Competition, liberty and cavaletti

On the Sunday before last we all went to a CT (combined test- dressage and show jumping competition) at Full Gallop Farm which is quite local. All 4 working students competed, and Emma rode two horses, one her own and one Michelle's. We borrowed a trailer big enough to carry 5 horses and took the horses to Full Gallop the evening before so that they could settle in. The next morning we arrived at about 9am, but I wasn't riding until midday so I volunteered as a dressage ring steward until then. 

My dressage test went really well, I felt it was the best I could have done and I was so pleased with my horse, Teddy, as it was probably the best she's ever gone for me. My show jumping round wasn't as good- we only knocked one pole down but it wasn't the smoothest round! To be fair neither Teddy nor I have jumped a full course of jumps in a long time so we are both a bit out of practice! Overall I was really pleased with how it went. Although I didn't get a particularly high score and I came 9th (would have been 5th without the 4 penalties for the pole down in show jumping), I had so much fun and wish I could compete every weekend! The three other working students were in a different class to me and did well- Emma came 2nd on her horse and 5th on the other, Anni came 6th and Maude came 7th. 

Teddy

Over the past few days I have been trying out 'liberty' with Teddy. This is like playing with the horse on-line but without a halter and rope, so you have to communicate with the horse using only body language and the carrot stick. It is so cool being able to do this, and I can really see how much I have improved over the two months I have been here. So far at liberty I can get Teddy to come towards me, back up away from me, go in a circle around me then turn and face me ('disengage') when I ask, and walk and trot with me running next to her. At first I did it in a round pen so she couldn't run away, but this morning we had a group liberty session with all four working students and four horses in one of the pastures which was a real test of our communication with our horses as they could (and occasionally did) just leave.

Harcala and me

This week I have started to ride a pony called Harcala who belongs to one of Michelle's friends. I have played with him on-line quite a lot and he's great at that, but he has less experience at being ridden- in the past he has mostly done trail rides. The first time I got on him he was reluctant to move forwards (but went sideways quite happily!), so we have been doing an exercise called 'point to point.' This is where you go from one side of the arena to another as fast as you can and then stop and rest for a minute when you get there, before turning around and going fast to the other side where you rest again. This gives the horse motivation to move as they keep being rewarded for doing so by getting rests, and they quickly have a lot more enthusiasm for going forwards, especially if there's grass they can eat at the rest stops! It worked really well with Harcala, he is now like a different horse who will go forwards to trot with very little encouragement. The only problem is that now he keeps drifting towards the fence because he knows that's where he can stop and eat grass!

Cavaletti (the black things)

In the afternoons we have been testing our carpentry skills by making cavaletti (little jumps) out of old poles and fence posts. Maude, the working student from France, has made them before and is very good at DIY so she is the project manager! She also has some ideas for cross country jumps to build around the farm which would be great (although I'll probably have gone by the time they're built.) I now know how to use a circular power saw, and I always seem to be covered in paint as we're painting the cavaletti black.

Maude's skills also extend to cooking and the other day she brought a taste of France to South Carolina by making us some amazing crêpes. Anni and I had four each! (Two savoury and two Nutella.) 

Today was a very sad day for us as Anni left. She is spending a week with friends in Washington then going home to Germany. She was at Avalo for three months so has been here for my whole stay, and it will be weird without her! She, Emma and I all cried when saying goodbye, the three of us got along really well. Anni and I are going to visit each other when we're both back in Europe.

I have just over a week left at Avalo and then a week at Myrtle Beach before flying back to London. I will be sad to leave but part of me is definitely looking forward to going home. I miss everyone at home and lots of English things like pubs, English television (I have been watching lots of Peep Show on my laptop) and the abundance of tea! My mum sent me a picture of our garden yesterday and it looks so green and lush compared to here (admittedly because of all the rain.) Maybe I'm idealising England in my head, but it's nice to know that I really like the place I'm from! Having said that, I will miss everyone here as well when I leave, and I do wish I could take Teddy home with me! 

Cross country schooling, swimming and show prep.

The past week or so has again been busy and fun, and my highlight has to be cross country schooling. Michelle took Anni, me and two horses, JD and Teddy, to a local cross country course last Friday. We began by warming up on-line, and then got on our horses at the water complex. We enjoyed cantering through the water and then walked round the course trying out different jumps, some of which we put together in a small course at the end. I had so much fun! Teddy hasn't done cross country in a long time but she used to compete to a relatively high level, so she knows what she is doing but was a little cautious at first. It was great to see how much her confidence grew, and by the end she was very willing and much less hesitant which made her brilliant to ride. I had only properly been cross country schooling once before in England during Pony Camp in 2011, and I had forgotten how much fun it is- I want to do it every day! Click here to see a video (sorry about the random blank bit half way through.)

Another highlight was swimming with the horses. Emma and Maude went schooling the day after us, and Anni and I went as well to watch and photograph. At the end of their session they took their horses into the lake to play and cool off, and Anni and I got to have a go too which was great. Both of the horses we took, Rhapsody and Apache, love the water and were pawing at it with their front legs and lying down in it, and after a while we got on and took them in a bit deeper so they could swim. Click here to see a video.

 On Sunday I will be doing my first proper competition at a local farm that is running a CT (a 'combined test' which is a training show for eventing that involves only the dressage and show jumping phases- sadly no cross country.) I am taking Teddy and we have been practicing every day this week. She feels great so hopefully it will go well! I'd love to come back with a rosette (or 'ribbon' as they call them here.) All of the working students are competing and Emma is taking two horses, so we are going to have to borrow a bigger trailer to transport all five horses.

Earlier this week we had a lesson in the evening where we played games on our horses. These included weaving in and out of barrels without using your reins, and trotting around a barrel in a circle tight enough that your stick doesn't lose contact with the barrel. We also got into pairs with another horse and rider and each held one end of the stick and trotted around the arena, and then one pivoted around on the spot while the other trotted/cantered in a circle around them. This was quite challenging but we all got it in the end and it was really fun to try.

This week I have been working with a horse called Starbuck, one of those who is less highly trained in natural horsemanship. At first I only worked with him on the ground, but I have now ridden him 4 times. He likes to move his feet, is quite speedy and very reactive. He is also a space invader; he likes to stand very close to me and is reluctant to back up out of my space. As I've got more experienced I

Me riding Starbuck

can really see a (positive) change in his behaviour on the ground; we can both be calmer and I know how to deal with any problems that may come up. When I ride him he is pretty good but likes to go fast. However, if I use the 'patterns' (a shape that you follow as you ride, for example in the 'bow-tie' pattern you go in a straight line, loop around and then follow that same line in the opposite direction before looping around again back onto the line in the original direction etc.) that I have learnt he relaxes and gets much more steady. He is so rewarding to work with because I can really see Natural Horsemanship benefiting him. Apparently he used to be quite uncontrollable which I can imagine from what I know of him, but now, doing NH, he is so much more sensible and calm.

Michelle has a lot of her horses for sale at the moment as she is trying to downsize, so as it was very rainy yesterday we spent some of the day advertising them on various websites. We have also had a few people come and try out horses they are interested in, and since I've been here one has been sold.

Drive-through bank

Yesterday we went to a drive-through bank! You have to put a container holding your cheques into a plastic tube that sucks it up and into the people inside the bank who talk to you on an intercom. It was very bizarre to see and all of us foreigners were taking pictures!

Update

I have decided to extend my stay here in the US by two weeks! Emma has kindly invited me to go with her family to Myrtle Beach (in South Carolina) for a week in June, so I will now be coming home on 16th June. I'll be sad to leave Avalo but am looking forward to spending a week at the beach and to seeing another part of the state. The time has gone so quickly, I can't believe I'm half way through my stay already!

Poppy with her blue ribbon (1st place)

Trail ride

We have had a busy week here. More cross country schooling for Emma and Michelle (where I took photos again) and they also went to an event last weekend where I photographed and helped with the horses. They both won their divisions again! One afternoon six of us (Michelle, Emma, Anni, Maude the new French working student, Michelle's friend Anna and me) went on a long trail ride to the big field where we can canter. I rode Teddy who hasn't been on a trail ride in a long time and she seemed happy to be out and quite eager to go! On Teddy at the farm I have also been riding without a halter or bridle which is cool. When doing this I have to steer using body weight and (if all else fails) the stick- first I turn my head, then turn my body, and then if she still doesn't respond squeeze with my leg, and if she still doesn't respond then wave the stick near her nose so she turns away from it. We did a fun exercise off the horse where one of us gets down on our hands and knees and the other sits on their back so we can see what certain things feel like to the horse. As the 'horse' you can feel which way the person being the rider wants to turn just by them turning their head, and when the rider looks down or leans forward it adds so much weight to the horse's back! If you straighten your back, tuck your pelvis under you and look up it feels so much lighter to the horse and it is much easier for them to go forwards.
I do feel like I'm improving, especially playing with the horses on-line. Now that I know the basics and have a bit of practice I can deal with problems much more easily, and this means that both me and the horse are more relaxed. I would really like to try some of what I've learnt with horses I know in England.

Casanova

On Monday, Dr Ridgeway, a vet who travels around doing acupuncture and chiropractic work (among other alternative methods) on horses, came to the farm. He was here to look at Casanova, one of Michelle's event horses, who has stomach ulcers and had been very crooked in his body at his last competition. I was a bit sceptical of acupuncture before, but it seemed to really work on Cas. Dr Ridgeway would press on certain muscles in his back that would spasm if they were tight (Cas was very tight on his right side) and then he'd put a needle in somewhere else in his body and press the muscle again, and it wouldn't spasm because it was now loose and relaxed. It was really interesting to watch and hopefully will help Cas.

In the trailer

On Tuesday we all went to Charleston for the day, which is a couple of hours' drive away. We got up extra early to feed hoping we would leave by 7.30, but the truck had a flat tyre so we ended up not leaving until 9.30. We dropped a horse home who had been here for training on the way, and Emma, Anni and I rode in the trailer instead of the truck as there was more space there! We weren't in the section the horses go in but the bit where you put the equipment which meant we could lie down and sleep! Charleston is really nice. We went downtown first to a covered market (someone at one of the stalls said I sounded like I had an American accent..?!) and to look around the shops. We then drove around an area that has some really nice houses in it on our way to the beach. Steve, Michelle's husband, loves fish and fishing, so when we all went in the sea at the beach he took a little net and caught some anchovies. Near the beach is a marshy river area where he showed us how to cast a shrimp net. Despite not catching anything I found it really fun. It is something that I never imagined I would learn how to do! The others caught some tiny shrimp and 3 crabs. We went to Steve's parents' house for dinner which was nice.

Charleston

Charleston is very different looking to Aiken, or at least the bit of Aiken I have seen which is only the shopping area. Charleston is fairly old (for America) and pretty, and I think a bit European looking, whereas Aiken has lots of very wide, straight roads and seems totally built for the consumer. The shops in Aiken are all huge and each have their own big car parks that you drive between. I don't even know if there are pavements as I've never set foot on one, and I haven't seen a single cyclist. We went to a charity shop (or 'thrift store') yesterday that was enormous! The same size as a lot of mainstream high street shops would be in England. There are loads of churches in the area around the farm and Aiken, and what seems really weird is that they are all modern buildings. It seems silly to realise this but of course churches don't have to be old, they just are in England!

Sunburn! 

It has been hot this week, around 35 degrees celsius. I think I'm getting used to the heat, but I still got horrendously sunburnt last week! There is now a pool up in the garden that we can use, so we go in most days to cool off. Today we had a lesson in the evening instead of during the day so that it was cooler. We did some really fun things like trying to get onto the horse bareback- it's a lot harder than it looks!

Emma, Anni and I bought matching rings in Charleston

Really big charity shop