ICP California

I just got in last night from my trip to Lake View Terrace, CA (just North of LA) where I completed the dressage section of my USEA Instructor's Certification Program for Level II.  Workshops are held throughout the country.  I chose to fly to California to get a perspective on what eventing is like on the West Coast and so that Brian and I could visit the San Jose and Gilroy area where he used to live.

Our instructor for the week was Brian Sabo.  I had never met Brian before, though he is a well known West Coast trainer.  He and his wife Lisa run an active teaching and training business and one of Brian's star pupils is Gina Miles.

The dressage workshop was very informative.  I found Brian to be knowledgeable and personable.  I had an arsenal of clarification questions going into the workshop and he was very thorough in his answers.  I feel that the workshop will make me a better rider and a better coach.  When I first signed up for the ICP program I was not overly excited about going through the process of it.  By the end of the program this summer, not including the cost of the workshops and the assessment, I will have taken three weeks away from my horses and my students, traveling on my own dime.  The workshop days are also pretty grueling.  On the first day we sat for twelve hours.  The second and third days begin to feel like a marathon.  To my surprise, however, I came away from this workshop wanting to take the next round of workshops, the level III/IV workshops.  In early September I will take my assessment as a Level II, or CCI* level instructor.  From my experience in the workshops, the clinicians and I feel that I am more of a level III or CCI** level instructor.  In order to be a candidate for a Level III certification, however, you must have three or more students riding at the intermediate level or higher.  This is not currently the case, but I hope that within the next year it will be.  I know that even now I feel comfortable teaching at that level. 

My fellow instructor candidates were all California residents.  We had a good time together.  I was impressed with how different the farms were from what we have in this part of the country.  The farm where we worked was cut into the side of a hill.  It was all sand, with not a speck of grass in sight.  The property was about eleven acres and was owned by upper level event rider Susan Friend LeTourneur.  She took me on a tour one afternoon.  The front of the property had two rings, a dressage ring and a jumping ring.  It also had a cross country jumping field.  All of the riding areas looked the same because even the cross country "field" was sand.  The cross country field, however, had corners and ditches and banks and water.  To hack, you rode your horse straight up the side of the mountain and then walked along a ridge line path around the back side of the property and came back down into one of the rings.  The setup was very ingenious and even though I have never seen anything like it, I can see that it works.

I am now back in Plymouth Meeting for several weeks.  Tomorrow I compete in my second annual SheROX triathlon down by the Art Museum.  My students Lynn Rzonca and Heather Ferrell are also competing.  

Off to sit on a horse!

Ashley         

Update on the Horses:

DOC:  After three months of rest and turnout, Doc had his first follow-up ultrasound on Wednesday.  His meniscal ligament injury looks substantially better.  Overall, including the ultrasound and the lameness exam, Dr. Blauner thought he looked 70% better.  

Doc's attitude over the past three months has been amazing.  Many times horses, and athletes, go through a period of depression following a severe injury, but not Doc.  He has been the first horse every time I go in the barn to have his head over his door looking at me expectantly as if he was saying, "What are we doing today?"  He has gotten regular groomings and I have used the cold laser and Right Spot Infrared Pads on him virtually every day.  The laser we have owned for ten years and I have used it on myself and the horses with promising results with every severe injury I have encountered.  The Right Spot pads are a new addition.  While I was at Rolex, Right Spot was allowing competitors to use their products.  When Doc got injured they very generously gave me two pads for Doc, asking only that I give them feedback as to how the pads help us during Doc's rehab period.  

Right Spot Infrared Pads are a relatively new product on the market.  They radiate energy into the soft tissue of the horse, penatrating to the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints.  They improve circulation and can be used on a maintenance level or in the case of Doc to help heal an injury, reducing scar tissue.  Ligaments do not have a high blood flow, so using a product like this during rehab helps to promote faster healing.  Their website is www.equinerightspot.com. 

Doc is now allowed back under saddle at the walk.  He will tack-walk for one month and then we will go from there.  I am very pleased with his progress so far.

JET:  Last weekend Jet ran intermediate at the Maryland Horse Trials.  He jumped clean and cleverly on cross country, the phase where he is most reliable.  His dressage was steady but not spectacular and we received a score in the 40's.  In stadium he had one rail down.  I was the most pleased with his stadium round because when he moved up to intermediate two months ago it seemed that the rails were falling like rain.  I took him to Anne Kursinski for a lesson last week and she was a big help, showing me how to get him to relax and use himself better while on a course.  Jet is now qualified for the Fair Hill CIC** that will be in Elkton, MD in October.  I plan to do dressage and jumper shows with him during August and run him in a few more horse trials in September as a final prep before Fair Hill.  I am so pleased with how grown up Jet is becoming.  He is only eight years old and he has had to step into big shoes with Doc being injured.

MONTE:  Monte did the training level class at the Maryland Horse Trials and finished on his dressage score of 37.5.  We placed sixth out of twenty entries in the class.  I was happy with the result, but I still plan to keep Monte at training level for a few more months.  He has the ability to win a class, and I want to make sure he is solid at training level before moving up.  His coordination and maturity continue to develop, and I want to challenge him without pushing him out of his current range.  Last month Ginette Michelet, who was herself a two star event rider, came to visit Monte.  She now preps horses for the track and she was the one who I bought Monte through.  Monte was bred in Kentucky to race, and when he arrived at Ginette's farm as a three-year-old she took one look at him and said, "This horse is never going to make it at the track, but he might make a darn nice event horse."  Ginette holds a special place in her heart for Monte and she was very excited to see his progress.

Brian and I are boarding our plane to California for my ICP seminar.  More later!

Ashley    

  

  

Aly Cat cinches my final USDF Bronze Medal score.

Aly Cat was so good for my student Lynn Rzonca a few weeks ago at the Bucks County Horse Park's Tuesday Evening Dressage schooling series that I hatched a new idea.  I needed one more third level score above 60% to earn my USDF Bronze Medal*.  After consulting with Lynn, I decided to enter Aly in two third level classes on the July 5th recognized show at BCHP.  I opted for Third 2 and Third 3.  Aly is being leased by Lynn and another student, Sandra Stokes.  They are each able to ride two days a week, sometimes three.  I didn't want to disrupt their schedules, so this was a real test to see if Aly and I could pull third level back together in just a few rides.  

Two weeks before the show I did one practice ride and then I took him the next day to Jessica Ransehousen for a dressage lesson.  Jessica has helped me on and off for five years and she was my principal dressage trainer during the years that I was competing Cat in eventing.  She knows him well!  We did a short, to the point lesson, running Cat through each movement in Thrid 2.  Having done mainly training level and first level for two years, his collected work and his extended work were weak and he got tired, but he tried hard.  

The following week, the week before the show, I was away in Boston attending an Instructors Certification Seminar through the USEA.  My next ride on Cat was on Friday, July 3rd, two days before the show.  I knew exactly what I need to work on, however.  We worked for a little over an hour, taking frequent breaks.  I helped him hold himself rounder, and we did repetitive transitions forward and backward, especially in the canter where Cat likes to go into gallop mode (a vestige from his first career as a racehorse).  When we were done I put Sore No More all over his back and quarters.  His back was not at all hot, but his hindquarters and hamstrings were foaming!  On Saturday, the day before the show, I massaged him, took him on a hack, and let him jump a few cross rails to make him happy.    

Aly Cat has now been retired from upper level eventing for almost three years.  The Tuesday Evening Dressage schooling show was the first show he has been to since 2007.  This past Sunday, the day of the show, I had no idea what I was getting myself into!  I told Aly that I was going to work him very hard, but I also promised him that if he was good in his first test that we would go on a hack and go home.  That didn't happen!  As I trotted around the outside of the ring before my first test, the old Aly Cat came back.  I did one practice halt before we entered the ring and he threw his head up and tried to rear.  I remember that Cat!  In the test itself, he did obedient trot and walk work, but the canter came more and more unravelled, especially after the medium and extended canters.  As we cantered down center line at the end of the test Cat did unrequested flying lead changes.  We scored a 56.9%.  We were doing the second test!

In the second test, Cat was more relaxed.  He must have known that since we were going back into the ring there was only a minimal chance he was going to get to run cross country later (one of the key elements, I think, in his unruly behavior)  He didn't have as much power in his medium or extended work as he could have had, but I also knew he wasn't terribly fit for this level and in an effort to keep him "with me" I didn't push as hard as I could have.  His lateral work was obedient and he kept his head down in every halt.  He also didn't jig in the walk in either test, which I saw as a major triumph!  We had one bobble in the second canter half pass when he broke to trot for two steps and then did his flying lead change a letter early.  We continued on, however, and all in all the rest of the test was flowing and consistent.  Our score eeked in just over the mark.  It was a 60.4%.  All we needed was a 60%.  Aly pulled it off!

On the day of the show, I bathed Cat at home and my longtime groom Gina Johnson braided him.  It was just like the old days.  The whole show was a great experience for me.  Cat and I spent the day together and I marveled at him.  I've had Cat under my care for seven years now, and he has been a wonderful horse.  I was so appreciative to be able to ride him again and find more use for him.  Especially during his first year of retirement he would beg me with his eyes and his attitude to be out there working still.  Unfortunately for him, his legs were not going to hold up to the jumping.  He was not happy!  I laughed at the exhausted look on his face after our lesson with Jessica and I said, "See, Cat, maybe retirement isn't so bad after all!"  Although I may quietly do another few dressage shows with him over the next year or two (I think we have a better score in there if he knows he's not going to jump) I think he is now happy with his current life of leisure.  I know I am happy at how much he is teaching Lynn and Sandra!  Thank you Cat!

*For those of you who are not familiar, the USDF Bronze Medal is a performance award given to USDF members who have achieved a 60% or more at recognized shows in two first level tests, two second level tests, and two third level tests with two different judges at each level.  They also award a Silver Medal and a Gold Medal as the levels go up.