Mario Boisjoli Lesson 6/5/2013

Sarah wasn’t able to make it to the lesson today so it was just Grace and I. I hauled in early giving myself plenty of time to get there and warm up before Mario arrived. Grace warmed up well but I still wasn’t pleased with our lope transitions she was still throwing her head and/or grunting on the first step of the departure. Mario asked if I’d done any shows since the last lesson so I told him about the small show I went to on Sunday. For once our rail classes were actually our best classes; Grace’s lope improved with each class but I wasn’t happy with our ride in the trail classes. The pattern was simple and we did well with the obstacles, it was the in between the obstacles that lacked. Grace threw her head on the lope transition and picked up the wrong lead – this is not the ride I want this year in the show ring. With that in mind Mario asked me to ride a horsemanship pattern doing a figure eight with a simple change in the middle. For the simple change he wanted me to bring Grace to a halt and then step off into the other lead. He also asked that I ride it one handed, something we hadn’t done yet in one of his lessons. 

The right lead lope transition wasn’t half bad; Grace kept her head level. She popped her head up in the left lead and leaned out her shoulder. Mario pointed out that Grace pins her ears into the lope and even though her right lead departure was technically correct the ear pinning isn’t very appealing. Mario asked me if  Grace has ever given me a perfect lope departure and I had to admit the answer is no. While she has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few months I never know if the good transition will be there when I ask for it. Mario finally gave me his impression of my little mare, he said he does like her and she looks like a horse that could do a lot of things but she reminds him of an employee that is always 5 minutes late to work. She shows up and does her job but is complacent about it and will only do it if she is told to. He said she isn’t bad or evil, but she’s never been made to do what is expected of her. I told him that I don’t always believe that she can do what I am asking, which he backed up by saying that Grace doesn’t believe that I will make her do it. He then gave me his first impression of Grace from when he judged her at the AQHA Novice show last June. Mario said he thought of her as one of those horses that he would like to buy, put 30 days on and then sell. This spoke volumes to me because it said he believed that the horse could do it if someone just took the time to make her. When Mario asked if he could ride Grace I couldn’t hand the reins over fast enough. 

After preparing her with a walk circle Mario asked Grace to lope off, she squealed and hopped into the lope. Mario immediately kicked her up with his leg and bumped her with his hand to get her head back down. In one lope circle I saw her lope completely change, suddenly she became very businesslike. After going back to the walked he asked her to lope off again and I saw what was by far the best lope departure that mare has ever performed and it just got better from there. If Grace lifted her head at any time Mario bumped her back down with leg and hand as soon as she gave he gave. Mario made mention of Grace’s leaning to the left, he said he had to continually correct her. He suggested that I get her as soft on the left side as she is on the right, or ride her on the edge of a cliff so that if she leaned to the left she would fall off. Of course he didn’t actually mean that but I understood the idea, there needs to be a consequence for her drifting to the left. 

When I got back on I could feel a difference, Grace’s shoulder and wither felt elevated, she was more on her hind end. Mario coached me through the timing of my leg and hands, we quickly discovered that when I ride one handed I pull back on the reins instead of up.  That adjustment added with leg changed everything. I had Mario work with me on when to put my hand down and let go as I didn’t always feel it.  Our lope transitions improved with each one and the quality of the lope was like riding a different horse.  Gone was the grunting, squealing and even the ear pinning. Mario pointed out that the lope even had a cleaner sound to it and that Grace was now reaching up underneath herself. This brought me back to the discussion that I’ve had with Sarah; when I don’t push Grace and ask more out of her I actually create lameness by allowing her to stay stiff and rigid. I’ve never really believed that Grace could step up and give the quality transitions and gaits that are expected in the show ring and I spend a lot of time making excuses for it. Today I saw and felt that my horse is capable of going to that next level but that I have to insist on it. At the end of the ride while Mario and I were talking he pointed out that Grace looked different, the look in her eye had changed she was listening to me and that if I asked her to lope right then she would willingly step into it. Something tells me that Grace’s days of showing up 5 minutes late are over. There is a new manager in town and she won’t tolerate tardiness.

Trail Schooling 5/25/2013 with Video

The arenas were freshly dragged on Friday which inspired me to pull out some trail equipment. I haven't shown trail yet this year, it looks like the end of June will be our first chance. I plan to show in Rookie trail at the Region 1 AQHA in August and maybe Novice as well. Trail has always been one of my favorite classes, I love the technical challenge as my brain never really has time to get in the way. Grace loves it too, when I rode her into the arena with the obstacles set up she kept drifting towards them during our warm up. We worked on lope transitions which are coming along quite nicely and then I worked the gate to let her catch her breath.



My first experience with Trail Class was with Penny Jones. She taught me to take my time when schooling an obstacle. This is where you see me stop and adjust my jeans. If I rushed the horse while schooling the horse would then rush and anticipate in the show ring. One of my biggest challenges is keeping Grace's focus and getting her to wait on me.Working the gate itself has never been an issue, just like a trail bridge she is always willing to just power through it. It is the finesse that we've been working on. One thing I discovered yesterday is that I also struggle with taking my time. When side passing poles I became frustrated with Grace who was kept taking a step forward and a step back. I finally took her off the poles took a deep breath and tried again, this time slowing myself down and of course it was 1,000 times better. Sigh.



Speaking of poles remember when last year loping over poles was kind of a big deal? I think we've come though that now. The thing I love about this clip is that even when the distance isn't perfect, Grace carries on like it isn't a big deal. A year ago a missed distance would have caused her to tuck her butt and run. Grace is becoming a joy to ride on pattern, she does this new thing where she waits on me. This also means that I actually have to show up and ride and be the leader she is looking for. I plan to start throwing poles out in the arena on a regular basis for the summer. Working the obstacles is great but I know that the improvement is a result of the homework we've done over the winter without them.

Sometimes Grace Acts Like A Horse!

During my ride last night Grace caught site of a someone with a blue umbrella walking in the distance. She lost her mind for about 30 seconds and seemed rather convinced that it was going to eat her. I had the camera rolling when the scary blue monster went down the dirt road along side the arena. I was able to get her back to business in under a minute. The second clip in the video is 4 minutes later. This is what I appreciate about my horse, she lives in the moment and then moves on.

When I'm Pushing I'm Winning

At the beginning of my lesson on with Sarah on Wednesday she said “let’s try this one handed”. Once again it took her all of 2 seconds to zero in on exactly what we needed to work on. That is why she is the trainer! Within a few strides I started picking at my horse, Grace was leaning out her left shoulder and I kept trying to get it back with my hand. Sarah told me to stop and roll Grace over her hocks. She explained that I didn’t have to be mean about it, but I had to make the point clear and get what I wanted. For the rest of the lesson we worked on correcting Grace and then letting her be when she got it right. When she was correct it was such a nice ride that I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. It allowed me to get into my body and focus on staying relaxed and keeping my back soft. My horse was able to carry herself which meant less work for me. Throughout the week each ride was better; Grace could be left alone for longer periods at the jog and her lope transitions were starting to come together.

On Saturday we headed to a schooling show, Sarah was also bringing students from the barn and Nina and Milo came to play too! Sarah reminded me to correct Grace in the warm up; to get 75% in the practice pen so I could ask for 25% in the show ring. Our first two classes were trail and Grace was an absolute pleasure to ride! She was slow in between obstacles and wasn’t anticipating the next gait change.  Any mistakes that were made were mine and she didn’t get excited about them. It was so nice not to have to spend my ride anticipating my horse’s anticipation. At one point she broke from the jog to the walk and I said out loud “Who are you??” Penny passed on a saying to Sarah “When you are pushing you’re winning, when you’re pulling you are losing”. Yesterday was the first time I had to “push” Grace in the show pen. The walk jog rail classes went well, I got tense at the lope in a 3 gait class and it started to fall apart. I was glad to have Sarah there who gave me a good visual for keeping my shoulders soft in the next lope class, which went much better.

I added the 3 gait Advanced Western Pleasure class to fill it with Nina. I may have to ride in that class from now on. I had no idea what the judge was going to ask for so neither Grace nor I could anticipate. At one point we had to lope without our stirrups and crazy enough I rode better! I see a lack of stirrups in my immediate future. The last class of the day was the 3 gait pattern class; it was the same pattern as last month. This time I rode the entire pattern one handed. We still have to clean up some technical aspects that were sloppy, but I was really pleased with how well the pattern went. Once again I had a judge comment on Grace’s lead changes. I think they are a little surprised by what we can do on a pattern considering how bad the lope can look in a rail class. I know I am! We are now one week closer to the AQHA Rookie show in June. I am started to feel less and less like I will embarrass myself there and I am starting to believe that I may actually have a good time.

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.

Snow is in the forecast, Let’s Horse Show!

Happy to say I made it back safe and sound from the show on Saturday even with an inch of snow on the ground where the horse show was held. For those of you not living in the Seattle area you should know that it only takes 2 inches of snow to bring our entire world to a standstill. When I was getting Grace ready for my late afternoon classes large fluffy flakes started falling from the sky, pair that with the freezing cold temperatures and I have to ask myself, what kind of people would choose to participate in a horse show in this kind of weather? My kind of people, that's who!



I rode in the reining class to help fill it and being the first riding class of the day it gave us a chance to get stupid in the show ring out of the way. With cold rain coming down outside the indoor warm up ring was nuts. I am not at the point that I can really accomplish a good warm up riding next to horses that are standing on their hind ends, so Grace and I headed out into the rain to warm up. When we entered the main show ring for the final warm up Grace and I became stiff and out of sorts. I talked to Sarah before my run who reminded me that it was a SCHOOLING show and I was to take my time and SCHOOL (yes, she said it in caps!). The reining run gave us a chance to get some nice lope work in and Grace changed leads only where asked. Big step for her as in the past she’s been known to make up her own changes everywhere else in pattern.


The trail classes were being held outside in the rain and since we were already wet and cold I decided to go for it. My copies of the patterns were soaking wet and were falling apart as I was trying to read them. The trail judge sat in a car at the end of the arena to stay warm and dry, the pattern was set at one end of what is normally the outside schooling area. There were people wandering into the pattern the entire time, I saw one woman who had to stop mid pattern while someone lunged a horse right into her path. On my first pattern I had someone schooling the trail bridge right behind me. Despite the distractions Grace did and I did well, winning 2 out of the 3 classes. I was really pleased with both the jog overs and lope overs as Grace stayed relaxed and on rhythm.


It took me a rail class or two to get into my body, but when I did I was rewarded by my horse stretching for the bit and driving up from behind at the jog. We stayed on the inside track and lapped the slow pleasure horses on the rail several times. I didn’t care as I was enjoying feeling my mare’s hock drive up from behind for what may have been the first time ever in the show ring. We improved with each rail class, even placing 3rd in a lope class that I accidentally entered.


This is the second show that I’ve entered the equitation pattern classes and I was able to see and feel a big improvement from the first show. Grace was much more relaxed and was better about waiting on me, it was no coincidence that I was better about staying relaxed and taking my time on pattern. During the lope pattern we had to do a simple change from the right lead to the left lead. Grace anticipated when I asked for the jog so I brought her to a halt and made sure to get her into position before letting her lope off. That might have just been the biggest success for me the entire day. Better than any blue ribbon, I used my brain in the show pen! Starting to finally get the point of this “schooling” show thing.

Trail Course Practice

I set up a few trail obstacles in the smaller arena for practice today. I always love how Grace turns it on when she sees we have fun stuff to play with. Her lope is so much better when we are both focused on a pattern. The biggest challenge is not allowing her to anticipate our next move. I find if I take my time and a lot of deep breaths, it works out.