  If you are having a hum-drum summer…mix it up!

Well my dear reader friend, I will tell you I am in that exact same boat.  I think many of us are.  Those of us that practice at home alone, without a mirror, can easily develop poor position.  It is difficult not to fall back on bad habits when many of us can onlyafford a lesson once a month.  We must, however, make working on our position a priority!  Your position is the basis of everything in Dressage.  Your position influences your balance and aid effectiveness. Proper position allows your body to move with your horse, supporting and not hindering your horse’s  freedom of movement and expression. We must have good position,  because everything in the Training Pyramid dictates it so!

Now…I step off of my soap box… pull out that bar of soap and take a bath with it, because I am just as much of a poor position offender as anyone.  I do may of the position no-nos, such as rolling my shoulders, hunching my lower back, letting my leg slide forward, and lifting my heel.  The one I do the worst is breaking my wrists.  It looks terrible! Somehow I picked it up early on in my riding career.   I will see students of this particular instructor today and all of them break their wrists.  When I see it I want to yell at the children, “fix your wrists now, before it is too late!” I grumble to myself, Thanks for putting that bad habit on my riding-to-fix list, FOREVER!  We all have something we need to work on and improve.  We need to recognize our weaknesses and work on stregthening them just like we do with our horse’s. In my opinion, it is even more important that we work on ourselves.

During my last lesson with my instructor, we worked heavily on my position.  After my lesson in 85 + degree heat and humidity, the idea of throwing up crossed my mind several times.  I kept it together, went home with my sore muscles, and felt that I had had a good, productive lesson.   I really felt a difference when I hopped on my mare a couple of days later, focused on my position, and my sitting trot was MUCH better!  Yep… that ole’ position stuff is the root of all that is good and evil about our riding. 

Below is a video of Jane Savoie discussing dressage rider position.  I thought this was a great video with some good pointers we can try at home to improve our positions.  A good practice if you can’t get regular lessons is  to videotape yourself riding at home to see how your are doing.  How we “feel” we look can be very different than how we actually “do” look!

A toast to the “perfect position”… Even though we will never find you exactly, may we briefly touch your existence to make us better equestrians!

Two Sides to Every Season

Summer = longer days, a tan, nice smelling flowers, green grass, lots of yummy fresh vegetables and fruits cheap, sleek shiny coats, water that flows freely, and the convenience of  feeling all of your extremities.. .all of the time.

Summer also = heat, humidity, sweat, sunburns, lots and lots of bugs, posion ivy, dust, and pollen.

I live in Virginia, however, about this time of year it feels like instead of living in a beautiful mid-Atlantic state that enjoys mountain showers and coastal breezes, you have been sent straight down to the Mississippi swamp land. Here you swelter and contemplate taking your chance with the alligators for a cool swim to rid your body of the ridiculous amount of heat trapped inside of it.  The heat is one thing, but the humidity adds a whole new level of fun to the summer months.  It feels like it was not too long ago that I was writing an article for you guys about winter riding tips.  Well now that we have broken 100 in VA, I believe this article is a bit overdue, but could still help some of you trying to battle the heat wave.

How hot is TOO hot?

Photo of me with "Moonshine." Wasn't she a cutie?

This is a question I have also been contemplating lately as the thermometer has reached triple digits this past week.  I remember back to when I was a child and I leased a cute, fat, pony name Moonshine.  Moonshine is still very high on my list when it comes to favorite horses you remember in your life.  At the barn where I leased Moonshine, they had this neat chart that told you when it was too hot or cold to ride or work your horse.  It had some kind of formula that slips my mind now.  I thought the formula may be outdated as well and I figured there was now a new one to follow.  Well..there is a common formula and it is listed below.  Remember this formula is just a guideline and should not be viewed as a hard and fast rule.

How to calculate Heat Stress Index:

Take the outside temperature in degrees Fahrenheit and then add the relative humidity.  For example if it is 80 degrees and 60% humidity the number would be 140.  Here is what the scale means.

130 and below – very small chance of heat stress

130-150 – Horse will experience sweating and need to watch water intake

150-180 – Chance of heat stress more likely, watch water intake and signs of stress, use judgement (you may not want to ride if you calculated this number with a very high humidity)

Over 180 – Good idea not to ride.  Find a shady spot with lots of fresh water for your horse and do the same for  yourself!

Many other factors need to be considered when assessing the well being of your horse buddy in the heat.

• Make sure to take into consideration the age and fitness level of your horse.  An older more out of shape horse may not tolerate being worked in the heat as well as a fit, young, horse.
• Be very conscientious of your warm-up and cool down with your horse.  You are always conscientious right? A good cool down will help your horse ride hot muscles of lactic acid build-up that may make him or her sore.
• If  it is extremely hot, consider modifying your workout time and location.  Ride early in the morning or late in the evening during the cooler times of day.  A long walk down a shady trail may be a better option than a hot sand covered arena.
• Hose your horse off with cool water to help cool him or her off.  The actual process of cooling your horse takes place when the water evaporates of their coat.  Use this to your advantage.  Make sure to scrape your horse to speed evaporation.  If your horse is really hot, you can cool with water, scrape, then cool with water again until he or she starts to cool down.
• A must have is free choice salt or mineral available in your horse’s field or stall during the summer.  Horses loose lots of valuable salts and electrolytes through sweating in the hot months and must put these back into their bodies to stay healthy

Hope these tips help you a little when you hit the saddle with those blazing rays outside.  Remember horses are not warm weather animals.  Most horses are more comfortable naturally if the temperature feels cool to us.  That means when it feels hot out to us, it really feels hot to our horses.

Enjoy the long days of summer and STAY COOL!

References:

www.horse-sense.org

On my farm, I have a nice grassy area.  It is not flat it has a bit of a slope to it, but it works well for me.  We smoothed out the area last year and planted fresh grass.  Now, I decided my nice grassy area needed a dressage arena.  It was also getting very difficult to practice head to the rail leg yields, when you have no rail.  Those imaginary rails just don’t quite stand up to the real ones!    I began my dressage arena search and became very disappointed very quickly.  Dressage areas are expensive we are talking $1,500 – 2,000 easy for an arena.  Some even go up to $6,000.  Whoa, I just need a chain and white posts.  How can I do that for less?  This is what I did  and it turned out pretty good.  There were a few things I would do differently I will make sure to clue you in on that as well.

Steps to your own affordable dressage arena – Elizabeth’s Way !

1.  Choose a fairly flat area for your arena.  Measure the area so you are sure the dressage arena will fit in the area.  Dressage arenas are quite long and take a larger space then you would think they do.  A standard arena is 20 mX 60 m and a small arena is 20 mX40 m.  Most American measuring devices are in feet not meters so you will probably have to convert everything into feet.  Make sure you continually do this with the entire ring.  It will drive you a bit crazy because everything ends up a strange decimal number.  Here are the converted numbers standard arena 65.6 ft X 196.8 ft the small arena is 65.6 ft X 131.2 ft (hint: 1 meter = 3.28 ft)

PVC chain and step-in posts are inexpensive and safe to use

2.  Select materials to construct dressage arena with.  I went round and round on this and tried all kinds of scenarios of arena set ups.  I thought about just doing corners and a few sections along the sides with PVC pipe and buckets or cinder blocks.  Plain old PVC pipe tends to add up in cost as well.  I found a great price on plastic chain.  I bought mine from www.crowdcontrolstore.com.   It takes approximately 525 feet of chain to go around the entire arena.  Now the entrance at A has a gap so you save some chain there, but you also have to plan for droop in the chain.  I bought the 500 ft. box of chain and 25 extra ft of chain.  I also picked up two of the links that unscrew so you can attach the chain together.  I used 1 1/2 ” chain (6 mm) and I was happy with the size of it.  I would say I wouldn’ t go any smaller. To hold the chain, I selected the plastic step in posts used for electric fencing.  They are fairly affordable and can come in white to match the arena. They are also made of plastic and will break if you attempt to land on one.  Safety was also a key feature in my area planning!

3.  Begin laying out arena with one short side.  I have a gazebo that I wanted the short side at C centered on. I kept it perpendicular to the gazebo by measuring diagonally to the gazebo and making adjustments if needed.   Next, I set the two end corners at on the short side of  C.  Note:  Here is where I messed up!  I used a measuring wheel to lay out my arena.  I do not recommend a measuring wheel.  You need to use a long measuring tape.  Any type of uneven ground can affect the measuring wheel and I had to adjust my arena later because the wheel had the arena off.  I found that out later when I laid out the letters and boy was I not happy!

4. Attempt to lay out short side posts evenly placed.  I had my posts about 10 feet apart.  I tried to eyeball the posts and couldn’t believe how far off they were from each other.  So, what did I do?  I went and got my husband who built fence for three years of his life and can eyeball anything and tell if it is 1/4 of an inch off.    He comes in handy whenever, I need something straight.  Yeah… he probably keeps me pretty straight too!  I talked him into helping after he saw my line of posts and decided he couldn’t stand to look out at our yard at my “straight ” line . What could you do if you are not blessed with a husband with good eyes?  I would stretch a string out from corner to corner, measure your posts out evenly and put them in the ground right beside the string to make sure your posts are straight.

5.  Lay out the other two corners of the arena.  The tricky part is keeping your corners at 90 degree angles to your other corners.   You can use the triangle theory to keep your corners straight.  Here is the triangle pattern  .   Can you remember it’s name ? That’s right the Pythagorean Theorem. Oh my goodness, we may actually use what we learned in high school geometry after all.  My teacher would be so proud! I will admit I called upon my husband’s talent a bit here as well.  Plus he knew he couldn’t trust me with putting in straight lines and we had three more to go.

6.  Hang the chain. At this point I got the… “Now  it’s your turn do your girlie decorative magic” look from my husband and he was off to do something more “productive.”  What is more productive than building a dressage area?? Well OK… actually riding it it would be.   Hanging the chain was a bit tricky to get the droop even on each post.  Then I came up with a system and it got much easier and turned out great.   I tightened the chain so it was snug and straight  and then moved it back one link and attached to the post. This put even tension and droop on each post.   I did that for all 52 posts.

Inexpensive letters can be created with your computer printer and laminating sheets

7. Add letters.  I went cheap on my letters and just laminated letters I printed out large on a standard sheet of paper.  I attached the letters to more white step in posts to match the rest of the arena.  I attached the letters by using a hole puncher and zip ties.  They came out pretty good, although I’m not sure of the longevity of  the letters.  I’m sure nice plastic vinyl letters would do better.   Note: when you attach the letters to the posts attach them on the flat side of the post, not the side with the hooks.  I used the hooks to hold the zip ties in place though. Next, lay out the letters  here is the sequence I used and I used a measuring tape this time.   A and C are placed  32.8 ft from the corner.  H,M,F, K are placed 19.7 ft from the corner post on the long side.  B and E are placed 98.4 ft from the corner posts along the long side.  R,S,V,P are set on either side of B and E, 39.4 ft from B and E.

Wahhhla… Congratulations you now have a dressage arena!  Total cost approximately – $400.00

My completed dressage arena. Time to ride!!

What would I do differently?

The biggest problem with this arena is the height of the posts.  The step in posts for electric fence come in a standard 4 ft height.  The problem with this is if you ride right along the rail, as you are supposed to in dressage, your feet may hit the posts.  Now my mare is 16 hands, if you have a enormous 18 hand horse, this may not be a problem for you!   I will probably end up going back and cutting the top of the posts shorter to fix this.  Don’t use a measuring wheel unless you have very flat smooth ground.  Don’t try to eyeball anything unless you have a talent for it.  It is amazing how crooked your eyes can make things!

I hope you find this article helpful.  I love my new arena.  It has been great to use practicing at home.  If anyone has any other ideas for homemade dressage arenas, please feel free to post a comment.  I went on a search to find suggestions before I built my arena and I was disappointed in the few ideas I could find.

A Dressage Scribe

Scribe or Sit with a Judge – Scribing is a great way to learn what a judge looks for in a good test.  Shows love having volunteer scribes and you will learn great deal.  Scribing is one of my favorites, I just can’t quite figure out how to watch my paper and the horse at the same time yet.

Don’t Warm Up your Horse Too Much.  This can be hard to gauge and you will need to know your horse well to warm him or her up correctly.  Make sure to check the show time so you know if the show is running ahead or behind schedule.  Warm up is not a time for training.  If your horse is having a bit of trouble with a movement, don’t drill as if you were training at home.  Usually drilling will make the situation worse.  Just accept what you have to work with that day and do the best you can.  Keep in mind the weather and its impact on your horse. An extremely hot day can definitely change how your horse preforms.  The key to this tip, practice, practice, practice and know your horse. 

Always Prepare for Your Next Movement  – Have your next test movement in your head and prepare your horse before the movement is to be asked.  You however don’t want your horse to anticipate the movement.  This can be a tricky balancing act between preparation and anticipation.  Keeping a variety while working at home can help with anticipation. 

Ride Your Fullest Potential – Don’t turn into stone the minute you enter the dressage arena and forget to ride your horse.  Your horse needs guidance and direction from you.  Make sure you are not so conservative you don’t allow your horse quality movements.   

Entrance and Exit Halts are Important!  These are the first and last things the judge sees in your test so make sure these movements are good.  

Read the Directions and Purpose of the Test – Each dressage test has the directions and purpose written at the top of the test.  Read those to get a better understanding of what the judge expects to see out of you and your horse when preforming.  

Halt at X- Halts should be at X (if designated on the test). Remember at the lower levels you may ride the halt through the walk.  It is better to ride the halt through the walk at be at X than to overshoot X.   Occasionally you may ride a test where a judge will be at B or E then your precision will really be put to the “test.”  

Do you have any tips on ways to improve a dressage score?  If so, please feel free to share so we can all learn with you.

Don’t you just  love the dressage information highway!  I enjoyed Tracey’s version of the presentation myself and wanted to pass it on to my readers with a few of my own little comments too .   Of course I asked Tracey’s permission. 

Ways to Improve your Dressage Score

Be Accurate!   Many riders lose points on dressage tests because of inaccuracy.  Take the time to really look at the dressage arena and its measurements so you can understand the exact dimensions and where you should be preforming movements.  Start and end movements at letters, but also plan for turns.  You may have to turn slightly early to reach a letter in a correct place.   Focus your eyes slightly ahead of the letter to make sure you arrive at the letter correctly.  Serpentines are where many lose points (that’s why they are in our tests, to get us!)  Make sure you are parallel to the center line when making your loops. Don’t let your serpentine get snake like. Also, don’t go into the corner at the beginning of the serpentine. 

Corners are Your Friend  -  Make sure to use your corners.  You don’t need to bury your horse in the corner. The higher the level you are riding the deeper the judge will expect you to ride in your corners.  Your horse’s head should not look to the outside!  Practicing shoulder-fore position at home can help you ride better corners.  Also, don’t forget the short side of the arena is important too.  Don’t take a break because that is one of the few times the judge has a side profile of you and your horse.  

Post at the Trot in Training Level – When competing at training level many horses have not developed their muscles to be comfortable carry a rider in the sitting trot.  Riders may also not have developed a good sitting trot.  You are allowed to post so go ahead and post.  You will have plenty of time to sit once out of training level. 

Show One Level Below Where You are Currently Training:  The general rule is to show one level below where you are training.  This is refering to recognized shows.  Schooling shows are a bit of a different story and may be a place where you can test out a new level or skills you have been practicing at home.  

Wear Gloves when Riding - You do not want your reins too long and many riders ride with their reins too long.  Gloves can help prevent the reins from slipping through your fingers.  You should ALWAYS ride with gloves.  Many mistake long reins for a soft connection when actually long reins can be a more harsh connection with your horse’s mouth.  

Don’t Ride with Your Stirrups Too Long - You should be able to flex your ankle in your stirrups.  Too long of stirrups may cause you to lose a stirrup or have too much movement in your leg. 

Correct Mistakes Quickly and Quietly – If you get the wrong lead, make sure to change it.  Thinking the judge won’t notice is not a good plan.  They always notice!  The judge would much rather see you correct a mistake and move on to the next movement.  If you don’t correct a mistake you could be chancing a big fat 0 for your score.  If you fix your lead, the judge will at least get a few strides of a correct canter to give you a score. 

Lendon Gray’s Dressage 4 Kids Website – A great website to interest youth in dressage. http://www.dressage4kids.com/

• Longeing – Some recommend longeing to begin your fitness regime.  The benefits of longeing  are that you take the rider out of the equation and if you have a young or spirited horses it may be best to let them “get the kinks out” with your two feet safely planted on the ground. If you are bringing a young horse back into shape, it may be best to do several longeing workouts before sitting in a saddle.  The con of lounging,  the overuse of a circle.  Circles can be tough on horses legs so make sure you don’t lounge for an extended period of time and stress the tendons and ligaments in your horses legs.

• Walking – My horse does well without having to be lounged so to bring her into shape I go ahead and ride, but do LOTS of walking.  For the first few rides, we just walk. Walking is low impact and easy on legs.  If you want to include some difficulty, add in some hills to walk up.  I have a great one on my driveway that is perfect to slightly increase breathing on a long walk  (It does it to me too when I start my own routine).

• Breathing – I know when I start getting myself back into shape I notice my lack of fitness the most in my breathing.  I walk up a hill and feel like I should have walked a couple of miles.  I keep in mind how awful I feel when I’m getting back into shape when I consider my horse’s well being as he or she is getting back into shape.  I make sure to listen closely to breathing to tell how stressed my horse is.  If she is puffing or breathing quickly, then we take a walk break.  Hopefully you will notice as your conditioning work continues that the amount of recovery time your horse needs will get shorter.

• Ride Evenly – Make sure when you are riding, especially if working in a ring, to ride both ways the same amount of time so muscles are worked evenly on both sides of the horse.

• Stretching – Stretching your horses muscles can help with recovery and lactic acid build up as they get back into shape.   I have always read not to stretch cold muscles.  You can lounge your horse first or make stretching a part of your cool down after you ride.  Allow lots of stretching during your ride as well. Give your horse his or her head and allow them to stretch their neck and back muscles.

• Work on Yourself – Lets face it we are out of shape probably just as much as our horses (or more).  Take time to work on yourself. An exercise program for yourself can help you get back into shape.  I tell myself “if she has to do it, I’ve got to do it.”  Long walks early in conditioning can be a great opportunity to work on your own position too.

Listed below are some other articles on conditioning work.  Good luck getting back in shape!

http://www.womenandhorses.com/newsletter-2005march.html

This article below has good information on pulse rates and respiratory rates when conditioning your horse.  Scroll down to the conditioning section on the page.

http://www.saddleshop.com/sentinel/conditioning_horse.htm

http://www.horse-vacation.com/artConditioning.php

I think anything we do with horses isn’t “natural. ” Think about it, we ride ON their backs.  In nature, a horse would think an animal on its back means possible death.  Riding is not natural to a horse, it is something that is  learned.  What we can do is build a relationship with our horses based on trust, mutual respect, and good communication.

The horse in this video has obviously gone thorough extensive training.  I found it interesting how the rider has her horse trained to the touch of her hand when riding without a bridle.   Watch her canter circles and see how her hands change with the direction he is traveling.  Interesting to watch.  By the way, I don’t recommend to anyone riding without a saddle and bridle.  Especially the bridle part! What do you think?

Some of you new to dressage may wonder, “what exactly is hyperflexion or rollkur?” These terms refer to working a horse where his or her head is behind the vertical. According to proper classical dressage technique, the horse’s head should be perpendicular to the ground. A way to visualize this is to picture an imaginary line coming straight down from the horses eye; the horse’s nostril should not fall behind this line. Terms you might hear from a judge if your horse is hyperflexed would include behind the vertical and overflexed. The concern, is that many riders and trainers are consistently using hyperflexion as a training method to get fast results and more exaggerated movements. Horse’s are being overflexed for extended periods of time which could cause physical damage as well as behavior problems. Below I found another video which helps to explain the concept of abused hyperflexion and rollkur.

Sooo… what do I think about the topic? I think any kind of training technique taken to an extreme can be harmful to an animal including horses. A whip used improperly can be a very bad training tool. If used properly, it can be a great subtle way to communicate with your horse. The same goes with spurs. Spurs are not made to dig into your horse’s side when he or she does something you don’t like them to do. They should be used as a enhance communication and even lighten the use of your aids. Hyperflexion when abused is harmful, however, many use stretching techniques with their horses to help improve muscle elasticity and suppleness. I’m sure some of you have done the treat trick where you hold a horse treat close to your horses chest and they stretch their necks to reach the treat. You don’t hold the treat there for 1/2 an hour, just for a brief moment and your horse stretches and takes the treat. You can also do the same stretch to the sides of your horse. I bet many of you will agree with me this is not harmful to your horse other than they may get too many treats and gain weight . Many of us do stretching exercises when warming up our horses, but do not trot around the ring for 1/2 and hour with our horse’s face to his chest.

I think a picture taking out of context of an entire ride can look much worse that it may actually be. On the other hand, I have scribed for test where myself and the judge were cringing each time the horse’s nose touched his chest, I just wanted to yell “STOP DOING THAT, JUST STOP!”

I am glad to see action is being taking to regulate these training methods. Creating standards for Stewards is a great start. The next place to go is judge and instructor certification programs. Specific dialogs should be included in these programs regarding hyperflexion. I’m sure some commentary is already present. I can think way back to my when I was a beginner dressage rider, I knew what overflexed was right away and that it was incorrect. Possibly if this topic is stressed with up and coming judges and instructors fresh out of training, the mindset of hyperflexion overuse can be changed.

It would be great to hear from the instructors, judges, and riders out there? What do you think about the hyperflexion controversy? What are your opinions on the FEI’s decisions?

My lack of riding this winter got me thinking about riding in the snow. I have heard about riding in snow before, but don’t really ride in the snow much myself because the slushy snow causing what appears to me as rather trecherous snowballs in the bottom of hooves. Of course my mare without shoes does much better than my mare with shoes. I wondered how people safely and successfully ride their horses in the snow. This is what I found out.

Your farrier can be an excellent person to speak with if you would like to ride in the snow. There are several different things you can do to increase your horse’s traction.

stud for a horseshoe

Studs – studs screw into the bottom of your horse’s shoe. They are similar to running shoes if you like to run cross country, or cleats. Eventers are popular for using them to get more traction in poor footing. They are supposed to be removed after you ride. Studs can be added to any kind of shoe you will just have to ask your farrier to drill stud holes for you. Expect a little extra charge with that as well. The process of putting them and and removing them can be time consuming.

snowball hoof pad

Snowball pads – these are pads that can be added to your horse’s feet to help protect from the snowball build up that heavy snow can cause.

Ice nails- nails with altered heads to give your horse more traction. They are driven in the hoof just like regular nails. They cannot be removed without taking off the shoe so they could cause some discomfort long term.

Lets hear from you. Are you a pro at riding in the snow? If so what do you do to keep you and your horse safe?

I’ve also included a little winter video I found below to get you in the snowy mood. Maybe I’m trying to force myself to like the white stuff. Possibly if I had a Clydesdale and a sleigh just might! It looks like fun and something I may have to add to my bucket list.

References:

Thompson, Laura. Protect Your Horse’s Hooves During the Winter. http://horse-care.suite101.com/article.cfm/protect_your_horses_hooves_during_the_winter

Bishop, Wash. Get a Grip with Horseshoe Studs. http://www.equisearch.com/horses_riding_training/english/eventing/studs_100406/