Connor

[Danielle;]

Maria, you guys looked great today, and I've never been so impressed with you. Both yourself and Connor have come so far in the last few months, it's unbelievable. All I can say is congrats, and I'm honored to be able to work with you two. Keep up the good work and never give up; he'll be your best teacher. See you barn side!

[Amyy]

Oh Maria!!
I am SOSOSOSOSOSOSO SO! Proud of you.

You guys are going to do great. I really hope you come visit me and Bella soon. We miss you and the Con-man.

Its great to hear you guys are doing so well. Keep up the good work! And Danielle tell her a few times its not so bad to ride in jeans for me would you!

[maria]

Ok, so, this deserves an update, lol!

Connor has been going pretty well lately, he lost some weight, and of course muscle, so I'm trying to fatten him up again while bringing his muscle back. I've also been getting some english lessons, and trying to find a good coach for me and Connor, just to try and get back on track!

We had a lesson with Biz about a week ago, and that went pretty well, and then this past Thursday I had a lesson with Donna. It took us about 45 minutes to get him working and warmed up, and to have him moving forward and off my leg, but after that he went really nicely. At then end we worked on leg yielding, and grapes, which are where you walk down the center line and do voltés off of them.

Then, yesterday, we had the Mary Lew dressage show-clinic. My warm up was pretty much walking around, and doing a few steps of trot. We went last, and did Training Level 1 and 4, and First Level Test 1. I was pretty worried about it, considering the last time we did them was 2 years ago, and we had NEVER ran through the first level

When I rode them I felt like I was doing terrible, but when I look back at the videos, it wasn't actually too bad, and if you saw us the day before, you'd think I was riding a different horse! When I think of what we were like this past week, he really turned his game on for last night. My horse is such a ham!!! lol! His canter departures were quite good, considering it took all I had just to get him to move the night before

However my favorite was his extended trot across the diagonal. He most certainly knows what to do when you do a diagonal in trot!!! Even my dad (who doesn't know anything about horses) could hear and see a difference in his steps across it

[krys]

post the videos, maria!!

[maria]

haha here they are! I'll post them in the Picture Place though, as well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OZIo3C8isE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY4n9arDK6I

[maria]

Just wanted to let everyone know that we jumped for the first time today well since the accident at least. He was super, and really took care of me. Just kept a nice steady rhythm and popped over it no fuss! I wanted to keep going, but decided to stop after he did it so well. More jumping soon to come, lol!

[Amyy]

ooooo! how exciting!!
Keep me updated with how its going!
Soon gonna start bella over small cross rails! And you need to come watch!

[maria]

I'm excited for Bella, haha! I'll come out and teach you guys over huge fences!!!

Well, just a quick update! These past few days I've been working on this great pattern of poles that I put together. I've been doing a lot of trot and canter on a longer rein, and had Connor going nice and forward. When we went over our poles, I was working on keeping everything very even and not fussing and unbalancing him. I also practiced 2-point over a pole, and then sitting back right away. I find I stay very forward in the saddle after he does it, and it's not a very secure spot if anything should happen after we land.

Today I set up some more poles and 2 standards. Did the same thing as the past few days, working on not "trying" to hard, and just setting him up quietly and then leaving him alone. Carol was nice enough to then set up a X-rail and we practiced that from the trot and canter both directions. He was doing it so well, I decided to have her raise it to a small vertical, and we did the same thing over that.

He did it perfectly every time, except for once. I turned him too sharp with a lot of inside rein, and then over corrected back and was fiddling to much. Believe it or not, but I was actually almost happy when he refused. It gave me something to look back on and see what went differently that time, as opposed to the other times when he jumped it nicely. Once I figured that out, I went and tried it again, and he jumped it no problem.

[Becca]

i have to agree with you, i love it when my horse calls me out on me doing something wrong; it's a good reminder! rocky used to do it to me when i wasn't completely straight for the lead changes or accidently backing up a step before a spin.. and its like an 'ohh yeahh but oh shit' moment.. haha

[maria]

Well, didn't too much today....just JUMPED 3'0 ;D haha It's my personal best with Connor, as our highest was 2'9, back when I first started leasing him.

I have to say, he was absolutely perfect today! He was much more forward, so that was a nice break for sure! He was a dream to warm up and is simple changes are beautiful, they're so close to flyings! That's one thing we still need to work on. After I warmed up Chrissy (Christina Pretty) hopped on and took him for a spin. He was the ideal school pony, and she did w/t and a bit of canter with him. I hopped back on, and then we started jumping!

I had set up a X-rail and a vertical on either quarter line and we warmed up over that. He did it so easily I had her raise a bit, he didn't even blink! I was SO surprised when I measured it to 3 feet afterwords. It had looked big cantering towards it, but not THAT big. His spot was a little deep the first time, but after that he found it nicely. We did a few lower ones after that, as I didn't want to push him, and then Chrissy cooled him out. He got lots of treats after that, and Chrissy got PICTURES too!!! So when she uploads them I'll post a few of our jumping pictures!

[krys]

Congrats! Excited to see pictures!

[maria]

Ok, so in between all the flat work, and moving forward stuff we had a jumping lesson with Alysha! She set up a line, and we worked on coming in at the trot and canter. We got it at the trot, but when we started cantering, I had to really use outside aids to turn him. Whenever I used inside rein he'd run out. I'm starting to relize what Sue meant when she said he was a great eq horse haha You HAVE to do it right, or he just won't do it. By the end of it, he was powering through the 2-stride, haha!

Then after the show (and watching everyone ride) I figured out some things that I'm going to work on. Obviously, the "turning on the outside rein" one is VERY important. It's not even just my horse who needs this, I saw a lot of people turn with a lot of inside rein, and their horses ran out because they weren't straight.

I've also decided that by the end of my "desensitization jumping session" Connor is going to jump ANYTHING I point him at. I started by cutting down some brush and stuffing it under a x-rail. I walked him in and led him up to it. At first he was like "soooo what am I looking at??? OHHH, FOOD!" haha. We jumped it a few times, and he didn't even blink an eye! Very happy!

Day 1, complete! Next, probably flowers and cones under the jump.Then I'm going to put streamers on the poles, or ballons, plus we have a tarp/mat thing, like a liverpool, and of course the jacket/blanket on the jump. I'm also planning on trying to build one of those barrels, like the one that was used in the show and school him over those kinds of things! Should be fun, and great training.

[maria]

Unfortunately all of our plans have been put on hold. I got a phone call today, telling me Connor's lame, and he spent the day lying down in his shelter One frantic drive later I arrived up at the barn to find him standing eating hay. He's limping pretty badly when he walks around, but when I went up he was doing sort of ok.

Carol had called the vet, but once I got there I called him myself, and surprisingly he picked up second ring! Had a nice chat, and then he came down to the barn about 1/2 hour later. I'm defiantly not complaining, especially since this is the first time I've ever tried to contact him!

Basically he's just on bute for swelling and pain, and maybe a bit of hand-walking in the next couple days if he's not limping to badly. I felt absolutely terrible, and have been trying to figure out how he did it. I've been very careful jumping and how much of it we've been doing, and I didn't ride yesterday either. It's obvious that he pulled a muscle in his shoulder, I think he wanted the same kind of "vacation" I got when I broke MY shoulder We think he maybe did something in his paddock, if he turned quickly, or maybe got his hoof stuck and jerked a muscle.

Sigh. It did work out though, Kevin said he or Danielle'll be coming back to take blood in a week or so, and to start on all the vaccines and dietary supplements he'll need for the big trip before September. Because of this incident at least i got to talk to the vet face to face, plus Connor'll get his full examination, so it all sorta worked out in the end.

[maria]

So I'm home from Ottawa for a month before going back up there with Connor. I went up to see him yesterday after I flew in, and surprisingly I was very chill, no "running and throwing my arms around him" like they do in the movies, trust me, I've had my fill of horses these past few weeks Hopped on bareback and trotted around to see how he felt, then let him run around and roll.

I also went up today and rode him, we worked on walk halts, and a bit of forward trot. He did quite well, considering he hasn't been worked and was off for a while, and I even got compliments on my dressage posture! According to Oz (up at Queenswood) he could see an improvement in myself, and it was nice to see people here noticing it as well

I'm going to be riding him twice a day (and riding anyone else I can get my hands on, lol!) as much as I can to get him and myself muscled up and working back to the top, especially for the trailer trip and for the training up at Queenswood.

[maria]

Ok, so another update is probably necessary! After a bit of thinking, panning and un-planning, I ended up not going back to Queenswood, and I took the time to re-think the whole "university for horses" thing. To make a long story short, I've decided to pursue para-medicine, and keep riding for something I enjoy doing, as opposed to a work/live/all the time thing that I found myself wishing myself away from.

But onto the more important part, my man Connor! He's been doing quite well since our move to Clovelly a few months ago. He's gained a humongous amount of weight, and is ridiculously happy at Clovelly, as am I. I can't say enough about all they have done to get him back up to standard. Our rides have been just great, because he's happier and I'm much less stressed and enjoying myself again.

After a month or two we had done a few clinics, one with Mary Lew, which was very beneficial. I also started lessons with Jess A. I was flattered when she let me ride Cabbie for the first bit of my lesson, before switching to Connor for the rest. It was the first time I really "couldn't get something" right away, and it rotted me!!! We ended up working for 2 weeks on our w/t, moving from riding an hour and 1/2 of walk, finally up to an hour of walk and 1/2 hour of trot. We went back to our lesson and tried our canter, but it was still (IMO) messy. We started the next week still perfecting our w/t and then finally after a few days moved onto our canter. After our next lesson, we were consistently schooling our canter, and actually "getting it" all 3 gaits.

In my last lesson were worked on lateral movements, and getting him to track up and move forward into the contact. At the end he was super light in my hands, I was so pleased!!!

I'm also becoming a real dressage rider...(aka)...I can school (almost) my entire 1 1/2-2 hour ride in sitting trot lol!!!