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Dresseur

Dresseur if I find my horse wants to fall over the inside shoulder I think about holding the shoulders just a half step to the outside. My inside knee and thigh on and reins slightly to the outside but not crossing over. For me it is never only about the reins. In fact the reins are my last resort....

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Chisamba, I need to go and find what you wrote - sometimes when I don't log on for a while I miss things in the thread! But yes, yes to what you said! Although... what Miro was doing was bringing the shoulder to the inside and dropping the outside rein connection slightly- not blowing through the ou...

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So, I thought I was controlling the shoulders - until I figured out that I wasn't really... and oh what a difference shoulder control makes! So, Andrea had given me the piri on a square exercise - at first I was to straighten, then put haunches in, do a 1/4 turn in pirouette and then straighten and ...

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I honestly don't know what's wrong with me... maybe I'm a sociopath, but I feel fine right now. Like, ok, that door closed, on to the next thing. It's really, really bothering me. Maybe it's just a survival mode thing, and I had to cut my (very abusive) dad out of my life when I was 15 after he trie...

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You and me both, Chisamba lol! Particularly the right piri. Although, I've found that every time I'm not staying upright, it's because Miro or whoever else has gone a bit behind my leg.

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Tanga, there's a post somewhere where I talk about that, but I can't find it lol. So, this was definitely unorthodox, we did start with passage with him. The reason being that he couldn't figure out how to just trot small. So, we were missing all of those gears - and, because I've done a majority of...

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So, I am all moved into the farm. Miro had a solid week off, not that he minded lol. He's starting to make some movement towards understanding the half steps. Blurry passage (really low light because I refused to turn on the lights) IMG_5540.jpg Bit less blurry half steps) IMG_5538.jpg Ollie approve...

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Just as an update. I'm doing about as fine as I can be. I am seeing a therapist to help me get through this time, and while most of it feels completely overwhelming, I'm getting through day by day. Redsoxluvr, your situation sounds similar to mine. I had no idea the level of unhappiness and resent h...

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Aleuronx, fingers crossed for you and landing the right job (also, lovely horse :)! Blob, take your time to heal, I know how hard it is to be out of the saddle due to injury, but don't rush it - the last think you need is a set back and more time out of the saddle. Everyone else, great work, I love ...

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Welcome! Lovely, LOVELY horse you have!

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Miro and I had a big two months, and now the hard work begins to get him to GP! He has started to touch on schooling the work - the trot half pass patterns, he understands the passage and he's got a handle on the 2s. We will wait until we can control every step of the 2s before we teach him the ones...

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Rye, it's on my FB... I think you're friends with me and should be able to see it.

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]I'm so happy to say that Miro exceeded every expectation that I had of him. We debuted at I1 this Sunday, and not only was he professional, rideable and focused, but he went in and placed 3rd with a 63.2%, just behind 2 very established GP teams (it was FEI TOC class) and with a judge that was scor...

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We have a week and a half before the show. We have not practiced the test at all - I know the test and he knows the test (a little too quickly for my liking lol). So, instead, we have been working on the adjustability and control of the canter. I don't know what will happen in the test - but I'm ple...

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I'm definitely not. Although, in another about face... suddenly he wants the house, and does NOT want to move in with his parents (not that I blame him). But suddenly he has all these ideas about what he wants to do with the house, nevermind we have projects that have been sitting for 10 years. In a...

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I'm definitely not selling Miro. Hell, I'm thisclose to GP... no f'ng way am I giving that up. And yea, I did a full inventory of the house so that I would have it. I need to get into the safe so that I can see his DD214 and see if I'm under the 10/10 rule for military retirement perks. I just don't...

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Thank you all. Just knowing that others have survived storms like this is encouraging. Hayburner, I have. I did all that I could do. The thing is, he has been thinking about this for a while now, and just never bothered to tell me. So, his mind was made up. We did one marriage counseling session, th...

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Thank you all. Just knowing that others have been through and survived is heartening. I'm just heartbroken and sick to my stomach over all of this, and so, so scared.

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My husband of 17 years called it quits. I’m blindsided and devastated and so scared. There are no kids, part of the issue that caused this, but. How did you guys pick up the pieces?

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Make a list of things you are willing to negotiate on (color/height/age/gaits) and things you won't (temperament, soundness for the job you intend for it to be doing, comfortable gaits, certain vices etc.). Expand your search a touch, go 16.2 instead of 16 or 15.1 instead of 15.3 (idk what your heig...

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So, big whew... Miro is sound, the stocking up has subsided - but he appears to have retained a touch of bog spavin from whatever reaction he had. It wasn't there before the shot, and its emergence coincided with the rest of the symptoms, so I'm not worried about it and I think it will also subside ...

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I've fixed a lot of things over the years, most times it's simply reminding myself over and over - like Khall said, picking a place in the arena and reminding yourself - and then practicing that thing ad nauseum until it becomes part of your dna. I also found that it useful when practicing things in...

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I think like all things, it's a case by case basis. My horse, a full andy, struggled with following the rein down and out. He'd follow the rein, but would curl even on a completely loose rein- like many of them do. We started incorporating a stretching warm up after he was able to be collected prope...

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Tanga that description of the reactions actually makes me feel better. The swelling in the limbs was really weird and concerning to me. He’s perfectly sound so far.

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Well, Miro had his flu/rhino on Wednesday, and today he presented with a slight fever, and moderate pitting edema from fetlock down in both hinds, a bit of weird swelling at front of right hock, and mild edema in both fronts from fetlock down. I'm praying it's just a reaction to the shot.

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I'd do it Tanga... that's why we're trying for the I1 even though the tempis with me are still hit or miss (but steadily improving now that I have this set up thing on my radar.)

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So, my last ride was incredibly eye opening. I went into it thinking about the setup and making sure that I could collect him to any degree I wanted to and as long or as little as I wanted to. At first, he was game, and then I started asking for single changes, and he blew me off big time. At first,...

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Interested in Chisamba’s response, but from what I know, have been taught, yes- once the horse understands the mechanic, you push into a bigger (more volume) canter, which makes the changes more expressive.

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Blob, don’t despair. With me, Miro is still occasionally late. We’ve pinpointed it to the setup. I don’t get him to build volume in the canter stride and he stays that ever so slightly down in the shoulder, which enables him to push the shoulder over. So even though I have the right canter- meaning ...

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One thing to keep in mind is that the change happy horse is a part of the process when they start to get the idea of changes, so don't get too discouraged! Just quietly bring him back and restrike the lead if he jumpa ahead of you or breaks.

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Flight, fwiw, I think you're on the right track and screw those FB comments. Exvet, I'm in change hell too right now. Andrea can get on and do lines of 3's and 2's easy - but she can control every stride of the canter. With me, the lack of control has come home to roost. We can do our warmup changes...

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Chisamba, no counter canter in the I1, the big moves in canter are the hp zig zag (not as many crosses over centerline and no counting as in GP), the piri “V” pattern, 3 tempis and 2 tempis.

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And I’m entered.

Six weeks to get my $@?! together.

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Just updating here... Miro is definitely progressing at this point. I think I mentioned before that we finally tried the French method of in hand work, basically giving him ultimate freedom so he can't lean, brace or lock his body. Another week down and there are recognizable piaffe steps and he's s...

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Well, I'm sure this will mean that everything will go horribly wrong in very short order, but the decision has been made to enter Miro into his first I1. The show is towards the end of October, so we have a little bit of time to get our crap in order. The trot tour is no issue, the piris and canter ...

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Blob, yes, conventionally, you would teach piaffe/half steps before passage because the danger is that they lock into those slower, less under behind steps. Piaffe should teach the quickness and the diagonal rhythm that you can then push out into passage. In rare cases like Miro’s, passage can come ...

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Agreed! I felt that all the gaits really improved the better the passage got, and his back felt more and more knitted together, especially in the trot. Update of piaffe work, we finally ditched side reins and went to more of a French method, which affords more freedom, And we tapped on the front of ...

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Blob, that is a HUGE difference! SF and Blob, I'm always amazed at what good work does to horse's backs.

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Dresseur have you tried RB on bending lines like 10m circles or RB in SI, HI or renvere to help shorten the steps? The bending lines helped Rip do this. If you try the rotation to piaffe you will have to let us know how it when. RB we've done on bending lines, and it does start to shorten/quicken t...

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Flight, imo there were some really nice steps in there, particularly towards the end of the vid. This is just a question, not a critique, why are you asking on the spot with him (out of halt) vs keeping it moving forward? Wasn't sure if there was something that you were feeling or observing that was...

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The other possibility would be to start half steps in a rotation. So kind of a big moving TOF and ask for trot in that movement. Anja Beran uses this and if you have ever read the German Handbook of Riding they also use this method and it is how I started my long gone Han/TB mare years ago before I...

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Things are changing so much, so fast with both my riding and with Miro that I'm having a hard time coming up with 2 month goals. What I hope will happen is that we can reliably do 4 and 3 tempis on my count by the end of these next two months... we'll see, last lesson there was hope! That I can scho...

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And on this last day of August, a sad decision has been reached. My good friend has made the decision to let her mare go. I've known Copper since she was 4 years old, she's 13 now... and while she looks to be the picture of health, a bout of antibiotic resistant cellulitis left her left hind a ticki...

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I watched the video - imo, that much bend in the canter due to the circles and the counter canter circles invites late changes - which is exactly what she was getting. The horse has to stay straight if you're doing a figure 8, or stay straight on short diagonals.

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Miro and I have been plugging away. Sorry, this is long, sort of steam of consciousness, sort of notes. The good news, I ALMOST feel like myself again. One of Andrea's students is a yoga instructor who focuses on mobility issues in seniors, so she very kindly set up a series of stretches for my leg ...

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That's awesome Mari!!!

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I agree with much of what Blob is saying. When we taught Willie changes, he was a rearrange your back and take off kind of dude. We did a ton of simple changes with him, and asked for changes in different areas along the diagonal so lesson the anticipation. However, the best way to stop the blasting...

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Blob, I wonder if when MM is in the big girl canter, if she's not actually slowing and dwelling behind, or coming into the hand so much that she's getting the hind end blocked. I agree, it doesn't make sense that you would need to flatten the canter to get clean changes, and the only thing I can thi...

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Those that I’ve felt needed shoes felt a bit tentative behind... or that transitions weren’t as crisp or weight bearing as I would likely that mediums and extensions didn’t really dig in a push. Sometimes that there were uneven wear patterns or worn areas/low heels. Those were ones I tried, and if i...

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Chisamba, I was thinking of her too as I wrote that. God awful feet. And I tried for years to lessen the dependence on shoes. No dice.

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