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Ponichiwa

Virtual tack shoppers, I need your help. I'm looking for a brown double bridle for my GRP mare, who has a cob (or maybe slightly smaller) face. Right now she's in a Jerry's Harness snaffle bridle which I love, but unfortunately for me they've closed up their shop. Parameters: - Brown - Cob - Under $...

Ponichiwa

I (kind of) sat out the last progress thread. I'm all in this time. I went to a schooling show as ground support for my sister and her clients last weekend, which was a nice kick-in-the-pants for getting motivated to get back out there. It's been nearly 2 years since the last time I showed-- where d...

Ponichiwa

Thanks, everyone. Bucky and I kind of "grew up" with the old UDBB. I've appreciated having that (and this) resource.

It's hard saying goodbye.

Ponichiwa

Tough way to end June. Yesterday I had to put down Bucky, my first-and-only GP horse, due to a freak pasture accident. I'm brokenhearted. I will always miss this view: https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/1897660_10152243644215990_44184989_n.jpg?oh=33ce2ab0447114001dd20fa67d6c288a&oe=59...

Ponichiwa

All, I'm impressed and inspired by the progress month-on-month and year-on-year. Gwen, I'm enamored with your pony. She's adorable! Kiwi and I are checking in late for this one. In some respects, it's the same story as in months before: lots of job drama (turbulent times for my industry), inconsiste...

Ponichiwa

The hinds in particular would worry me. I've seen that type of conformation ultimately cause too much stress to the hind suspensories and then you're in a cycle of constant rehab (if he's got the wrong disposition for stall rest and hand walking).

Ponichiwa

The challenging part about the warmup is that it'll change over time. The warmup that Kiwi needed at age 6 is very different than the one she needs now 2 years later. Throw in seasonal changes (maybe less of an issue now), and the ideal warmup is a very mobile target. That said, I do have a cookbook...

Ponichiwa

I've shared my challenges with Kiwi in this thread (http://definitelydressage.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1408) and several others. There are a lot of good stories in that thread from other posters as well. Kiwi's a bit the opposite of your horse in that I'm despairing she'll ever be 100% reliable--...

Ponichiwa

Had this thread in my mind when I was out riding yesterday. My default position is with elbows over hips. Pushing my elbows out in front of me forces me to ride more with my core and less with my hands, which is all good news, except that the moment I stop thinking about it I fall back into more ene...

Ponichiwa

The canter is the only gait where one hind leg is isolated and carrying all the weight during a portion of the stride. This can be extremely useful for muscle building and working on even-ness. You can do a lot of work in the trot, but canter is the gait where the can opener comes out and you can re...

Ponichiwa

Kiwi is hot and finds relaxation in movement. These traits tend to lend themselves to jigging. What works: - Going sideways. Leg yield or halfpass, whichever gives you the best connection to the rein at the time you need it. Kiwi does best with walking halfpass. Probably due to the fact that she has...

Ponichiwa

Lots of lovely progress here! And some hard times. For those of you struggling with lameness, yours or your horses', I feel you. Kiwi has been off for 2 weeks and will likely be off for another 2. What was originally time off due to vaccinations and teeth and my own work travel has turned into an in...

Ponichiwa

Kiwi isn't a baroque horse, but does have very similar flat-spin tendencies. I've had some spooks and attempts at half steps that looked like the Top Gun scene where Goose dies (spoiler alert). Same as Dresseur, I've had to be pretty careful of not overloading the hind end and asking for too much co...

Ponichiwa

I do want to add, some horses you may never be a good idea to tie. Past history, anxiety, or for whatever reason. But if they won't stand tied, do not leave them tied with a break away halter, x tie or to a trailer. Agree with this (and other similar posts). Additionally, my preference is to teach ...

Ponichiwa

Sorry, i was at the barn with no wifi. I unintentionally allowed her to learn that she can ignore the half halt on a long rein. Ie each rime she rushed i shortened the rein again instead of rebalancing her with the longer connection. So i did several transitions with the longer rein to remind her t...

Ponichiwa

You know how some projects/years/whatever start with a bang? My March has started with something more like a splat, sploosh, or squelch. Between rain (so much mud) and work travel, I think I've ridden all of twice this month. Goals this month are more of the same. Me: - Lose weight. Seriously. Do it...

Ponichiwa

Moutaineer wrote:Ponichiwa, opposite problem here. Lovely counter canter, lost the changes. It'll come together eventually.

Eventually the changes stop being an all-or-nothing binary solution, but we're not there just yet.

Ponichiwa

I had given up on the idea of getting multiple changes on a line during these past two months. I swore that I'd take it easy and do light rides. Well, yesterday I could just feel the changes in the canter. The single changes were great. And guess what? We did 4 changes on a long side (no counting st...

Ponichiwa

I've been taking yoga classes approximately 2-3 times a week for the last 2 months. So surprising how weak I actually am in specific areas-- very humbling. My teacher mixes it up between vinyasa flow and... something else that focuses mostly on being stretchy and holding poses longer. Both generally...

Ponichiwa

Some lovely progress happening. Good job, everyone! I've mentally recalibrated myself (again... slow learner here, apparently) and am having some fun rides again. However, like Mountaineer, I've swapped out boots after retiring a sad old pair of Ariat Vsports. Now I'm back in slightly stiffer tall b...

Ponichiwa

Yesterday morning I found 3 of them roosting on my car and leaving massive vulture poops on my poor Mini's hood.

THIS MEANS WAAAAAR.

Ponichiwa

I also like:

F-P shoulder-in left
P-V medium
V-H shoulder-in right

Rinse, repeat.

Ponichiwa

This is about half of them. https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/p720x720/16486997_10155017505515990_9199761203414663829_o.jpg?oh=d1ca3f36611543cbb1d734637fb7f66d&oe=590F1098 All those dark blobs in the trees? Yeah. Vultures. Every single one. Probably about 70 in that picture, more to...

Ponichiwa

Yes its a dressage training forum. However this is a goals and progression thread. However, i can adjust my personal choices without interfering with others preferences, so I shall defer my preference in favor of the whole. Lol. I will say that what I have really appreciated in these threads on goa...

Ponichiwa

I'll have to try to get some pictures. My cellphone doesn't really do the whole experience justice... you haven't lived (or have you?) until you've seen countless vultures swooping in to settle in for the evening. We've reached an uneasy peace. They're welcome to roost wherever on my property, so lo...

Ponichiwa

Thanks for the kind words, SueB. As the rider/trainer of an "Iberian TB", I empathize ... When we hit 2nd lvl with the beginnings of true collection, I set forth to spend a lot of time riding"deep." Video showed me that what looked like way to low from the saddle, was him just ev...

Ponichiwa

Pet peeve from an engineer-- all rotation is axial, regardless of orientation.

Having a rough couple weeks here. Plugging away at it, but I'm starting to think my training goals and career demands are incompatible.

Ponichiwa

Update on my vultures. The Stans are still around and growing in number. A closer examination shows that I, in fact, have both kinds of vultures. The turkey variety appears to have first say in perches, which is why I get the black vultures on my house: the primo trees are already full of turkey vul...

Ponichiwa

Kiwi is a hot tamale. She's always been a bit reactive in the ring, which isn't particularly easy to ride but hey, that's the price you pay for talent (or so I keep telling myself). So imagine my surprise when I took Kiwi out on a trail ride through a mesquite-ridden prairie with tough terrain, loud...

Ponichiwa

Some thoughts, Hafdressage... How often do you school towards pirouettes from a medium or extended canter? You may need to capture more of that forward energy and channel it upwards to keep the pirouette canter going. I like doing 2-3 pieces (bursts?) of medium canter and 2-3 steps of collected cant...

Ponichiwa

On the pirouettes thread, Hafdressage mentioned she (assuming here) doesn't post on these goals threads because as soon as she does, something goes wrong. As if to prove her right, this past week has been nothing but rain transitioning to extreme (for this region) cold, and now that the weather is c...

Ponichiwa

It starts with one step, not even onto the spot. If the horse cannot be gathered, how are they to canter onto the spot, even for a quarter pirouette. So, the question is rather why the horse shuts down imho. Certainly a horse should be able to do walk pirouettes (understand the aids), and figure 8s...

Ponichiwa

Great news, everyone! Cold snap means all my vulture friends moved south (I assume), because it's real real cold and they don't have leg warmers or fuzzy hats.

Two Stans with stalwart souls have stuck around. I can take 2. 2 is an OK number. 50+ is not an OK number.

Ponichiwa

Ideal (GP-quality) full pirouette is 6-8 strides, which would lead you to a 2-stride quarter pirouette. That's too much turning most horses that are new(ish) to pirouettes so I'd ask for somewhere between 2-4 strides depending on what the horse is telling me and school towards fewer (but maintaining...

Ponichiwa

HafDressage: It rides like a very angular serpentine. You can make this easier by decreasing the angle you're turning and harder by increasing the angle and decreasing the steps between the pirouettes. I've ridden it like a 3-loop serpentine with square turns along the long side and a change each ti...

Ponichiwa

Oh! And there are more. Yesterday afternoon they filled the branches of 6 trees. I estimate something in the neighborhood of 100.

Ponichiwa

Vulture update: they're still around. I named one of them Stan but I can't tell them apart, so now they're all named Stan. They appear to be attracted by fire; I was burning some fallen tree debris in a bonfire at the back of my property and they were circling hopefully for hours. In successful news...

Ponichiwa

Feels like there's a story there.

I'm not sure what's going on. I had 0 vultures until about Thanksgiving timeframe. Since then, scores of them.

Ponichiwa

Their heads look like the bird on the right: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/PHOTO/LARGE/black_vulture_sim_3.jpg But their wings are much more similar to the turkey vulture vs. the black vulture in the pic below: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/America_Black_Vulture-Turkey_Vul...

Ponichiwa

I'm going to be honest with you here: I'm not sure which vultures I have. They've got black faces, but have the turkey vulture wing coloration when in flight. So who even knows. I'd say they wouldn't hang around very long, but the trees in the property next door have a pretty full roost. I counted 5...

Ponichiwa

It's super creepy! I moved down to the Houston, TX area last summer, and until December I hadn't seen vultures around my house (or in PA, where I used to live). The joke at work is that the vultures circle the buildings when layoffs are coming; that joke's not quite so fun when they're circling/land...

Ponichiwa

I woke up on New Year's Day to what I'm trying to pretend isn't the creepiest omen ever: a multitude of turkey vultures roosting on my roofline. Photographic proof of some of them: https://scontent-dft4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p526x296/15780936_10154904019515990_7723878710233016565_n.jpg?oh=98878270...

Ponichiwa

Ouch, Mari and Abby! Hope you heal soon. Kiwi and I are ready to dive in this year. Over the next two months, I will be: - Going to yoga classes min 1x/week - 15000 steps/day Over the next two months, we will be: - Working towards 4-tempis - Gearing up for a show at 3rd level (date TBD) - Incorporat...

Ponichiwa

This is timely for me as well. I would be curious to get some opinion about teaching this with haunches in or not. I've heard a lot of trainers teach large working prios by bring the haunches in on the circle. May last trainer though objected to that because she is of of the school that you are try...

Ponichiwa

Bumping this up for relevant discussion from the Dec 2016 Goals thread. Additionally, I've built on the quarter-pirouette square exercise with the following: - Establish canter along short side. - 120* pirouette in corner, canter out along short diagonal. - Flying change on centerline - Quarter-piro...

Ponichiwa

I also ask for changes (and for canter transitions from any other gait) mainly from the inside hip, which doesn't move much in the saddle but becomes the dominant weight-bearing hip when asking for canter/changes. Yes, the inside leg is there to encourage the jump from the inside leg, but I use mini...

Ponichiwa

I hate clickbait, but it's on an entirely different level than fake news. Fake news includes things like: - Podesta and HRC were running a child sex/slavery ring out of DC area pizza chains. See this Pizzagate summary for more details . - The Clintons have murdered (or contracted to have murdered) a...

Ponichiwa

I'm back in, and I'm back on my pony after some rain and work travel. Here are my goals: - As always, salads. Soups are an acceptable substitute if brothy enough. Seriously, I want to lose 5 lb this month and to fit in my dream boots that I haven't ordered yet. - 15000 steps/day. - Ride 5x/week. Wha...

Ponichiwa

It's the end of the month, and here's our progress report: - Averaged 4.5 rides/week throughout the month while I was not traveling for work. Success. - Went to the gym infrequently. On the list for next month. - Chose salads also infrequently. On the list for next month. Kiwi is now back at 2nd/3rd...

Ponichiwa

I see a couple different issues that are manifesting themselves in that all-too-familiar-to-me shame/despair spiral. 1. Your trainer is a better rider than you are. You are paying him/her to be a better rider than you are and to give your pony good rides. Yes, your pony will look better under your t...

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