Tegan & Riley's Eventing Blog

Follow our Eventing Journey.. Hopefully this page helps save Instagram from too many photos of Riley and I!

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April 2015 flat lesson with Riley. Working on a lower longer frame

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♡♡♡

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He is absolutely loving life. Thank you to my favorite and special friends and family for being so amazing.. you all know who you are! ♡ xx

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👍👌

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Truth

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Sick of spending hundreds of dollars on lessons each month and traveling huge distances for an hour lesson that might not have been worth it? I definitely agree that having lessons with a coach in the flesh is super important, but as an undergraduate university student studying education, my theory is that doing the study and reading up of information is equally important in everyone’s learning. If we stop learning we stop improving. Would you find an E-Book full of notes based on exercises in jumping and dressage valuable to purchase for a small fee of under $20 to read, have a go and review anytime you want? I am thinking about launching series of E-Books based on the past 15 years of my extensive riding and coaching experiences. Some of the things covered in the articles will be inspiring, motivating and also something new to try at home or out competing on your horse. Listen to my secrets, handy advice and look outside the square. Successful people are always doing something different than the rest of us and I am on a mission to share everything I know. It is so important to study up and listen to how other fellow equestrians go about their riding, management and greatness in the making in order for us to figure out what we are doing right or wrong. Give me a follow or a note if you might be interested? Cheers, Tegan and Riley.

#horses #eventing #showjumping #dressage #ebook #affordable #expressionofinterest

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I truly believe in this.. & no doubt it will happen many more times in this crazy thing we call life.. just have a drink or 50 and move on..🍸🍺🍷😊

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Pony rides... 🐱

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Such a great brand.. #peisportstechnology #premierequineinternational #ashbreesaddlery

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🐎

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Dressage lesson this afternoon. Nailed the halts, lost the right connection a bit towards the end but got it back. Need to practice transitions and stretching out on long rein to collecting back up again at the trot as the movement in the test comes up really quick. I'm not quick enough having Riley round my leg and balanced to trot forward straight and up the center line. Practice makes perfect!

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Is this even our horse? @_allisonbuckley_ Where did the wooly, overgrown pony go? #Nicky #amazingrider #Riley #Rulingtowin #Thoroughbred

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Slow day #Canter #lunge #summer

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🐴♡ super ride this evening.. plaited up and off to a Dressage comp tomorrow.

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In this moment, it's just you and I. Nothing else in the world matters. We can escape the drama, rush of people and just lose track of time and remember we are here to be living, not existing.

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Dressage tests...

How often do we hear 'you just sit there' from people who may have had a pony ride once or twice, or just don't really understand horse riding.. I can admit I used to 'just sit there' until the days of just burning around at pony club were over and I started getting lessons with EA riders and coaches.. (nothing against pony club or coaches it just happened that the most affective coaching I have received were outside of pony club.)

So, this morning the arena looks like this..

So while we wait for the fog, rain and arena to drain Gill and I sat down inside with coffee from her amazing espresso machine and analysed the two prelim tests I would be riding in at Aldinga on Sunday with Riley.

We printed diagrams of the tests from http://www.dressage.net.au/australiatests.html#preliminarytests

which was super handy because we could talk about exactly every movement and every single element of the test where I would make a transition, do a half halt, sit trot into downwards or upwards transition, ask a little flexion to right or left, put my leg on in a certain area to stop Riley's outside shoulder bulging out while continuing straight across the diagonal without over doing it and making him break into canter and the list goes on.. So I thought I would share my notes from the 1.3 prelim test with diagrams just to show how much thinking a rider really does need to do along with following out the ride with actions in order to produce and ride a smooth, accurate, consistent and effective test.

See this link.... https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwLWeTAD0QzlaVRURnZOY2xLYWs/view?usp=sharing

I certainly know I have so much to practice, but practice makes perfect as they all say.. I believe that along with the right tools and coaching it is true! I soo want to nail some of these movements that I have been finding really hard in the past week.. and these are only baby prelim tests, the advanced tests are so much more technical, longer and precise.. That's why I love Dressage, every new day is different, more challenges arising and oh so rewarding! (my 12 year old self that would never, EVER have thought I would enjoy Dressage as much as I do now.. helps that Riley loves it too.. Monty and Ellie just didn't really want to participate!).

We may need some floaties on this afternoon while we are out working if this rain keeps up!

Do you like Riley's new Dressage bridle? In love with the browband and reins!

And one more happy snap from before yesterday's ride. He wasn't too impressed with the drizzle yesterday, so I am certain he will be shitty today as well, this weather is just not easing!

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Riley's new bling. So pretty :)

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Tonight's jump lesson was pretty intense! It was really humid, especially when the sun came out after raining all day.. it was like being in the tropics in QLD all over again! 

Riley was covered in sweat and foam half way through and I got tired pretty quickly too but the adrenalin kept us going. We were working over an upright planks 4 strides straight to an oxer then a lovely smooth U turn left over another set of planks. Greg had these set up around about 85-90cm so they were really welcoming for our first jump back in 4 weeks. Riley felt really confident but I kept on getting him in too deep to the oxer so he took out the first rail a few times. He doesn't get offended any more when he knocks a rail, he used to bolt away and put in a few bucks last year when we were working on lines. I think the fact that he's well and truely in some hard work now he's fairly mellow to try anything. So we just worked on keeping the rhythm and impulsion (rhythm is a big deal to me at the moment!) on the straight, after the jump, on the turn and then away.

Feedback that I was given was that we can jump the jump really well, (...when I didn't get left behind as Riley launched in the air and then catapulted forward as I tried desperately not to land with a thud in the saddle which happened once or twice!) but then I forget to use the aids to ask him to land on the left leg to continue around the U turn so as a result of me keeping him straight using my left leg into right rein he would land on his right, dip the shoulder in and we couldn't make the turn what so ever!

Finally I managed a respectable ride over the exercise which took a few attempts -sorry Riley.. I haven't yet got confidence in myself so I tend to forget to think about what I'm doing! Then we changed it up going over the first set of planks, but instead of going to the oxer we veered to the left on an undirect line over the other set of planks then follow onto a neat U turn right onto the oxer. This was easier for me, although my weight naturally distributes to the left (I need my hips realigned) soo I had to be aware of the drift too far and also use an open rein right to land on correct right lead to make the turn onto the oxer. Nailed it this time. Was really good to challenge me as a rider and know that no matter what I do, it reflects how Riley gets to the jump and also keeping the rails up. He is the type of horse that will do whatever you tell him to, but hasn't yet learnt (or maybe discovered) how to save my butt and put in a massive jump when I stuff up.. maybe he's saving that for when we are out and not just going around and around in training at home! Hopefully that comes with more practice, or else il just have to be a perfectionist and make sure I get it every time and that he stays balanced, in sync and takes off in the right spot.

That's all for now! Until the next lesson...

<3 Tegan & RIley x