I've got to really RIDE - duh!

What I mean with this is that in order to nail the advanced movements I have to start RIDING. It was  clear last night, when we did the canter half pass from center line to the rail and then stayed in counter canter until I asked for the flying change. It doesn’t work if I’m just the passenger, with Saumur in the driver's seat. My aids had to be on, especially at C, when Saumur was flicking his ears and started to get excited a bit, asking “change now?, now??”

We also worked on flying changes through changing the circles, and they only were clean and expressive if I was very precise with my aids. Sandy had been schooling the changes with Saumur, and now he is ‘fine-tuned’ and doesn’t react to my half-hearted attempts anymore (uh, I guess thanks, Sandy!). The half-halt has to be there to prepare him, and then I really need to make it very clear with my leg and weight aids. Especially the ‘new’ inside leg has to come really forward.

It was a very good lesson and I truly felt like I was RIDING. It took me how many years to get there? Never mind. In the past I could barely put my legs on and the turbo kicked in so I backed right off to get Saumur into a lower gear. Now I can put my legs on and Saumur takes it as aid. This is a really a wonderful breakthrough.

It was a bittersweet day yesterday. Not only was it our wedding anniversary (the sweet part), JP and I both had great lessons (another sweet part - I mean, how many couples have dressage lessons on their anniversary??) – but it would have also been Crissy’s (my mare’s) 24th birthday. I do not have any regrets that I made the decision to have her put to sleep last December, otherwise she would have suffered terrible through the winter. In my heart I know it was the right and kind thing to do -- But I still miss her very much!

Other people were having Easter dinner - we spend time at the barn

A beautiful and sunny Easter Sunday, which we used to spend a relaxing day with the boys. Both got a really good grooming, which especially Chambord sorely needed. Why did we get a Palomino that thinks he's a piggy and grinds himself in the mud? Saumur is a dark bay, and loves to roll in the dust -- not much better. Time to bring out the horsey vacuum!

As Saumur had worked hard the last days I gave him a light work out on the longe line. Saumur wisely used the rest of the time away from his pasture buddies to charm treats out of Don. Don used to drive Morgans and he sure has more than a soft spot for Saumur. His wife Linda is a lovely friend that keeps my spirits up with encouraging notes and tips on relaxation (that I sorely need).

Chambord had to be measured for the saddle, it needs to go back to the saddle fitter in Wisconsin, and she asked us to send wither and back tracings with the saddle. JP earns his living engineering and designing cars, so he attacked the task with gusto and meticulously measured and drafted. We used an excellent guide that can be accessed on Colleen Meyer's website: www.advancedsaddlefit.com. It's called "Saddle Fitting for Smarties" and really is the best guideline I have found so far.

Saddle fitting sure is a topic of many discussions. I am very lucky, I have a saddle that I love and that was custom made for Saumur and me. I am literally riding on air (Flair), it gets adjusted twice a year and we go on our merry way. The issue is quite different for each and every person and horse, especially when it comes to used saddles. It's like buying shoes for somebody else -- so now we are hoping that Chambord's 'shoes' will fit when they come back!

More on 'getting help from a friend'

Yesterday's post really made me think about friendships in general (not equipment related) and the different facets of human and equine friendships. I am very fortunate, I have had my two best girlfriends for over 30 years. Interestingly, neither of them is into horses, they accept my passion and support it with shipments of tack, my favorite German riding magazines, and last but not least, shop for the best bras for riding in my difficult to find size. Hey - if that isn't friendship?

Both women couldn't be more different, one is a sophisticated world traveler, the other one is the heart of her family and the parish where she works as secretary. The conversations and interests are different, but with either of them there is a bond that's very deep and they both complete me on different levels.

It's similar with horses, some relationships just 'click', and still there is something special going on. My first equine best friend, Crissy, was a fiery three year old Morgan mare that I got as a present for our first anniversary (anybody wonders why I love the guy??). She was so different from Saumur, no 'baggage', easy to train, game for everything. I could go for hours alone blasting bareback through the woods - not something I would ever attempt on Saumur!


The first time I sat on Saumur I felt like I belonged. He was hyper, jigging, I needed both hands to steer, the owners all but freaked out when I said I wanted to ride him in a snaffle down the road, but still... something struck a chord.  And when I look at JP and Chambord and the bond those two have, it's pretty amazing. Chambord can be quite opinionated, but he really tries to take care of JP. He might throw a fit with the rest of us, but he somehow just tunes in to JP.

What I am trying to get at is that there are human and equine personalities that attend to our different and numerous needs and therefore are able to complete us in various ways.

No two rides are alike - getting help from a little friend (called the curb chain)

It seems as Spring came overnight. The horses all have 'spring fever' and are anxious to get at as much -barely there- grass as possible.

Saumur was much more 'up' today, high in the neck and checking out everything around him. I certainly wasn't his main focus when we started out. I tried to relax him in the walk, which is not his best gait anyway, he tends to get short and choppy. The warm up in the rising trot was fine, but when we moved into the canter it was much more difficult to keep Saumur's attention. Our canter-halt transitions were something like: "Hmm, maybe?, nah - I'd rather plow through the half halt, and if you end on my neck it's your problem". Sandy reminded me that the curb chain, against what I might think, is NOT for decorative purposes. Sure enough, once I reminded Saumur that there was such as thing as a curb chain he became much more polite and attentive. That doesn't mean hanging on the curb reins, though, just a  quick, sharp reminder was quite sufficient.

Another thing I noticed was that when the work got more demanding (collected canter and small circles) Saumur threw in one of his spooks. Now, in this case I knew it wasn't because some monster was lurking. What it did for me was that after that incident I rode with much more purpose "you will do this - it's a circle, for heaven's sake!".

We finished with really nice canter work. Saumur had barely worked up a sweat, not something I can say about myself. I started stripping my top layers off in a short time.

With Chambord we did an exercise I really liked and that loosened him up: Head to the wall leg yield, quarter turn on the forehand and then head to the wall leg yield the other direction. I'll have to try that with Saumur.

So, now I'm curious how tomorrow's ride will go and I am looking forward to it. Outdoors?? Better have my little friend with me!

Almost as good as ... (you know what)

I had a really amazing ride today. This quite surprised me because I spend all last evening throwing up due to a huge 'pissing contest' at work. (There is a reason why there are so few female executives in the automotive industry!), I can't let the guard down at work so I'll bring it home and then there goes my stomach... And I am still very upset that our sweet cat Tom died of suspected poisoning the day before. In addition, Saumur scratched his cornea and needs antibiotic ointment in his eye. What else? Oh yeah, Chambord's new saddle doesn't fit and I'm the one having to deal with the seller. With all that 'bagagge' I was wondering if I could keep it together in my lesson.

The beauty of dressage is that it takes all my concentration. I have to focus so hard on what's going on that all other worries take a back seat. Sandy had me warm up Saumur in the canter, with a focus on an even tempo, going all around the arena, paying attention to going deep in the corners. My focus lately has been on keeping my center of gravity low, and my stomach and thigh muscles relaxed. I'm a rather tense person to begin with (yes, JP, here you have it in writing) and back in the days when German riding instructors were military inspired  they yelled for straight and straighter. That can backfire (at least for me) because in all the effort to be 'straight' the muscles tense.

After really good canter work we moved into shoulder in at the trot, half-pass right from D to B, 10m circle at B, and then half-pass left to G. Same on the other side. It felt really effortless. To loosen it up Sandy asked us for medium trot from K to M, collected at M and also medium from H to F. She wanted me to get the medium feel in the collected trot, and it really helped me to think 'passage'.

So why did I title this post "Almost as good as... (you know what)"? It's because our medium trot, especially the one from K to M, felt absolutely incredible. It was harmony, pure and simple. We were floating, and we really moved as one. Do I need to get more specific than that??

There is a day for everything - and today was the day for longeing

Michigan April weather at its finest - the storm today was so heavy that I had a hard time keeping the car on the road while driving to the barn (it's an one hour commute each way).

I decided to longe both boys. If they were to act silly they could always get rid of the energy on the longeline, without me aboard. I like longeing from time to time, and especially for days like today it's perfect. Now, there is longeing, and longeing. I don't believe just chasing a horse around in a circle serves any real purpose, and it's very hard on the legs.

Chambord's patience was tested yesterday with saddle fitting. If done right, saddle fitting is a quite extensive and often exhaustive process. Especially when trying to find a used saddle to fit both horse and rider. Chambord had to go through a lot of saddle on, saddle off, JP on, JP off... so I thought he deserved an easy day today, which I believe he truly appreciated. It was dinner time, after all.

I only put the longeing cavesson on Saumur (no bit, sidereins, saddle) and took him to the indoor. He was quiet and relaxed, despite the howling winds outside. Longeing gives me a great opportunity to really observe him: How are the muscles in his back moving? Are the hind legs tracking up or overtracking? Is he even? How does he carry his head? How are his transitions? Is he listening to my voice commands? To me, these are all very important observations. What I really noticed today was how fluid and supple he moved, but most remarkable was his underneck muscle: it was 'floppy'. When I first got Saumur he had this huge underneck that was hard as a rock, and I had to turn him with both hands -- Now seeing these well defined and supple muscles is really amazing.

And yes, I admit, I also longed him because I wanted to ogle him a bit. After all, he's quite stunning :-)!

Setting the stage with the right warm up - the trickle down effect

This time we tried something different - Sandy warmed up Saumur to show me how her warm up routine differs from mine and how Saumur feels afterwards. As Saumur was turned out until just before the lesson the walk period was fairly short, but centered around LOTS of transitions. Sandy does not allow Saumur to be heavy in the hands, lots of half-halts take care of this.

The big difference was in the frame, though. When Sandy started the trot work, Saumur had to be right away in a 3rd level frame. I, OTOH, warm Saumur up long and low, and then of course it takes quite a bit of time going from Training, through First, Second to our current working level. It really makes sense to me to ask to work at a higher level right from the start. You wouldn't ask student in a masters program to go back to first grade either.

It sure was another 'wow' moment as soon as I got on Saumur. He was light, on the aids, ready to work. We had some of our best haunches in and half-passes ever. The key really is to keep my aids light, "Whispering - not Shouthing". And of course, for the millionth time: relax my back!

We finished with the most amzing canter ever, light, supple and 'lofty' (lots of suspension). Rides like this remind me what's it all amout. Harmony!

I also now understand much better why often the professionals warm up the horses for the amateurs at shows. It makes the students life much easier. For us it is also quite the 'trickle down' effect - I warm up Chambord for JP. If Chambord is warmed up correctly, on the bit and ready to go it makes a much easier ride for JP -- and we all are happy :-)!

The mind game - pretending to be somebody else

More work on precision and instant correct responses. No slacking. Keeping Saumur’s front end up, with a nice, even connection in the reins – and then: transitions, transitions – and some more transitions! I have to get off the cruise control, which interestingly I never use in my car – too boring. Good question: Then why do I like to be on cruise control while riding?


I constantly have to remind myself to keep Saumur’s outside shoulder where it needs to be. The precision part and instant correct responses pertain lately to working on collected canter – medium – back to collected. When the work gets too hard (for either of us) Saumur falls back into the trot from the collected canter, mainly because my aids slack off. Previously I would let him gather himself in the trot, maybe even let him stretch, which in hindsight was not such a great thing to do because he got a reward for quitting. Now we go right back into the canter and try again.

The other area of work is keeping my center of gravity low in the saddle, shoulders down. I’m still ready to go into two-point at any second. Sandy told me to pretend to be Isabell Werth, and low and behold, picturing her got my position where it needed to be and my aids became much more effective. Now, Isabell is not really my role model in general – I much prefer Ingrid Klimke for her elegance and light aids. But when it comes to getting the job done Isabell is really the benchmark. Nobody beats her grit and determination. Otherwise she would have never had the career she has and dealt with all the controversies about her riding so successfully.

Hmm, who would I want to be today?? Guess being myself is perfectly fine – until it comes to my riding position…

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope or confidence. Helen Keller.

Feedback to "When the going gets tough..." - the husband's perspective

Excellent subject once again  but following ours sometime 'sour' conversations we have when it comes to Saumur, I am very happy that you finally recognize after letting the pressure going down that was just a appropriate work training when you are entering in a high level of competition .  Bottom line, "ma tendre epouse",  most of the time when you are not in a relaxed state of mind  for whatever justified  reasons coming in your life , you have a tendency to over react or judge on a situation that may need time to think about  and you just hurt yourself . You have a lot of people around you who are helping you, Saumur, Sandy and myself so trust them . Stand back and that will make you more relaxed for the future

When the going gets tough - the professional gets going

Sometimes being forgetful can lead to quite an eye-opener. We went to breakfast so I decided to change at the barn afterwards. Problem was I left a crucial piece of clothing at home – my riding pants. Riding in Jeans has never been my favorite, and the missing skin on my legs from the biopsies certainly didn’t help. Nevertheless, I warmed up Chambord for JP, and that went well. I had a lot of fun with his canter. Just need to remember that Chambord needs quite a bit of help from the inside leg. Too much of the outside leg and he bunches up.


Then on to Saumur, and that’s when I decided the Jeans definitely were not helping. Neither did the sheepskin lined winter riding boots and polar fleece socks in 75F weather (the only boots I had that I could wear with Jeans). So I asked Sandy if she could ride Saumur. I haven’t seen her ride him in quite a long time, and it was very educational to watch. Ah, yes, I am always going for too much angle in the half-pass. The real eye-opener though was the level of work and precision Sandy asked of Saumur. I still pretty much go for the “good-enough” approach, while that certainly has no place in Sandy’s vocabulary. There were moments when I cringed, and I wondered if the work wasn’t getting too demanding for Saumur. They worked on canter half-pass, counter canter, with the goal of WAITING for the flying change. Saumur is such a smarty, he thinks he knows when he should change. And to some extend it is my fault, I made such big deals about every clean change I got last year and as long as it was a clean change I pretty much didn’t care if it happened precisely where it should have happened. No more of this, though. Saumur was working very hard mentally and physically and ended up lathered in sweat (he still has part of his winter coat and the temps went almost overnight from the 40s to the 70s), but the interesting thing was - he was relaxed and looked very pleased with himself after the work.

I guess that is what separates the professionals from most of us amateurs. (Most) professionals know how far to push without getting into a fight and keep the horse motivated through the tough stuff. It is also the quality and trademark of an equine athlete, to want to do the hard work, and taking pleasure in a job well done.

So then why do I have no problem pushing myself in my professional life, but I am very reluctant to push my horse? I want to progress with him, but I am so worried about pushing him too hard that I rather back off for fear of mentally upsetting him or physically making him uncomfortable. In my earlier blogs I was writing about the intimate relationship with the horse, I think I need to listen and observe better what he has to say instead of just coming to conclusions on my own. As long as he is healthy and happy, let’s go for it! Albeit always being cognizant of the work-life balance. Plenty of play time and hitting the trails should do the trick - for both of us!

A very intimate relationship - and I am not talking about my husband here

While working on getting Saumur to respond to the most subtlest of aids – or better getting me to give the most subtlest of aids Sandy mentioned a quote she read by a famous horseman: “The relationship between horse and rider is a very intimate one”. Come to think of, it is so very true. We expect the horse to react to the slightest aids, a shift of weight, a barely noticeable closing of the fingers. In return, those of us who have had long partnerships with our equine partners know them intimately as well. Does his back feel ‘funky’ today? Is the rein connection different than yesterday? What’s going on with this right hind end?



We focused during the lesson on getting results with the lightest aids possible, which is much more difficult (at least for me) than it sounds. My German ‘driving seat’ and often over-active hands still get the better of me when things get dicey. Another area is feel combined with timing, figuring out when the half halt is needed. As Sandy stated “by the time I see you need one it’s already too late”. I am still trying to get my body in the right alignment for haunches in. It’s harder for me to the left, so I really have to focus on pointing my belly button to the right, keeping my chest straight forward, my outside shoulder back, inside forward – all the while remembering to bend my right knee, give the aid with the spur and not by squeezing the entire right leg on and keeping the connection. And oh, yes, Saumur’s shoulders should stay to the right while he is bent slightly left. Whew!


Poor Saumur, we had to practice that almost ad nauseam. Our treat was breaking it up with medium trot. We both love it and now that Saumur is more collected I can feel him get the chest up, picking himself up and going forward with more ‘loft’, as opposed to just stepping on the gas pedal.

Here are some more thoughts I had last night on the relationship topic: Saumur and I are like an old couple that started out with a rather tempestuous and sometimes dysfunctional relationship. Our first ‘therapist’ was Julie, she got us over the “get in the car, dear” issue (trailer loading - going from eight hours! to self-loading). Now with Sandy as our ‘couples therapist’ we are not only the love birds, we are actually getting getting very much in sync. Good thing I don’t have these issues with Jean-Paul, guess Sandy would draw the line there :-)!

An educational lunch hour - Lessons on equine joint supplements

Today I had a most productive lunch hour, I attended a SmartPak webinar "Understanding Equine Joint Supplements".

Joint issues, especially OA (osteo-arthritis or degenerative joint disease), are very special to me. It was due to advanced OA that I had to make the heart-wrenching decision to have Crissy put down, as we couldn’t manage her pain caused by OA anymore. The vet today described OA as “a by-product of the wear and tear and daily trauma that horses experience during heavy training. It is also part of the aging process”. Or another way to put it “Arthritis is caused by normal forces on abnormal joints or abnormal forces on normal joints”.

So anything I can do to keep Saumur sound and pain free for as long as possible is extremely important. After all, he is a hard-working advanced middle aged guy (luckily without the middle-age pouch most guys spot :-)!). I have had Saumur on a high-quality Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM supplement for years, but always wondered if I should do more.

There are five key points:

1. Halt the cascade of inflammation
2. Stop/limit damage to articular tissue
3. Improve mobility
4. Alleviate discomfort
5. Extend competitive career

This can be achieved by supplementing

- Glucosamine
- Chondroitin Sulfate
- HA
- MSM
- Omega 3 Fatty Acids
- ASU

I was especially keen on learning more about HA. HA is the primary component of synovial fluid and as such most important to keep joints lubricated. However, I always wondered if oral HA would be as effective as injections. It was answered today as the vet cited research based on racehorses with OCD. The study found that the oral HA greatly reduced the inflammation in the group that received 100 mgr per serving, as opposed to the group not receiving oral HA. So I guess Saumur’s supplements will be augmented with HA!
The other thing I found interesting was the recommendation to start giving Glucosamine and Chondroitin early (young horses in light training), as research proved that this will keep the joints healthier longer. The bad news is: more money for supplements – the good news for Blondie: more food (any morsel counts to him)!

Sweat the small technical details - or the foreign language issue

Gotta love Michigan – just as I was warming up Saumur yesterday the heavens opened with snow and sleet pelting down very hard. Sandy and Megan rushed out to get the horses in from the pastures, so I pulled off Saumur’s tack and stuck him back in his stall to help. When everybody was safely inside I got Saumur ready again, all the while wondering if all that flurry of activity and the still pelting sleet on the indoor roof shook him up enough to ‘be on the lookout’, aka ready to spook. He was absolutely fine, another big step for us!

We worked on controlling the shoulders, 10m circles, haunches in, keeping slowing him down on the outside shoulder. That lead to half-pass. Especially going to the left Saumur has a tendency of ‘falling’ to the wall, so I really had to focus on keeping the bend to the left and slowing him down on the right. We actually were able to the Grand Prix half-pass tour on the short diagonal both ways.

The we moved to turns on the haunches, in preparation for the pirouettes. Again, shoulder control is key. If I can control his shoulders, the rest comes easily (or so Sandy says). Saumur is such a smart boy, when we moved into canter I had my outside leg a bit too far back and he immediately brought his haunches is in preparation for canter pirouettes. Sandy has been schooling them with him and it really teaches me that I need to fine tune my aids to different level.

It reminded me of a conversation we had not too long ago, on how I am switching constantly between at least three languages, and sometimes it gets a bit tiring. So for Saumur it is a similar issue – while maybe Sandy and I are not speaking completely different languages to him (in the form of our aids), my aids equate more to a “lower class accent”. I compare it with Sandy speaking Oxford English compared to my Cockney slang. While the goal of getting to Sandy’s standard is pretty lofty, at least I can strive to make it easier for Saumur by speaking regular English (albeit with an ever-present German-French accent).

Always audit first before signing up to a clinic

Today Linda and I made a road trip to audit a clinic with a recommended and well-known clinician. I was intrigued by the testimonials I read and contemplated signing up for a future clinic.

Having learned from previous auditing experiences I made it a rule to always watch first. Some years ago I audited a clinic with a well-known international trainer, author, self-described "classical horseman". Well, I was amazed that the owner didn't pull him off her horse as he proceeded to beat the horse senseless in order to make it go forward. So much for 'classical'. Or, the other extreme, the European who was too nice and complimented everybody, no matter how bad he exercises were executed.

Even without extremes the clinician's style still might not mesh with the regular instructor. I am fortunate to work regularly with Sandy and then having clinics with George Williams. Sandy and George complement each other, in principal their approach is the same. IMO, while somebody outside this spectrum can bring value to the riding progress, most of the time it is more confusing than beneficial.

So, good thing I watched today - while by no means anything was off the charts, the style of the clinician was in some ways contradictory to our daily work and so I decided I'd rather keep additional confusion away from my 'blonde' brain!

Progress while staying relaxed

Yesterday while I was about to lose my temper (again ;-)!) at work, Sandy and Saumur had a great time. I received a happy email from Sandy, telling me that Saumur did half-steps, in hand and under saddle, with the aid of a touching whip. Sandy was all excited because she achieved some great steps and a feeling like he might passage. That is really a big deal, because going to half-steps means confinement (collection) and touching with a whip - which is HUGE for Saumur.

What made me really happy was Sandy's note "best of all - no fear"! Most of the trainers I know would have focused on the progress towards the upper level parts of collection (half-steps - passage - piaffe) and not the "no fear" factor. This is truly what really matters, keeping the horse happy and relaxed when the works gets more demanding and difficult - and not moving on at all costs.