Lucas

[nat]

jasmine you and lucas are coming so far...it's amazing!!

liz haha tht is so true..you always do that..xo

[Jasmine]

Thanks guys Ha ha Liz I have several pics of you doing that

I just got back from the nea. It's been a fun but long 2 days ha ha. On Friday I did the w/t A and B tests and the w/t eq. They went really well; I got 1st in both tests and 4th in eq.

Then on Saturday I went in the avalon division. I got 1st in the first o/f class, 4th in the second o/f and didn't place in the u/s. Hack type classes aren't Lucas and I's strong point . When it was time for our eq and hack classes it started to pour sheets of rain so they post-boned the last few english classes to tomorrow. So it's back to the track again tomorrow morning.

EDIT:

So me and Lucas are done at the nea! We ended up doing pretty well this morning. We got 1st in jr. B eq u/s, 4th in road and show hack and 6th in pleasure horse. We had a bit of bad luck in pleasure horse, Lucas broke from canter to trot right in front of the judge . Ha ha oh well what can you do? I had a fantastic weekend and can't wait for next year's show season .

[Ashlyn]

I love love love love love love loveeee Lucas! I can't tell you that enough, I'm so jealous. black tack looks gorgeous on him.

[Jessica]

He's beautiful, Jasmine! You guys did wonderfully in the show.

[Jasmine]

Thanks guys

Lucas had the day off yesterday. I took him inside for an half hour to groom him and gave him an apple. You could tell he was tired, for the whole half hour he let the cross ties support his head. Poor guy was beat out.

[Jasmine]

Here's what me and Lucas have been up too for the past couple days:

Friday
Had a lesson with Liz and worked on timing I guess, ha ha I don't know what to call it. Well what we did was we went up in an empty field and practised trotting 200m in 1 minute and cantering 350m in 1 minute. It took a couple of tries until I got the timing right so I didn't finish too early/late. It was a blast and a good break from schooling ring work.

Saturday
Clovelly had an open house day and me and Lucas helped out with the jumping demo. We just did some lines and such while the people visiting the open house watched. It was lots of fun and we both really enjoyed it.

Today
Lunged Lucas with side-reins before I rode to get him to round and start bending. It took a couple of minutes to warm-up and except the bit but after he was fantastic! He started to use his hind quarters to push forward went went round. Then when I got on after he was was a lot easier to get bending and round; I love my side reins ha ha . Now only if I could get him to hold his frame for more than a couple stride.

[anitaridemore]

Jasmine.. that was your intro to conditioning work!! The boys looked they were having a pile of fun too!

[Jasmine]

Oh so that's what you call it.

Anyways I had a jumping lesson yesterday. We did gymnastic lines for the whole lesson so that we could work on my eq. I love dong gymnastics, they're so much fun! While Liz was setting up the jumps I warmed up w/t/c and did a bit of pole work.

Then when the line was set up we started to jump it. What I would do was trot to the first jump (a vertical) and would canter away to the next jump (a plank jump) and canter away to the third jump (an oxer). For the first few rounds all the jumps were only around 2' but then Liz raised the oxer to 2'6 and then 2'9. It was first time ever jumping anything over 2'3 so I was pretty excited ;D .

For the full lesson I worked on my eq, I have this really bad habit of throwing my shoulders forward and just kind of standing up in the saddle. I practised bending more at my hip and pushing my hands down on the side of Lucas's neck so I don't come out of the saddle so much.

I also practiced keeping my elbows more relaxed before the jump. It actually really helps if your elbows are relaxed,you can feel when your horse is going to take off. A little light bulb went on when I figured it out It was a really fun lesson, probably one of the best jumping lessons yet

[Jasmine]

Had a really good ride yesterday. For the first while I did some flat work w/t/c and then Nat said that she'd watch me jump if I wanted to so I did. I took Lucas over a cross rail a couple of times, then a 2' vertical and then a 2' line. Nothing big but it was really fun.

Lucas was enjoying himself as well, he had his ears forward the entire time and he didn't want to stop cantering after each jump. Lacey was also out riding Sid so I walked around with her for a few minutes before heading into the barn. After I un-tacked Lucas I took him outside and grazed by the arena until my mom came to pick me up. I have a lesson on Saturday so I'll update this again then.

Jasmine

[Jasmine]

Had jumping lesson today. After warm-up I worked on getting Lucas to collect and extend his stride in canter. Then Liz set up a cross-rail bounce. We had a bit of a hard time collecting then staying forward to the next jump (we need to school it more on the flat) so after a couple of tries Liz turned the bounce into a regular line.

The line was made up of a cross-rail to a vertical and then an oxer. The first time I jumped the line the oxer was only 2'3, then Liz made it 2'6, 2'9 and then finally 3'. I didn't bother to ask how high the oxer was until I went over it, I really didn't want to know ha ha.

hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54349&id=751195093

^^
Some pictures of my lesson are there.

[happilyeverafter]

wow! 3' jasmine!!! thats awesome yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jasmine]

Thx

Since Lucas is starting to get a fairly thick winter coat I'm think I might clip him to help keep him cooler when I work him hard throughout the winter months. There's only one problem, Lucas is terrified of the sound our clippers make. He'll let me rub the clippers all over his body, even on his belly and legs when they're turned off but if I turn them on, watch out. All of his muscles tense up and he starts snorting like a pig.

I really want to get him used to clippers since he needs to be clipped so today was day 1 of clipper desensitization for Lucas. First when I took Lucas out to groom I took the clippers out let him sniff them when they were turned off. Once Lucas knew that they weren't horse eating monsters I stepped back a couple of steps and turned them on.

I then hung them on a hook so Lucas could listen to the sound they make the entire time I groomed him. By the end of his groom Lucas was a lot more relaxed with the noise. He dropped his head and stopped his snorting so I'm guessing that's a good sign. What I hope to do is the next few times I'm out with him I'll let him listen to the sound while I groom him and hopefully that will help him get over his clip-a-phobia ha ha. If anybody else has any ideas how to get Lucas used to clippers I'm all ears.

[Jasmine]

Had a flat lesson with Liz on Saturday. After warming up Liz had me practice leg yielding. I'm not too good at it yet, Lucas likes to move his shoulder faster than his hind-quarters so we end up doing a really wonky leg yield, oh well guess we did to practice those

Then Liz had me cross my stirrups and we worked on collecting his trot stride then lengthening it and then collecting it again. That went really well, by the time we finished the exercise Lucas would actually "collect" his stride. He's starting to come up under himself instead of just slowing down. After we did the same thing at the canter, which also went really well. I was very proud of my pony after that lesson

Today I had a lesson with Lynn, which was fantastic! For the first while I practiced picking Lucas up and asking him to round at the walk. What I would do is I'd get Lucas to round and except the bit then I'd gradually drop my contact, walk around for a minute then pick him up again. I did that both directions a few times and when we were finished doing it Lucas was very light and it only took a few seconds to get him to except the bit and round!

Then we moved on the trot. Lynn had me try to keep Lucas round and excepting the bit while trotting. It's become a lot easier to keep Lucas round, he can now hold it for more than a couple of strides which is pretty exciting because we've been working on that all summer. Then we tried to do the same thing at canter. I did get him balance his canter a lot more than it usually is and he did round for a stride so I was happy with the canter work. I just need to figure out when to put my leg on and when to half-halt so Lucas doesn't break to trot. Oh why does dressage have to be so technical lol . Anyways my last two lessons were amazing! And look once again I've written a novel

[Jasmine]

I was sick and tired of my pony looking like a woolly mammoth so Lucas was clipped today. He was surprisingly really good, he wasn't all that fussy about it. I guess getting him used to the clippers before hand paid of ha ha.

After I did that I tacked Lucas up and hopped on for a short ride. I briefly worked on collection/extension at trot and canter then popped over a small vertical set up in the arena just to do something other than flat work. To cool out I took Lucas on a short hack up through clovelly's back fields. It was a really nice ride. I have a jumping lesson tomorrow ;D and I can't wait!

[Jasmine]

I had my jumping lesson today. First we jumped without stirrups, very painful but it helped my eq a lot so I'm not complaining. We did that both directions then we jumped a 4 stride line (vertical to oxer). We worked on making the striding not too tight then we did it in the opposite direction (oxer to vertical) which made that even harder.

Then Liz set up a broken line so we jumped the 4 stride to the broken line and then we circled back around and jumped the first jump of the broken line. We did that a few times before cooling out.