Marti and Toby's 2022 Florida Adventure

I have been very delinquent the past week with updates, due to being busy, busy, busy. Did I mention I’ve been busy? Luis Lucio came to Linda’s for 5 days of teaching, plus delivering 2 lectures with Linda. I have been fortunate to take 2 lessons from him, as well as audit the other lessons and attend the lectures. As an added bonus, Linda cooked delicious meals for us before the lectures. My mind is a buzz, and it is not from too much wine.   Luis Lucio has an extraordinary knowledge of dressage due to his riding and training experience, but what sets him apart is his training system, which integrates Horse Psychology into the training of Dressage movements.  He is a skilled teacher of all level of riders … from Olympians, FEI stars, and even folks like little ole me.   When Luis is looking at a rider, he is looking at three components … Horse/Rider  Relationship , Horse/Rider  Technical Model , and  Decisions made by the Rider. The importance of the ...

April 18   Today was a day off for both Toby and me. After giving Toby breakfast and cleaning out his paddock, I drove to Homosassa Springs, which is about an hour SW of where I am located, to meet my college buddy, Mary Estes., who drove up from Tampa. She arranged for us to take a 3 hour boat trip on the river, where we went to the springs area and took a swim, ate some lunch (compliments of Mary) and toured around. The boat captain, Anna, was knowledgeable of the area and lots of fun. Mary and I were the only passengers, so we had our own private tour.  Manatees are scarce this time of year, but we got a glance at a couple, plus some turtles, a Blue Heron and Pelicans.      Then, back to feed Toby, give him some grooming and grazing before tucking him in and heading back to my room. Twas a fun day. 

 April 16 I love Liberty because it is the true test of the connection you have with your horse. No rope or halter, so your horse is either with you or not or somewhere in between. While Toby is fairly advanced in Liberty, I needed some help on improving my clarity of requests. I wanted him to make a small circle around me, as opposed to circling around the rail of the round pen. He wanted to please, but could not figure out what I wanted. Linda got in the round pen with me to help me understand how to communicate this to him.  Then, we got the ultimate treat of watching Linda play at Liberty with Jazz and Highland. Linda has such finesse with her body language. She barely moves to "dance" with her horses. They are so connected, and she is so clear with her request. Jazz is elegant and powerful. Highland is so exuberant and fun to watch.  A real treat today. The afternoon was special because my host/hostess, Bill and Claudia, had a pre-Easter dinner, with their "Villager...

Another big day of learning. Linda had us working on a pattern to help with straightness and maintaining an even tempo. We used a metronome and posted to the beat that matched our horse’s trotting gait. Toby was 143 BPM (beats per minute.) We trotted along the long side of arena, but not along the rail. Focused on a spot at end of arena that is 4-5 feet off the rail and rode the line straight. Sitting trot around corners and then back to rising trot. Not as easy as it sounds. Reminder to self … keep elbows back and down, so there is a nice contact with Toby’s mouth without momentary slack in rein and keep it slow. Legs long, sit tall and don’t squish down in saddle when posting.   Afternoon was a continuation of blue tarp crossing. Toby was much improved. I moved the tarp to 6 different locations to build his confidence. He did so well, that we ended on loading onto a couple of trailers, which he finds easy.

Rainy morning, so we had a Theory Day, while Toby dried off in a stall with hay to munch. The theme was “bits.”   There are two types of bits … those used for direct contact or indirect contact.   A direct contact bit (e.g., a snaffle) is used for lateral flexion and power (which comes from horse taking the bit. Also allows for horse to become round in back and flex.) Considered “direct” because w hen you apply pressure to the reins of a snaffle bit, the horse feels the same amount of pressure in their mouth.     An indirect contact bit (e.g., curb bit in Western and in English double bridle) is designed to be used when you want to gain more vertical flexion, straightness and elevation. . Single curb bits are designed to be used for riding with one hand, not two hands, as they are not designed for lateral flexion movements. The curb bit is considered “indirect” because  it is a leverage bit , meaning that it multiplies the pressure applied by the rider. Unlike a...

Continuing to work on my position and doing bending exercises. I am getting more upright and finding it easier to keep legs draped and feet pointing straight ahead. Still a work in progress, though.    Linda introduced “leg yield made easy” where you don’t even need to use your legs! Swivel the headlights on your knuckles, while keeping wrists straight, in direction you want to go. Feeling is sort of like sliding the whole horse over. Horse needs to stay straight (parallel to rail) as does the rider.    Did some canter departs, which Toby does quite well. For some reason, I have no problem keeping my upper body upright when cantering. Linda will tweak a few things later this week or next to get it more refined.   In the afternoon, Tony Vaught, who is Linda’s farrier, and gave a talk at the HHHL Conference on April 2nd, came to Happy Horse Haven. He was nice enough to take time to look at Toby and give him a trim. I learned a lot from watching and asking question...

Mondays are a free day. No formal lessons. I decided not to ride, and give both of us time for our minds to do some digesting. After I did my morning chores of feeding, grooming and paddock cleanup, we did do another tarp session. Okay, but still initial skepticism. I read him better. He touched the tarp with his nose in both directions and actually crossed over it in both directions. Still, I would say still more obedience than  confidence.  I had a wonderful afternoon of being a tourist. My B&B hostess, Claudia, took me to the new World Equestrian Center (WEC) near Ocala. It is incredible … it is the “largest equestrian complex in the US situated on nearly 378 acres of multiple arenas (indoor and out), climate-controlled indoor stalls, a fancy hotel with excellent animal-themed art works, multiple restaurants, spas, gardens, retail stores, and even a chapel. The master mind and owner of WEC is Larry and Mary Roberts. To learn more about it, check out the website,   ...