My Funny Valentine

[Becca]

I need a break from studying, so i'll start one of these:P

velvet is 3 and 9 months old, she's a rocky mountain x qh. she was backed a month and 4 weeks ago, and is going fabulous if i say so myself.

we had one of two clinic sessions today with mary lew. we worked on our leg yeilds, and keeping cadience threw them. she was pretty lazy more then usual but thankfully we got ahold of a dressage crop comming to the end of our ride and she was an all star after that. also worked on keeping her rib cage threw our circles which worked wonders with us i'm very pleased with the progress from one session! i can't wait for tomorrows ride !(thankfully it doesnt require me waking up 6 am again )

[Becca]

todays ride was AMAZING. she was an all star and blew it all threw the roof!

We started out doing 3 point loops on both reins, and doing 10 metre 'walk piriohettes' at the second point as our warmup, and keeping our caidence through them. after we worked on leg yeilding at the walk, and we introduced her to turn on the forhand (only doing a 1/4 & 1/2 of a turn). I worked on turn on the haunch before with her, but not on the forhand. she was getting the two commands mixed up at first, but after some box work & mary lew helping us on the ground a few times we got an excellent 1/2 turn in on our own. then we warmed up at the trot doing lots of figures and leg yeilds(which i must say, are pretty damn impressive ), getting her responsive off my aids. after we did steering on a long rein and she was amazing at that. after we picked up our trot again and started to work on our canter! she was having difficulty on the left lead even though we'd pick it up when the right foot was down, but she was an ol' pro on the right! we did a few long sides, then did half the arena ( one short side one long side) and she was nothing but amazing. I was super proud. I got alot of really good excersises and stuff to work on consistantly with for the next while, i'm very pleased with the clinic!!

can't wait for her to come back

[katlyn]

you guys seem to be doing good !

[oxmaybesoxo]

Becca thats Awesome!!
She seems like such a sweet sweet talent little girl!!!
I've never thought about Rocky Mountain horses much before but after meeting this little girl I'd really have to consider getting one (In many years when I finaly get my own horse lol)

[Becca]

I adore rockies, I never looked at them before I must say, but after working with her they totally changed my perspective on them. she's so talented, intellegient, willing, and a heart of gold i couldn't ask for anything better. she's been nothing but a doll to work with. i can't get over how far we've come in just two months, it blows my mind.

we're going to be busy this week making up our musical ride. I'm planning on doing one, if i can find a walk/trot partner i might do two haha.

[Becca]

Just a quick update.
Missy moo has had a few days off due to myself having a lot of projects and what not.

All week we've been working on the exercises Mary lew gave us to get her working off my leg all times and lunging to help with our canter. there was one exercise where we did diagonal change, at X do a 'walk pirouette' continue straight on diagonal'. at first she would suck back on the pirouette, but now she has cadence going threw the whole exercise it's a great feeling .

also worked on lots of transitions, leg yields, and figures. her circles have come quite a long way so I've been doing more figure 8's and serpentines to keep her mind busy. Her leg yields a the trot are amazing, i love riding to it, her walk ones are coming along but need a bit more impulsion to them coming away from the barn, but once she's going they're great .

we did a few full turn on the forhand and haunch on the ground, not once picked up her foot, I'm going to try turn on the forhand under saddle tomorrow see if the ground worked helped any aid reinforcement.

Yay for babies!

[Becca]

wow long time no update!

sence the last update, we've come a long way. missypoo can do full turn on the forhand and haunch no problems, backs up very nicely, haults are nice and square. her transitions are going fabulous, she's comes so nice, round, and supple it's a great feeling her leg yeilds and walk periohettes are nice, forward, and 99% of the time she doesn't throw her shoulder. when she does i switch my diagonal, and that usually helps her pick up her inside back leg and usually we don't have a problem after a correction. we haven't worked on our canter sence the last mary lew clinic as we wanted to solidify our trot work before we move on to canter again, and boy has it ever helped her balance in general. her circles and serpintines are awesome now, and has really helped my center of balance in general (i used to be a lean-aholic when it came to circles and corners ) she also has developed a nice forward caidence to her threwout all her movements and use of space. i'm very pleased! (before she had 2, going towards the barn and away from it )

this weekend we had the mary lew clinic. mary lew was very impressed with the improvement from the last time she saw us, she was very pleased with the progress:). First day we reviewed all the excersises she gave us before, plus gave us some excersises to work on our canter (which will be focusing on now, depending on how our rides are each day at the walk/trot of coarse). i adore Velvets canter, it's just so.. powerful, forward, and smooth it's so nice to ride to. after a few good rounds of canter we ended it early on an excellent note. i was very pleased.

sunday's ride velvet was a bit sluggish and lazy at the beginning of our ride. i think she was a bit tired and it was also FREEZING out so it could be a factor. but after a nice warm up she was back to her nice and responsive self . after our warm up we worked on our canter again, and she was fabulous. she didn't pick up her left lead at first (which is fine, we only had one lead a month ago ) but after some circle work she picked it up and no problems after that, we didn't do as much canter work as we did on saturday as we wanted to work on something else.

mary lew asked if we ever have done pole work before and i said no. we threw her over 4 poles at tangent points at the lunge once, but that's all we've ever done. mary lew wanted to get her more aware of her feet and surroundings so that's what we worked on. we started with one pole on each quarter line, and one on the diagonal. after velvet was comfitable going over them all directions at the walk and trot we did a broken line from the diagonal to the quarter line poles, and she did it like it was no biggie. mary lew added another pole to one of the quarter lines, we walked over it and then trotted over it without a phase, so mary lew added another so it was 3 poles and again, velvet handled it like a pro. all together threwout the whole pole work, i believe she knocked the poles only 2 or 3 times, which was excellent, i was so pleased. once i didn't get her going forward enough into the poles, and she adjusted herself so she was able to make the striding without touching them.. she's too smart! mary lew said it takes most horses 3-4 rides to get up to 3 poles in a row, and velvet did it under a half hour, she was very very pleased with her, and how well velvet takes everything.

over all i'm VERY pleased with the clinic, i can't get over the progress we have made over 3 months, she's truely amazing i couldn't be happier with V, she's one of a kind i must say .

oh and just another side note for anyone looking at rockys /stb's/ gaited horses, velvet has her pace broke, it's practically non-exsistant. the only time she takes 1-2 pace steps is when she feels really unbalanced, which i can say is very rare on our rides

[Emily C]

She sounds great Becca. What a nice little mare she is turning out to be. Mary Le sounds really good too, I like alot of the excercises she teaches. They seem very practical and helpful.

[Becca]

Thanks Em they're not complicated at all, but they certainly have helped ALLOT and made her so much more responsive.

She had Monday off sense she was so good this weekend.
Yesterday I lunged and rode. she was an angel to lunge both directions, no problems with her leads at all

i hopped on after she got her sillys out, and she was really responsive.. not so much in a really good nice ride way, she was just slipped some speed or something in her grain in the morning she was wired.. but after a good long walk warm up getting her stepping under herself, walk pirouettes, 10, 20, and 30 meter circles, spirals, and leg yields she was good so we moved up to the trot doing same exercises, excluding the pirouettes and 10 meter circles (not balanced enough yet) i found switching to my inside diagonal on our circles really helped getting her inside hind under her which we worked on in Sunday's session, it was great improvement after she got cadence under all the exercises i worked on our canter. her right was perfect, we did the exercises Mary Lew gave us to help us with our left lead and sure enough she got it after 2 rounds at the left lead i left it at that with a nice long cool out, i was very pleased with our workout Depending on how she is and her mind set, i might just do 2 or 3 canter work outs each week instead of every day, i don't want to over do it and get her 'hyped' up and just expecting to canter every ride. I think I'll work on some pole work tomorrow depending on how cold it is, and how willing i am to move poles

i can't get down tonight because both parents are in meeting's till late, so she's being spoiled this week and getting 2 days off

[Becca]

a little update over past week

i havent been able to get down alot last week because the teachers decided to PILE on the assignements & tests before the holidays.. so i wasn't able to go down last weekend.
this week she's been nothing but a doll set up three roles of poles at the center of the arena. one 1/4 line had 3 poles, the other had 2, and the center had one pole.

beth was in one half of the arena lunging winnie, so i stayed in the upper half doing walk trot warmups. working on our 30 & 20 meter circles, cutting them in half, doing diagonals within the circles, and turn on the forhand. i did work with steering her with my legs (riding on the buckle of the reins) and hoooollyy.. was she ever responsive! we did 90 degree turns threw the center of our circle at the trot, i was really impressed. once beth was finished i worked on our leg yeilds, circles in the other end of the arena, center of the arena, cerpitines and more long rein work. after our warm up i brang her back to a walk, and walked over the 1 pole in the center of the arena to make sure she remembered how to lift her feet both ways, she was perfect at all 1, 2, and 3 poles, so i moved up to trot, and they went without a hitch! i think she knocked them once, but besides that she was an all star

Today it was freezing, and my stuff was left in back of dads truck and he was gone to his works party so i had no way to ride without my boots, so i just lunged threwout the arena w/t/c.

i can't get over how far we've come in just 4 months.. mind boggling from when i started working with her to now! i think my next horse just might be another baby

[katlyn]

I got one thing to ask is she your new horse?
You guys seem to be going great.
Pics soon.

[Renee]

Katlyn,

Velvet is my horse, Becca leases her.... and I might add is doing splendid!

[Becca]

thanks doll! and true deal. i full lease her. she's practically mine without the papers, and i doubt renee will give them up without a fight

i have pictures from my clinic.. just need steven to upload them!!

[katlyn]

Ok.
I know She sounded Fimlar.
Get Pic Asap.
I'd love to see how you guys are doing.

[Becca]

little update
we've been working on all the same things, more left rein work to strengthen up that side as it is her weeker side compaired to her right side. also been doing leg yeilds to the centre instead of just the wall, which are going excellent! most horses pop there shoulder out alot more then if they're going towards the wall, but for the most part she stays pretty straight.

our canter has improved drastically, it's comming along great. her left lead she gets alot easier now, i rarely have any issues with it. her head used to stick to the outside as well, and now her nose is tipped in and she's giving pretty nicely at the bit i usually only do one or two laps, and then leave it at that.

one ride last week when we worked on our canter she gave a mini sundive in one of the corners and then continued on like a pro.. it was so nice to see that there's still a baby in there all i could do was crack up , and no i do not encourage bad behavior like that, it's just i never get to see her have a bit of fun it was hillaraous to see her have a bit of fun

i haven't done much pole work because the ground can be pretty slick and i try to be pretty cautious with it.