Me and Shadow

[Cassie]

OK first of all I want to say sorry I haven't been on in FOREVER but I will be now ok.

So my and Shadow are now training with Brian (Deans dad) since Dean moved away in December. And we are doing AMAZING!!! Shadow is getting so good and Brian is showing me a lot and is getting me into habits the pro's have.

We had 1 show in April and we competed in the LTD non pro and the Youth 14-18 both days and we got two 1st places, one tie for 3rd and the other time I only spun 3.25 times instead of 4.25 times so I got a score of 0 (disqualified basically) but they still keep marking and my score would have been 69.5 which would have put me in 1st) My scores were 68.5 (for the tie for 3rd), 69.5 (1st), 0 (69.5) and 71!!!!!!! (first)
I was SOOOOOO happy about the 71, I couldn't believe it!


And I have another show coming up on May 12-13. I'll let ya know how it goes, wish me luck.

I wasn't able to get pics because of the lighting in the arena but the next show will be in an outdoor arena so I'll get lots of pics for ya

[[J u m p r g r l ♥]]

Awesome!!!! Great job!!

[Cassie]

Thanks! I'm aiming to get 1st in both my classes on both days at the show in May. We'll see how it goes.
I've got a video on my worst run but its not loading. If I can get it to load to my photobucket I'll put it up.

[Cassie]

Shadow's been doing really well. At the last show we did really good and Brian says we're miles better now then at the last show. So I'm hoping for 4 first places. The shows a week away and I'm super excited.

Shadow is going great, I do a lot of framing her up and working on fanning my legs with the strides (thats what the pro's do so Brian has me doing that) which is actually pretty hard when your going at a really fast canter or a gallop. But the point is that it sets the tempo. And then Brian works with me when he comes out then once he's worked with me I go back to doing circles with framing her up and the legs.

Yesterday I went and worked framing her up, straight lines with round and square turns and backing out in the pasture. I love the pasture but its not as fun when you have to just do work. Especially since theres Shadow doesn't understand how to do circles when theres no walls for her to judge with.

[Cassie]

Oh, and now Brian has me using this thing (cant for the life of me remember what its called) that goes under her bridal to teach her to keep her mouth shut. Its works really well. I'm curious to see if she'll keep her mouth shut without it.
Here's a pic of her with it and a bridal

[FreeStyle08]

here in Oregon we call it a cavison I dont know about else were.

and it REALLY good that you have foam at her mouth.

[Cassie]

Thats probably what its called here to. I probably misheard.

Thanks, the amount you see there is about 1/5 of what she normally has. Its pretty gross, she shakes hear head and it'll fly everywhere.

[Cassie]

I had the worst ride ever today!!!!!!!! It started out great, Shadow was doing about 30 foot long slides and her spins for her turnarounds were SO good. Then Brian had me just work on her frame and do some large fast, small slows. Then I let her catch her breath and he told me to counter canter to the left which is at the end with the big door that she sometimes gets a little scared of. SO I go and she wont get withing 10 feet of the door and he's screaming at me thinking its me doing it meanwhile I'm doing everything I can to try to keep her in the circle. So I'm major PMSing and today is the day that I have no control over crying so I start to cry a little after we tried it 4 more times. Then I got really frustrated and was like "Shes scared of the door odviously, theres no way shes gonna go past it" then he's like "well its all your fault for not getting it right the first time" well she was already scared the first time. So then we go to the wall and try to walk psat it and shes just not having it. So he starts yelling and says make her go one step at a time. 1 step, sotp, one more, stop. So I get her to take a step and she takes a few more evn though I've taken my legs off as far as I can so I pull a very little bit on the reins and he screams not to. And so I did that a few times. I either pull on the reins a little and get screamed at, say whoa and get screamed at or let her keep walking and get screamed at, those are ALL of my options at that point! No matter what I did I got screamed at. How the h*ll do you expect me to only have her take 1 step then stop if I cnat say whoa or pull on the reins after a step. My legs are off as shes walking! Then she was backing away from the door all this time and I'm getting yelled at for backing her up but I'm squeezing my legs as hard as I can, clucking lightly and not pulling at all. How is that my fault? And he'd yell if i even tapped her with my spurs. Then he was like "How were you circleing down here before?" and then I was like "this is what she does, shes fine one minuet then its suddenly horrifying to her". So then as if he didn't believe me and thaught everything was all my fault (which he did) he had me go and circle at the other side of the arena on a couinter canter and she did a few circles perfectly then we started shanging leads and she did fine. Then we opened the door all the way (it was about half open before, it pulls up at the top so it was about 6 feet raised) and he had me walk her in and out a few times then go past it and she finally did it. Then had to do some lead changes at that end. Then I was done and gave her a really long bath.

I realize that a horse is only as good as its rider but I dont think thats the case when their panicked and are being asked to counter canter within a foot of the very thing thats terrifying them without giving them the chance to check it o9ut. Which is exactly what happened.

[[J u m p r g r l ♥]]

Sounds like you've had a tough day! I think your trainer was having his own version of PMS today! lol

[Cassie]

Ya, it was deffinatly not one of my better momnets crying in front of my old-school trainer.
He just expects a LOT from me and he's never seen that she gets scared like that so maybe thats why he was so difficult, he didn't realize just how scared she gets.

[Cassie]

OK I've been bad about this so I'm really gonna try to fill it in everyday.
So heres the re-cap. We've been working everything because of the shows. For the past 3 days we've been doing a new thing for spinning. Its working AMAZINGLY. I put blinders on her then go get the crop thats sitting on the ledge. The blinders are key because she, at no point, is aloud to see the crop. We go and spin and I ask her to go with a cluck then immediatly following I swat her flank with the crop. The point is to get her to associate the cluck with getting swatted. Its wont work if she sees the crop because when we go to a show she'll see that I dont have one and wont spin well. This way she thinks its just me hurting her, not the crop. Wow oh wow I can't belioeve how well it works. The only thing that worries me is that we wont have the blinders on in the show so she might also be associating the blinders with going fast and think if they arent on she doesn't have to go fast.

[Cassie]

So today was the first day in 3 days I've ridden. I was plaining to give her 2 days off but I went shopping in Winnipeg yesterday so I couldn't ride. I took her in the feild today to let her have some fun and keep her mind fresh. We galloped a few times at first so she could have some fun. Then we did some circles framing her up both ways. After that I worked some steering and flying lead changes. The changes wern't very good, she kept hoping a little but I think that was probably because the ground was uneven and made her a little bit unsure.

[Cassie]

Today went alright. I didn't do a very good job. I jerked the inside rein a lot just out of frustration. We did circles keeping her framed up. You'd be surprised how many horses at shows are complately out of frame. This is where I kept jerking her. We worked it for probably 25 min straight at a canter. We only did her bad lead (her right lead) because I wasn't riding very smartly today. Her left lead is good, it didn't need work and I'd likely mess it up a bit.

Next I did 4 corners. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about because its just a made up term my first riding instructor had for this thing. If you want to know what I'm talking about just ask and I'll explain it.

After doing 4 corners for a while, I worked my rollback drill which happens to also be in 4 corners. They went pretty well. She kept hopping up in her lead changes. She has to change leads if we do an inside tight instead of a rollback.

Lastly, I worked backing up. It went alright. The first time we worked it she did it amazingly fast but then as the days went on, she became slower and slower at it using this method. So I'm trying to get her to constantly go fast against the push of my spurs. She use to go so fast at a light push but now it takes literally ALL my strength to get her to back from it.

Anyways, if you want a clarification on anything I've said, just ask.

[Cassie]

Today went pretty well. I framed her up on the right lead and she was surprisingly good. I did that for a while then did a few lead changes. She didn't keep comming up which was really frustrating but we got acouple of nice ones at the end and stopped. I also did some bcaking up which went alright.

[Cassie]

Didn't ride today. I wanted to chill at home for a little while befor I have to go to work so I just came home after cleaning stallls. Shadow is always so grumpy in the mornings before she gets food. I turned my back and she was gonna bite me but I caught her before she could and she knew better. I dont understand why shes so grumpy, shes got it pretty darn good if you ask me, regular exercise, she gets to show which I really think she enjoys a lot, she lives in a nice warm barn and she doesn't have to see people or other horses often (she hates company).