The Lope Appears at a Schooling Show!

Today I experienced the best lope that Grace has to offer so far and it happened in the show pen! I could not more pleased with the mare right now. I know the lope I had today was an accumulation of all of the work we’ve done over the last year. Then there were the lead changes that I can only describe as mind blowing. I smile every time I think of them and how amazing they felt underneath me. I am once again in awe of the quality of horse I had in my back yard for all these years. She is just now at 15 starting to tap into her potential. Someone made a comment to me today about her being a push button horse. That might just be the greatest compliment Grace has ever received as we know she is anything but push button.

The numbers were small at the schooling show today. The 4-H kids are off at state fair and I think other families are done for the season. I like this show series, they offer a good selection of classes at different levels including trail, advanced stock seat equitation and a pattern class. Grace was great in trail; I was thrilled with her lope transitions and lope overs.  She just stepped into the lope, and hit her lope overs in stride never making a big deal out of them. It was during one of our rail classes that I realized the nice lope was there to stay. It was great during the warm up, but I didn’t expect in the class. Again she just stepped right into it, no head toss, swish of the tail or squeal. I was able to ride her on a loose rein while she kept the same rhythm all around the arena, both directions. It was just a lovely ride! Throughout our classes the lope was asked for out of the walk, jog and halt, every time it was there; just stepped right into it. Where has that been?

The lead changes came in both the pattern class and the advanced stock seat class. After a counter lope the judge asked for a lead change, ok it was a simple and we did a flying I’ll take the heat for that one. After that flying change the judge asked for an actual flying change on the long side of the arena. I set Grace up like I had with Sarah out in the field as if we were doing a line change; I half passed her a step to the left, created a wall with the rain and asked with my seat.  The change was so nice the people in the crowed started hooting; we got to do another one for them which was just as nice. Grace’s pace never changed, not after the change, not during, not when the little kid came running down the hill next to the arena. It was a nice ride!

The one thing I focused on at the show today was to “keep the bones moving” just like Peggy said. I felt the change in my seat she had talked about the first time I walked through the in gate, it was me not the horse that was initiating the tension! I adjusted my seat many times in each class kept my thigh bones moving and at times rotated my torso. Not enough that anyone could really see it, but enough to keep the lines of communication open with my horse. I need to work on getting some updated video of our rides. I would love to compare it to where we were a year ago. It feels like I am sitting on a different horse, maybe one that might get accused of being push button!

Asking for More

Today I took Grace to a schooling show and maybe for the first time ever at a show, I felt totally in control of my horse in the show ring. I can directly trace these results back to a lesson I had with Sarah almost two weeks ago.  Prior to the lesson we had a conversation where she told me that I needed to ask more out of the mare at home so that I could get more out of her at shows. If I asked for 75% consistently at home, I could ask for 25% at shows and still be ahead. When I wrapped my head around her concept it occurred to me that I had been hauling to shows still expecting it to just all fall together in the show ring when we still didn’t really have it all together at home. My expectation of Grace was not only unreasonable, it wasn’t fair at all. I am the epitome of the amateur rider, while my intention is to always be “nice” to my horse; i.e. not asking too much of her, it often creates more problems like my horse deciding that she had to be in charge since I won’t take the lead.

During our lesson I asked Sarah to get on Grace to show me the new cues she wanted me to use for getting control of the shoulder and hip. I knew that if I could put the trainer on the horse for even 5 minutes that my job would be that much easier when I got back on. I expected the usual “I couldn’t possibly!” fight from Grace when Sarah asked her for something new. To my surprised it was short lived and within minutes Sarah had my little mare jogging around the arena better than I had ever seen the mare carry herself before. The horse I saw in front of me was even better than the one I have been hoping would miraculously appear at every horse show. I’ve always thought the world of my mare, but I really didn’t think she had it in her to move as nicely as Sarah had her going. Over the next two lessons Sarah worked with me to make sure I was getting the feel, keeping Grace’s shoulder upright, knowing where her hip was at all times and correcting as soon as a mistake was made. It is the kind of riding that I shy from, it feels like micromanaging at first, but my real reason for not doing it is my fear of failure. What if I don’t “feel” my horse drifting to the left? What if I correct at the wrong time and accidently reprimand my horse for something she didn’t do?  This time I was willing to take the risk and do the work, I had to get that same ride that I had seen Sarah get out of my horse with what looked like very little effort.

For the last two weeks each ride has been better than the one before it. I do less micromanaging than I had expected as Grace is more comfortable in her body and quick to respond to a correction. I do feel when she drifts to the left, and my fears of asking more of her are slipping away. I put her on the lunge line one day last week and was blown away by how much better she carried herself on her own. She kept her shoulder up and was telescoping her neck on her own and would step into the lope with her head level each time. In typical fashion this breakthrough has occurred right before the show season. I have a zone show planned for May 5^th, and nothing freaks me out more than to totally change the way I ride right before a show. So I took Grace to a schooling show today at the same place the zone show will be held next weekend. I went with a plan, to school at 75% in the warm up and ask for 25% in the class.

During my warm up at the show another rider stopped to tell me how beautiful my horse was. I only mention that because it has NEVER happened before. Plenty of non-horse people tell me how amazing my horse is, but to hear it from another rider gives real meaning to it, something had changed in my horse. Our first class was trail, and while we did well (ok we won the class), I felt that Grace was rushing more than I would have liked, she needed to wait on me. I went back to the warm up and asked for more body control. Our next trail class was the same pattern but with a lope element added. That class was EXACTLY was I was looking for from the mare. She waited for me on each obstacle, and surprised me by how nice her turns on the forehand and haunches were. We also won that class. Our first rail class was not so good. I had ridden trail one handed, and was doing the same for the rail classes. Grace went back to being flat and rushing off her feet in the rail class. I knew I needed to fix it, but was at a loss for some reason. I knew this wasn’t the ride I wanted. In the next class I picked up both reins and asked for 75%, oh right SCHOOLING show! Grace broke into and unasked for jog, I stopped her and backed her up. When we walked off she lifted her head and broke into the jog again, I backed her up again and did not let her walk off until she gave me her head. We walked off nicely this time and the lope was called. Grace tried to launch into the lope; I stopped and backed her up. I loped her off from the back up and my nice soft horse appeared again. As the day went on, she was better with each rail class and I was able to ask less of her.

We ended the day with a pattern class. By then the show had thinned out and I was the only entry that would be riding the pattern. It was labeled as a Western Pleasure pattern and started out with lope circles with lead changes, similar to a reining pattern. There was then a back , turn on the forehand to a counter lope halfway around the arena, a halt, jogging, halt a turn on the haunches more lope before ending with a jog circle. I had never seen a pattern quite like this, it covered the whole arena. It was the perfect pattern to prepare us for Western riding next weekend. Lots of loping, lead changes and a pattern that Grace doesn’t know. I rode all but the counter lope one handed as it was on the left lead – give us another week for that one. Grace gave me the best lope she had offered all day and her lead changes where just wow! The judge even commented out loud on how nice they were. Grace was in her element on pattern and at the end the judge said “very well done!” I was thrilled with how consistent the mare was throughout the pattern.  She was an absolute joy to ride on pattern at a horse show!! Amazing things happened when I listen to the trainer.

Grace Update with video

Grace has been on her best behavior since the horse show. I'm over being mad about it but the first few days after the show of having one better ride after another really got me frustrated. Why can't we pull it together in the show ring? I had a group lesson at Sarah's last Saturday to work on Horsemanship patterns. Grace gave me one of the best warm ups ever. Her lope was outstanding and then it was time to work on the cones. As soon as we began our pattern Grace tensed up and took over. Sarah said it was because I was thinking about the pattern and not Grace. Grace feels the change - the shift in my energy and somehow takes that as a cue to do her own thing. We spent a good part of the lesson schooling her on the pattern working on getting it perfect because "perfect practice makes perfect". At the end of the lesson I was able to ride the pattern one handed - it was a pattern ride that I would be thrilled with at a horse show.


Sarah suggested that I set cones at home in no particular order and school Grace on them with no patten in mind. The goal is to keep Grace guessing and waiting on me. This is one of those times that I wonder what it would be like to own a less intelligent horse. I swear when I stop at a cone to begin a pattern Grace has every pattern she's ever been on going through her head. When we start the pattern she then recalls the closest pattern in her memory to the gait we are on and the direction we are going. She is convinced that she knows best and when I tense against her decision that is when it starts to fall apart.


Now, when I can get her to work with me and wait on me it is a wonderful ride. Grace is so sensitive to my cues I have to be mindful of how I breath. I've been so afraid of getting on her case, concerned that I will break her "spirit" and end up with one of those dead to the world show horses, that I let her tense up and take over. The result was a ride that neither one of us enjoyed. I've now been able to correct her without being hard on her, knowing when to apply pressure and when to release. The result is a horse that still wants to know the pattern, but is willing to wait for me to show it to her.


In the first video we are working around and through the cones in no particular direction. If I felt her anticipate going to the right, I made her go to the left. There are a few times that she tenses and lifts her head so I had to push her up into the bridle and correct her. The second video - and I wish it were better quality was the end of our ride. The lead change is from the right - which is her easy lead, to the left which is her more difficult lead. Her changes this direction haven't been this clean. You can see my reaction to the lead change - "good girl Grace, your done for the day!"