eventingamoose

Conditioning Work

I’ve only just started doing this, (like really recently, like last weekend recently) but honestly I’m very excited about it, however much it sucks right now. (I was so sore it was honestly not funny) I was planning on doing 10min trot followed by 3 min canter, then 10min trot, 3min canter and then walk for a while to cool out.

Yeah that didn’t happen.

Halfway through the first trot set I realized I should have started with 6-8min and then work our way back up as we got stronger.

In the spirit of getting fit, I kept with it and finished the 10 minutes and took a walk break so I could regain feeling in my legs. I then did two 3min canter sets, one each way, and just to add to the excitement a jump standard fell over just as we went past it, so we took a little unplanned detour…

After that we took another walk break and by this point my legs were practically jelly and Moose was leaning so hard into the bit it was like trying to steer a freight train.

But I was determined to finish what I had started so we, kind of sadly, did 2min trot, 1min each way, and called it a day. Hopefully the more we do it the better it gets and the longer we can do it for.

On a side note, look at my stunning xc pad from ogilvy that finally showed up!

Also my aztec diamond equestrian leggings are sooo pretty

Rebecca Brown Clinic

Day 1: Dressage

This was my first time riding with Rebecca and her first time seeing Moose, so we started by doing our normal warmup. After we had walked, trotted and cantered we stood in the middle of the arena and Rebecca told us that we would be working on bend. Because Moose is 5 we just started introducing bend. We worked on a 20m circle and she wanted me to ask Moose to flex his head to the inside and really scoop him up with my inside leg turned out a bit, to really get the message across. He was mostly accepting of this new thing and tried his best to understand.

As expected there was a good amount of confusion from him. Mostly around the fact that this was “work” and “I’m just a baby!!” In the middle of the lesson we had some quite nice moments and I just keep telling myself that that is what we are working towards and it will happen soon. This was a great lesson, we learned lots and now have a whole bunch of stuff to work on.

Day 2: Show Jumping

Moose was amazing.

Case in point.

Can we just appreciate my legs though for a minute

As always our main struggle was just to get his legs moving faster. He has a lovely long stride, but that can make it difficult to really know how fast his legs are moving. This can lead to some truly ugly jumps.

Like this one.

Screen Shot 2018-01-14 at 4.52.35 PM.png — Whoops

But after that he was stunning, really using himself and jumping like an old pro.

Day 3: Cross Country

This was a blast! We started off kind of slow and ugly with a whole lot of baby moments. (Read shoulders being thrown everywhere.) but after we started to do courses, Moose really settled nicely and we got some gorgeous jumps.

But by the end, it was evident he just isn’t that strong because at a fence he had no business being scared of or running out of he ducked out to the side. But to be fair we did come back and jump wonderfully.

Very First Post

Hi! I’m Madi, welcome to my blog!

I decided to start this as a place to keep track of our progress in our adventures into the eventing world.

I guess I’ll introduce myself to start off with. I’m Madi and I’ve been riding for almost 5 years now I think. For as long as I can remember I’ve loved horses, and like every other horse crazy girl, I begged my parents for a horse or at least lessons for years. I finally wore them down when I was 11, and living in Australia, and my friend recommended a summer camp at the barn she rode at, from then on I was trapped in the crazy world of horses. Shortly after I started taking lessons in Australia we moved back to Canada and found the barn that I rode at for 4 years. I had no idea what eventing was when I first started riding, but the barn in Canada just happened to be one. So I kind of just accidentally fell into eventing… The first horse I ever owned was when I was 14. His name was Charlie, a now 24-year-old, 16.1hh thoroughbred who was an absolute angel.

Screen Shot 2016-10-13 at 1.19.51 PM.png — My very favorite picture of us

Recently I moved to Texas, because of my Dad’s work and found my once in a lifetime horse, Moose. He is 5 years old but does not act like it, he is easily the best and most calm baby I have ever known (except when it comes to cows which caused the first and only time I’ve ever been bolted with). Moose is 50 50 Selle Français Thoroughbred and the warmblood definitely shows, he’s slooowww. I think he’s around 16.2hh but most likely will get bigger. In the three shows we’ve done 2 have been at Beginner Novice and the last one was our very first Novice! Overall I’m crazy proud of him and can’t wait to see where we’re headed!

Have some photos because he’s the cutest!!

03B5EBE4-7BA2-4600-BE36-BFEF698A216B — One of our first real jump lessons