Germany Update & Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

Fall is here! This is one of my favorite times of year! I love the cooler temperatures and beautiful fall colors!  I have spent 10 days in Bad Tolz, Germany at the 6^th (out of ten) seminar of my foundation training in Mind Body Studies.  Bad Tolz is in the Bavarian region of Germany, and is surrounded by the beautiful Alps!  Every day I walked to class to join approximately 50 people that have traveled from around the world to Bad Tolz for this course.  There are people here from all countries of the world and all lines of work that intend to incorporate these studies into their daily life and career.  Some people will be bringing this into their role as a yogi or Pilates teacher.  Other will be bringing this in the martial arts as a judo or aikido instructor.  Others bring this into their field of physical therapy and other various fields of medicine.  I of course want to bring this knowledge into both my riding and my teaching!

In this course, we are learning to notice the subtle nuances of various movements.  By noticing our movement patterns we are able to improve our movements by paying attention to the details of the movement that make up a more fluid, synchronized, balanced, and eloquent movement.  I think of this a lot like “dressage for riders!”  We learn to notice things like the distribution of effort in a movement, synchronization of body parts, sequence of engagement of body parts, how far a movement progresses through one’s body, reversibility of a movement, as well as relaxation and fluidity of breath.  All of these elements make up a quality movement.  When one’s movement has these various factors one can move spontaneously without effort.   For example one could follow the jolt of a spooking horse with minimal whiplash.  During these studies, one learns how to create new options of movement patterns, thereby releases habitual patterns that may not be of use any longer.

In this modality, there are two main methods of learning: FI (Functional Integration) and ATM (Awareness through Movement).  Functional Integration is one on one session with a practitioner, where the practitioner physically guides you through movements while teaching you a lesson in movement.  Awareness through Movement lessons are group classes where the practitioner verbally guides the group through progressive sequential movements.  In both methods the student is highly responsible for their own learning.  They are the one that needs to learn to be able to quiet the chatter of their mind, and begin to listen and learn to notice the subtle nuances of their own movements.

After all, if we can’t even do this within ourselves, how can we do it for our horses?

Also, I am sad to announce that Playland Farm recently lost a member of it's family. Storm, one of the farm dogs left us a few days ago. Storm has been an active part of the Playland Farm family since my early teenage years.  It is with great sadness that I announce her passing.  She has had a very long happy life as a farm dog!  Her favorite activities included joining us on a trail ride or hack around the property, groundhog hunting, swimming in the ponds,  supervising my teaching and riding, coming up to the horses on cross-ties and giving them a kiss on their muzzle.  She was by far the sweetest dog that has ever claimed Playland as their home!  She has made numerous friends throughout the years of all species! She will be greatly missed by all of them!

Stephen Bradley Clinic at Playland Farm

This past weekend, August 4 + 5 Playland Farm hosted a two clinic with 4 star eventer; Stephen Bradley.  I was fortunate enough to snatch multiple rides with him! He significantly helped me with each horse that I lessoned on! However, he has been a huge help with Diamond, Playland Farm's stallion. Riding a stallion presents a unique set of challenges unlike mares or geldings. While Diamond is very well behaved, he is no exception to this! I have so many personal goals for Diamond and know what a great accomplished stallion he has the potential to be! Since I broke some ribs in the beginning of the month, I have been putting jumping on hold and focusing Diamond in dressage....and we have been butting heads ever since! Saturday was the first time I jumped Diamond in about 6 weeks! His eyes lit up, his ears pricked, and flew over those fences as if he had wings! Diamond spoke loud and clearly that he wants to start focusing in the direction of stadium jumping!  Stephen had many helpful suggestions to help me successfully guide Diamond's enthusiasm towards a clean clear course!

So it looks like we have some HITS in Culpeper in our future!

Photo Courtesy of Margaret Rizzo.

Diamond in his group lesson with Stephen Bradley day 2 of the clinic. He showed off how well he can run and jump over terrain for the multiple mares in the group! :)

Christmas came early!

This December Christmas has come early for me in the form of riding lessons! I have been very fortunate to work with many top level instructors this month! For instance, this past week I rode under the tutelage of Wendy Murdoch, Jimmy Woffard, Stephan Bradley, and Bruno Greber!  Next week will top it off with two lessons from Boyd Martin!

I can definitely say that it is a first for me to get the opportunity to work with such esteemed professionals all over the course of one month, much less one week!  I learned tons from all of them, but can honestly say two have stuck out as phenomenal instructors! Both Wendy Murdoch and Stephan Bradley both prove to be outstanding instructors! Each instructor has assisted me in working through various training challenges with my horses in a very kind, encouraging, and effective manner. 

Wendy came to Playland Farm on December 5th. She taught me a lesson on Darby and Tammy. She immediately spotted the "throughness" problems I was having with each of them and tackled it through body work.  I have found body work with the horses to be extremely beneficial. As we train our equine athletes to be stronger and fitter, we also are subjecting them to more stress on their body as a whole. The body work helps to relieve muscular tension and habitual holding patterns, resulting in a healthier functioning system that can choose a new option for movement! Specifically with Tammy and Darby, Wendy helped me work through some head tilting issues -- which is a particular habit that can be quite tricky to resolve from the saddle. The head tilting was caused by the horse rotating (twisting) through their spine instead of bending. This problem results in the horse not staying level through her/ his topline.  Through body work, Wendy and I were able to teach each horse how to bend instead of twist!

With Stephan Bradley I took both Darby and Diamond to a jumping lesson.  We did gridwork in various set-ups, designed to challenge the horse to jump from power instead of speed.  Stephan's lessons have been particularly useful in working Diamond through some training issues. Diamond being a super talented Irish horse, can JUMP! And he loves to jump, as long as he makes the calls on take-off, striding, etc.  Through setting up various grid exercises, equipment changes, and riding techniques Diamond has become a team player!  The various changes have not only improved his jumping, but have done wonders for his dressage.  He has now become quite light in the bridle while swinging and lifting through his topline with ease! I feel that Diamond is definitely ready to move up to Training level eventing in spring after a couple "refresher events"!

Want a chance to ride with Stephan? He will be coming to Playland to teach a jumping clinic on January 8, 2012. The clinic is filling fast, so sign up now with margaret@mythiclanding.com

Hope to see you there!

Training in Germany

The last 8 days I have been in Bad Tolz, Germany a small village in Bavaria. This is now my third time in Bad Tolz in 2011, and has become my home away from home.  I will be coming back here many times over the next three years to continue a training course with Mia Segal and Leora Gastor of Mind Body Studies.  Many of my students, friends, and colleagues have asked what I do when I come to Germany, expecting to hear I am training with an elite equestrian athlete. And instead, I am training with a small lady in her early 80's to learn how to move myself as effortless as she moves herself!

Over the next three years, I will continue to explore through a journey of movement.  In riding we move all the time! And our movements are how we communicate with our horse! Through movements we train the horse to do leg-yielding, shoulder-in, half-pass, lengthenings, and more! We begin by teaching the horse to move through their back. We teach them how to release tension, so that they can move with a longer stride. We teach them to pay attention to their rhythm, to go straight and also to bend through their spine. We teach the horse to be in self-carriage, to move effortlessly and eloquently through the arena. We teach the horse to do what it already does out in pasture, in the arena with a rider!

In many ways, the training I am undertaking here in Bad Tolz teaches me what I teach my horses; how to move my body better. How to move through my back, release tension, lengthen my stride. The course teaches me how to be aware of my own rhythm, straightness or lack thereof! My intent of my journey here is to learn how to be a more attentive student of my movements. To be more aware of what I am doing, how I am doing it, how it relates to the rest of my body (and of course my horses!), and how to improve my movements. Thereby, improving my communication (or aids) with my horses! My purpose of my journey here it to learn how to do what I already do (train horses and people to ride horses) BETTER!


More on my training with the Mind Body Studies Academy next blog!

Diamond's Competitions

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind between competing, and preparing for my trip to Germany! In the past few weeks I have had a video shoot, photo shoot, 2 competitions, Diamond saddle fitted, and left the country!  I will leave you all in a lingering suspense in regards to the video and photo shoot, and update you all on the 2 competitions and saddle fitting! (More to come on Germany later!)

Diamond is becoming lots of fun to ride as he is really starting to know his job! He started off this year as a green 7 yr old stallion that hadn't had much more training since his original backing at 3yrs old! When I brought the poor guy in this early spring, he was OBESE! Literally, between 200-350 lbs overweight! Our rides consisted of a total of 15 minutes with 10 of those being at the walk! But as time progressed, he became fitter and we started to do more jumping.  The year has not been without it's obstacles, but I am very pleased to see him growing to be a very confident young stallion...even if it means he is taking ME for the RIDE!!!  He has recently moved up to Novice at the past two starter trials (Loch Moy + Iron Bridge), and then more recently Novice at Loch Moy recognized a week ago. 

If any of you were at Loch Moy the weekend of October 8-9, you know what gorgeous weather we had, well that is if you are NOT a purebred Irish Draught BLACK Stallion!  With temperatures in the high 80's (in October!) and sunny skies, Diamond was exhausted by the end of dressage! But he was a trooper and finished his stadium with a double clean round, and finished the 17 obstacle (with two combinations) cross country round (unfortunately, we did run into a little trouble at the stallion eating lattice jumps...but otherwise had a successful run!).  While he is starting to really know his job, he still feels like the whole paying attention to the rider desperately trying to half-halt him to get him to stay in tempo and round through his back is highly unnecessary! and Thanks to Larry Large from Lauriche saddlery I recently found out why he would prefer to ignore me!

Larry, is Lauriche's saddles sole representative in the US.  He came to visit us this past Monday to check Diamond's saddle fit, and give him a sizing.  I have been riding Diamond in the same saddle since he was obese, which fitted him great then!  Now that he has lost a few hundred pounds, we are do for a saddle change! Everytime I was asking Diamond to round through his back, the saddle was creating a pressure point right over his shoulders/withers area! Hence Diamond had a huge preference to clear the jumps with a flat bascule! I now have the saddle problem sorted, and looking forward to taking him to Waredaca starter followed by Rubicon upon my return from Germany!

Next blog, I will update you on my course in Germany! Stay tuned...

By Chance Update

Another fun weekend competing in dressage this past Sunday at By Chance Farm (conveniently located in Union Bridge).  This time I rode Darby and Tammy in two tests each.  This show was awesome, as it was packed with PL bred horses! Joanna Kuehne brought PL Lucky Indy, Lindsay Hall brought PL Irish Indigo, Julie Kingsbury brought PL Irish Decor, and Rachel Rosenfeld brought Grand Luck!  All are"Lucky" babies bred at Playland farm to one of our Arabian mares! I think this show had the most participants of PL bred horses than any other I've been to! Thanks everyone for coming out and showing off!

Darby and Tammy did just that! Darby is still on the green side for his tests of Training 2 and Training 3, but he pulled them off like a pro! Coming home with a first and third place! Tammy competed in First 2 and First 3 to come home with two 2nd place ribbons!  Scores were low across the board, but Tammy still pulled off respectable scores of 65%.  The judge seemed to like Tammy making the comment, "Always fun to watch!"  This show was a move up in tests for both horses, who pulled it off quite well!

Here's Darby during one of his tests.

A big CONGRATS to student Joanna Kuehne who came home in the top three placings with her tests on PL Lucky Indy! Another big THANK YOU to everyone who came out on their 'PL' bred horses! All our Irish horses were true to their fantastic Irish character, behaving quietly and being a willing team participant! And all their mom's gave it their best!

Next weekend....back to eventing with Mr. Studly!

PVDA Loch Moy

Last weekend, Tammy and I rode in a recognized dressage show through PVDA at Loch Moy! Even though my last recognized dressage show was around a year ago, I am a fairly confident rider, who seldom gets nervous! So, when I rode into the dressage arena feeling a little anxiety, I was greatly surprised! Whenever I get nervous, I blank out on my test....which I definitely did! But thankfully, I remembered my test before my next movement!  While Tammy started out in the warm up fabulous, and swinging through her back, it started to lightly rain giving her a chill making us end on a slightly less swinging note as we went into the arena.  I walked out of each test feeling like we pulled off a decent test. Thank god, Tammy is such a show off! 

The weekend was joined by friend, and PL horse owner; Julie Kingsbury who owns, "PL Irish Decor" competing against me in FL test 1! So we were having some friendly chat (of course comparing, who has the best PL bred horse!) when a friend of hers runs over to congratulate her.  She placed second in her First Level class!  They quickly also congratulated me, thereby notifying me that I had received first place in FL test 1!  Tammy didn't let me down on her second test either, pulling off a score of 70% to win her First Level test 2, and coming home with the highpoint score for the entire First Level division! I couldn't be more pleased with my homebreds!  This weekend we are back to a schooling show, and will give FL 3 a go at By Chance Farm.