Posts Tagged With: New Riders of the Golden Age

In Difficultly, There is Opportunity

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Elizabeth

Let me start off with an apology, it has been entirely too long since I last updated everyone, but oh my do I have some stories for you all! There’s two weekends of shows to catch up on and lots of training and practice to go over. And the best part about this post… Lots of pictures!

 

Let’s start with Maggie and her progress. At this point right now, I’m really feeling on the same page with her and feel that we’re really starting to build a connection together. A lot of it is me being able to relax and trust her, and her settling down and trusting me as well. Two weekends ago she was a fiery ball of belligerent sass and attitude and I was getting worked up to the point that I was fighting tears the entire time. After the first show I completely lost it and Kelly and Dave had to “talk me off the cliff” I was so distraught.

 

I ended up giving Maggie the rest of the weekend off so we could both have a mental break from each other and ended up riding Penny instead. Penny is wonderful and even though she had her sticky spots, the rest of the shows went great. Since Penny is comfortable with shows, I was able to trust her, relax, and not worry, and feel that Penny gave me a wonderful lesson in how great these horses can be when you relax and trust them. I was able to walk away from the weekend feeling extremely refreshed and successful, despite my initial frustration.

 

The past two weeks I really focused on giving Maggie that release and instead of always chocking up on my reins in anticipation of a mistake, giving her the opportunity to make that mistake and then offering a correction. Dave’s mantra has been “Ride the body, not the face” and it really does make a difference. I’m working on slowing down her cadence and showing her that she doesn’t want to put in a lot of work to go fast and get excited, but instead it’s better to go slow and collected. This week I was able to ride at the quintain both directions and get the rings while keeping Maggie calm and relaxed, which is a huge success for her. Today I was able to work on slowing her down and riding her with my seat and not my hands.

 

And practice has really been paying off! By the end of the weekend, Maggie performed the best she has yet. I was able to canter her both directions during the passes, she ran wonderfully for the dry lance passes and for the quintain, and only has one or two panic moments. I felt so relaxed during the shows, and really felt that reflected into Maggie. Her progress over the last 2 weeks has really astonished me, and once again, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with her. Considering how a few weeks ago, I had to constantly back her and do circles to try and settle her because she wouldn’t stand still; to this weekend, where she was standing quietly and very willing to do what I asked. It’s very encouraging to have good days like that and see that much progress.

 


Maggie and I after our show. Extremely happy with her!

Maggie and I after our show. Extremely happy with her!

 

Tara and I figuring each other out. They just love to put the tallest girl on the smallest horses....

Tara and I figuring each other out. They just love to put the tallest girl on the smallest horses….

In other new, I’ve been working with Tara quite a bit in armor and Dave has really been pushing us together in preparation for Minnesota. I really enjoy Tara, and Dave has done an excellent job training her. She’s so very willing and ready to work, it’s been really good for my confidence as well. I have high hopes for us together, and really hope we can connect and have a great future together. I’m working on riding one handed in my armor with my gauntlets and it’s such a challenge! Today I felt we did really well and had some good passes. Wish me and Tara Bear luck with our training!

 

would have to say that the best part about the weekend was my momma being here to visit and getting to see me and Maggie work together. I’m really glad that Maggie and I had such a smashing weekend and now that my mom has seen exactly what I’m doing, my parents will be a little more at ease. I’m still very thankful for their support in my endeavors and am so grateful to them.

 

Unfortunately, my laundry is almost done, so it’s time for me to finish up this post, but enjoy the pictures and I promise I’ll post twice next week! This will be the last weekend with the whole team here, as we have to split to finish up Sterling and start Minnesota. Love this group of people though! Look how good we all look!

 

SterlingTeam

 

Alright, enjoy your evening everyone! Much love!

Categories: Horses, Jousting | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How to Train Your Warhorse

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Elizabeth

Happy Friday to you all! I hope the week has found you well and you are all prepared for a nice relaxing weekend. As for me, I will be headed into the arena aboard Miss Maggie, hoping all goes well and excited to put into action the principles Art taught me. Unfortunately, today we took Art to the airport to send him back to California, however, I am so grateful for the time he spent working with us out here!

The past few days have gone very well, and I feel like I have so much more in my toolbox of horses thanks to Art. I’m starting to get to that point where I can take something I learned from one horse, and apply it to another horse to help fine tune them. It’s truly a great feeling when you can take something you learned to fix one problem and use it to help another problem. I’ve really started to scratch the surface of how much my seat and hands affect my horse, and I know there’s so much further to develop in my riding. When you are able to simply tilt up your wrists and sit with you core to make your horse sit down and stop under you, it’s just an amazing feeling.

The first day Art worked with me, he told me that I need to ride more with my body and less with my hands. Which made me laugh, because it is the exact same thing Dave has been telling me for the past few weeks… I guess sometimes you just need to hear something 21 times before it finally starts to stick! But it’s definitely a concept that I’m working to refine more. The whole notion of pulling back to stop and kick to go forward is thrown out the window here and I’m really working to redefine my riding style. Sometimes when I’m really struggling with something, it takes a hit to my confidence, and I imagine that I can’t be very good at riding horses at all. And then I look at the big picture and see that Kelly is putting Maggie in my hands and Dave is confident that my horse skills will allow me an advantage in learning to be a jouster, and I have to stop beating myself up and realize I must not be as bad as I think I am. But having to essentially re-learn how to ride in the style that Dave and Kelly train their horses in has definitely been a process for me. Ah horse training, such a physically and emotionally trying job…

Speaking of Maggie, she has been progressing well, and I am very proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, but at the same time it’s so draining to have to work with a slew of different difficulties every day. But I understand that is what horse training is, and every horse is going to have something that needs to be fine tuned. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with the difficulty I have with her, but on the other hand, I know that if I was riding a push button horse I would go crazy with boredom. I have to constantly remind myself that Maggie is still learning, and I need to be a positive reassurance for her and not a controlling discipline Nazi. Today Art told me that his goal when working a horse is to make them happy without having them develop any bad habits. I’ve been sitting on that a lot, and really like it, because that’s what riding is about, a happy partnership. It’s also a struggle when I know my anxiety and frustrations are being relayed to Maggie, so in order for her to be happy and confident in her job, I do to. I’ve really learned a lot through working with her, and not just about horses, but about myself as well. I’m very grateful for the opportunity I have with her, and am excited to see what the future holds for us.

There’s really not much to report in jousting news at this time. I know that I probably should of gotten up in armor at least once more this week, but I really wanted to spend as much time focusing on refining my riding with Art that it sort of got pushed to the side. I did practice with a lance the other day, and just doing passes with that left me realizing I need to step up my game. We’ve also had a shortage of horses, due to numerous injuries, so there has been limited mounts for me to get on and practice after I finish my time with Maggie. Next week I’m going to hit the ground running and I promise I’ll bribe Shelby into taking some pictures of me working in armor. I also promise that next week I will spend some time going over the rest of the group here so you all know who is who and can meet my joust family. They really are a fantastic group of people.

With that promise, I bid you all goodnight! Tonight is a school night, and I see a busy weekend ahead of me! Please all do an anti-rain dance so it stays dry this weekend and we don’t have to perform in puddles, and wish us all luck! Oh, and here’s picture of Art with Maggie and I after our ride, he’s actually taller than me! Huge thank you to Art and all that he taught me, I can’t wait to spend more time with him in the future!

 

Maggie and I with the horse-wizard, Art!

Maggie and I with the horse-wizard, Art!

 

Much love to you all!

Categories: Horses | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Learning Process Continues

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Elizabeth

Heads up. There’s a lot to be said this post, and while I plan to do my best to condense, it may end up taking a lot of space to get what I want to say out. There’s been lots of exciting things happening with the horses though, and I’m realizing more and more how frustrating, yet how rewarding, horse training can be!

Let’s begin with the weekend. Things went pretty horrendously the first show, because unfortunately Maggie has become an anxiously wound spring during shows and become belligerent and extremely tense. She took off on me a few times and was flat out ignoring and sassing me, which is not ok. We completely went to war over a few things and I walked away from the first show the most frustrated I’ve been while working with her. After a talk, Kelly and I decided we just needed to drop the choreography of the show and focus only on making Maggie relax and realize there is nothing to be worried about.

Needless to say, the next 3 shows over the weekend went much better. She did quite well at the quintian and our dry passes in the lyst, and I simply spent the remainder of the show getting her to relax and settle down. We practiced lots of backing up, rollbacks, flexing her neck, circles; anything to keep her feet moving and her mind distracted. By the final show on Sunday, I was able to calmly trot her back and forth while the men made their lance passes, and she didn’t panic so badly when they started the ground fight.

During the weekend, I had a few people come up to me after the show and comment on what a good job I was doing with her. They realized the struggles I was having with her, but one man came up and said, “You’re a really good rider and work well with that horse. I can tell you’re having problems, but you’re handling them extremely well”. It really makes my day when I’m able to have people come up and recognize that I have a new horse and appreciate the work I’m doing to get her settled in.

I know we still have quite a ways to go, now that we’ve had to step back to square one and go back to making shows less scary, but that’s the process of training a new horse. I feel like there’s so much fine tuning with Maggie, she’s going to keep me busy for a while! However, I can see our progress, and while I am completely infuriated with her at times, I still love her and appreciate all she’s doing. I know that she isn’t doing anything to purposely make me upset, so I have to step back and reanalyze the situation some times.

Speaking of reanalyzing things… Kelly’s trainer, Art, arrived from California. Art is a wonderful trainer who works reining and cutting horses in California, and has know Barb and Kelly for years. He’s a fantastic teacher, and really does a good job at helping things make sense. I worked with him today, and he really helped me and Maggie find more collection and balance today. One of the terms he used which really stuck was, “You want to fluff her up”, in the sense that I wanted her to lift herself up and ride more framed and more collected. I worked on teaching Maggie not to hang on me for support, but to pick herself up and carry herself. We had a very productive first day, and since Art is here till Friday, I still have lots of time to have him refine Miss Maggie and I.

Despite it being over 80 and humid today, after riding Maggie, Dave pushed me to pull out a second horse and ride with my armor on. I knew that I had to do it, and really do need to be wearing it every day, but it really takes a lot of motivation to get on another horse while wearing over 100lbs of steel and ride around some more… But I did it. I rode Christine, who is an amazing Clydesdale. She’s Dave’s go-to powerhouse and is really quite a beast in the lyst. However, she is also sassy as hell and pushy beyond belief. I’ll be honest here, I saw other people struggle with her and I thought I would be able to handle her. I was wrong.

Christine has figured out how to set people up to get her way, and will push and pull you around to get it. She can be extremely belligerent and bossy, and it can be very hard to get her to cooperate. She practically dragged me around the field while Kelly shouted instruction to us until we started figuring each other out. I almost lost my composure and had to work very hard to leave my emotions behind and continue moving on. It was hot, I was sweating, my horse wouldn’t listen, my knee hurt; it was quite the lot to deal with. However, Kelly patiently worked with us, and by the end of my time with Christine, I was able to ride her together, have her stop, back, pivot, and continue forward while collected.

I know it doesn’t seem like a lot, but you would not believe the work it took me to get to that point. I really had to focus on what all parts of my body were telling her, and I also had to throw away the old habits I’m still hanging onto. A lot of the things Christine does are things that Maggie does, but Maggie does them on a much smaller scale. So now I really know that I have to fix those before they get as bad as Christine’s problems. But let me tell you, getting her to finally listen to me and relax was pure joy, and it was the most satisfied I’ve been after a ride in a while.

What topped off the day was the overwhelming amount of support I got from my team. They helped me untack and put up Christine, and showed support of me getting up in armor after I’d already ridden Maggie. It really meant a lot, and I’m so thankful I have such a wonderful crew that wants to see me grow and succeed. Dave especially has been a huge support, and without him, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today. I know I can get tired of his constant coaching and advice, and him always pushing me to put my armor on and go ride another horse, but I am very grateful for it. I’m just excited for what the future holds!

And at that I sign off for the night, tomorrow is another busy day with horses to ride and armor to wear, so I bid you adieu and good night. Much love to you all!

 

P.S. I am so sorry for the lack of pictures, I promise tomorrow I will  bribe someone to takes pictures of us riding, but it’s been near impossible to find pictures from the weekend! I’m still trying though!

Categories: Horses, Jousting | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Breakthroughs and Beatings

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Elizabeth

After being here for just over 3 weeks, I finally feel like things are starting to get underway and I’m so excited for what the future holds. Maggie and I are finally starting to click and I’m getting to spend more and more time training in my armor. Plus the time I’m getting to spend with my new friends and jousting family is really making my experience here memorable. Life is so good right now, and I am so happy with my decisions leading up to this point.

Let’s start with Miss Maggie! Yesterday during our ride, I finally had a light bulb moment and felt like we’d made a serious breakthrough. I’ve been having a really hard time trusting her and allowing myself to add slack to my reins and ride one handed. I finally just told myself that I needed to trust her and let it happen, and like Dave told me, she’s still learning, so if she makes a mistake I can always reach back in with two hands to fix it. Plus we’re practicing on a huge open field, so there’s really nothing terrible that would happen if she took off.

We were working with some exercises to move her shoulders and move more freely when Kelly came over and started working with us on a circle. I had her in one hand and was trying to get her to frame up and round herself out while slowing down. Kelly made the comment to slow her down with my seat, and to slow my rhythm to slow her down. Something clicked and I was able to relax my seat and instantly felt her slow down without my hands having to even move at all. He then said to take a huge exhale out and relax and when I did, she came to a lovely stop. All with my hands staying in one place and a nice drape in her reins!

It really left me excited to have that breakthrough with her and be able to trust her more. We were able to run the quintain both directions one handed with a lance and she ran strait and smooth for me. Today we spent more time getting her used to yelling and the sound of armor rattling, and we were able to work her through it. I’m really hoping to have a good show weekend coming up and have very high expectations for her. Wish us luck!

In other news, I rode Indigo in armor on Wednesday and we did very well! He rides completely different then Maggie, and having to work on lifting him up and really using my leg to motivate him was quite the workout for the day. We’ve had to make some adjustments to my armor to get it where it needs to be, but everything has been a pretty easy fix and it’s all been working great so far. Plus I’m the only one with stainless armor and it has a mirror finish on it so my goal is going to be to blind all who oppose me!

Today I also learned the company’s ground fight, and had it been for real, I would have been beat terribly. I know that I need to get more comfortable in my armor and have it feel like a second skin, so I plan to spend all next week with it on. It’s very hard to act animated and sell a fight when you feel so restricted in your armor. Thankfully strength and cardio are two things that are obtainable with hard work. I plan to push myself to the point where I am able to do the fight without feeling winded and having to struggle to lift up my shield. I was having a bad day today and it was very therapeutic to beat each other with swords though!

Learning the ground fight, I'm the shiny one!

Learning the ground fight, I’m the shiny one!

My big goal is to be ready to joust in the show by Minnesota, which begins mid August, so I have about a month to be prepared. I’m really excited, and am prepared to work my hardest to make it happen. The group here is extremely supportive and really willing to help get me there, and I am ever so thankful for them. Shout out to my joust family, you all mean more to me than you know!

In other news, Harry and I helped work with the camels next door and I ended up riding out a buck on a camel, which is no small feat. I’m slowly getting better at Super Smash Bro’s and am so thankful we made the decision to get a Nintendo 64 for the team, it’s a nice time killer for our down time.

I don’t think there’s much else to say, I’m living life to the fullest and am really enjoying myself. Thank you to everyone who has believed in me and pushed me to pursue this path of mine. Your support is invaluable. Much love!

Categories: Horses, Jousting | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

To tired to tinker with a thoughtful title….

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Elizabeth

Let me open this post with an apology. I know that I stated that I would try to update my blog twice a week, but honestly I have been so busy and have had so much come up that I haven’t had much time to. Last week a vicious storm ripped through town and caused some damage (tree’s down, holes in my tent, and a lost wifi signal…). So posting has been difficult for me lately and I feel very out of touch. Not having any service on site or in the surroundings little towns has also been a pain to deal with. Anyways, let me just start by saying that I am sick of the rain here. Seriously peeved at the amount of moisture falling from the sky. Sunday we had to perform for almost 45 minutes in a torrential down pour that left me soggy and dripping. Water in my eyes, soaked through my boots, and every piece of clothing I had on was dripping. The arena completely flooded and we had to shorten or last show due to the condition of the field. Today it started coming down in buckets as we were riding and of all the riders, only 3 of us stuck it out and continued to ride in the flooding conditions. Yep, we’re hardcore jousters. Who then have soggy bottoms and socks and end up putting diapers on their feet to keep them dry. Ok, only I did that, but it worked. Even though I was teased relentlessly about it. Maggie has been…. a challenge. She is definitely the most difficult horse I have ridden and it’s been a definite change of pace working with her. I feel like I’m learning so much by working with her, but am also so worried that I will end up not teaching her something correctly and end up causing some bad habits with her. I know I’m not a perfect rider, but if Kelly and Dave feel I have the skills to work with her I guess  I need to have a little more confidence in myself. My brain is near exploding after every ride and on show weekends half the time I want to strangle her and the other half I want to sing praise to her about how well she is doing. I know she’s dealing with a lot in the show, and I’m extremely proud of what she is dealing with, but her problem points irritate me because I know that she is capable of performing at the level that I am asking her. She’s great at practice, but she’s so smart that she’s figured out that she can do it wrong in the show and because she only has one shot to do it, she can get away with it. Last week, I discovered that she’s getting frightened of not only the sound of the armor but also of people screaming (like when I make my war cry to go in and hit the guys or when they cry out in alarm when I smack them), so for practice, Harry rode in his armor and I rode along side him and just hit him with a stick and we both started screaming. Maggie and Penny took such a fright to this, they both took off around the field. When we finally got them stopped, Kelly just looks over and says, “Ok, now do it again”. So we did. Both of us rode along in the field screaming bloody murder and me hitting harry until they were both ok with it. It was pretty hysterical and throughout the rest of practice we just have surprise screams to help desensitize Maggie.   I don’t have much else to say, except  tequila is nicknamed “te-kill-ya” for a reason and I am so grateful for amazing friends. We also recently pitched in and bough a Nintendo 64 to play Super Smash Brother on and me and the guys were up till almost midnight playing it while Collin’s wife, Christine, made us snacks. It was awesome. I’m also getting to put my vet skills to work as we’re had some medical issues with the horses. Abraham had a abscess burst out through his heel bulb after we spent almost 2 weeks soaking and treating him and Christine had a puncture wound get infected and abscessed that we’ve been dealing with. I’ve spent almost every day here either soaking and packing a foot or flushing, irrigating, and cleaning a wound. Oh, and who can forget battling a picky Cylde to take her meds… However, I do love it, and secretly really enjoy getting to help fix our sickly steeds.   This week I”m planning to really start getting back into shape with my armor, and it means I’ll be working with Maggie on her training first, then suiting up and riding one of the more seasoned horses in my kit. It’s going to mean lots of riding, and I know I’m going to be sore by the end of the week, but my goal is to be ready and confident to joust by the end of Sterling. Grrr!   I’ll sign off with this lovely picture. Epic chocolate fight. We manage to have fun even when we’re soaking wet and miserable with the weather. Moral of the story, don’t piss off a girl with chocolate cake.

Chocolate Fight!

And here’s a pretty rainbow! I think it’s starting to turn into a double rainbow!!

rainbow

Rainbow over Sterling

 

Categories: Adventure Time!, Horses | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

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