Sunday
First day of WIT!! The day started with our pre-chores meeting where we went over the schedule for the day. We went inside, where the ponies were all very happy to see us. Breakfast was fed, chores were completed, horses were turned out and, for those with an early lesson, tacked up.
I had a private lesson with Lendon today. I had been getting in my head while tacking up, but once Harmony and I started, it went pretty well. It was mainly a ride where Lendon added a comment here and there, while I was directing where we were going.
Lendon has a sheet that she handed out to all of us with a list of “tests” we have to complete each day. Today’s “test” was bringing a piece of paper with three things that we were working on with our trainer at home. At the beginning of the lesson, she went over them with us. There was also an anatomy of the horse test before the lecture.
Harmony and I finished, and after I washed and dried her off, she got more field time. She loves it outside, with the warm sun and green grass. While she was in the field, I sat nearby, eating lunch, watching some of Lendon’s lessons, and writing my lesson notes. Lendon encourages us to write down a few notes about each of our lesson, and provided some very nice dressage journals for this. I also write down everything I notice about Harmony, like a small breakout of hives due to new shavings, or skin tags from the heat.
That afternoon, we had a lecture with Dr. Mitchell of Palm Beach Equine Clinic on all of the common problems with horses in Florida. She covered a wide variety of topics, including hives, scratches, summer sores, impaction colic, electrolytes, and cellulitis. A huge thank you to Dr. Mitchell and Palm Beach Equine Clinic.
To end the day was fitness testing with Lendon. We started with some shoulder and lower body mobility tests, then moved on to core strength and stability, then balance. To end, we ran as many laps as we could in the big field next to the arena for 12 minutes straight. My legs were jelly at the end, and it was sheer force of will that I was standing when we got back to the barn. We finished afternoon chores, and got home around 6 PM that night.
Monday
Monday was our off day, which means that we partner up with another WITee and we each take care of both of our horses for either AM or PM chores. I got the PM shift, so I got to sleep in, and work on some homework and yoga (felt great after fitness).
I got to the barn around 2, turned out Harmony, picked her and my partner’s horse’s stall, filled their water and hay, and fed them. It was a very quick trip, and we went home earlier than expected.
Tuesday
We had an extra early start because of a morning lecture, which means driving in the dark to get to the barn by 6:30. The lecture, presented by Dr. Omar Maher, Dr. Christine Machin, and Dr. Virginia Melly of Atlantic Equine Services, was on visual evaluations and observations done by vets when assessing horses. To begin, Dr. Maher went over Dustin, one of the participant’s horses, evaluating his conformation and symmetry to find where there may be problems in his build, with considerations to his age, level, and workload.
We split into three groups to evaluate different areas of the horse with each vet. My group stayed with Dr. Maher and Dustin to evaluate the head, neck, and back. Dr. Maher began with a demonstration on visual examination of Dustin’s build, muscling, and carriage. Next, Dr. Maher ran his hands over Dustin’s back and neck, pressing on certain points to see reactions, and tested Dustin’s flexibility by encouraging him to reach for a sugar at his hocks. Dr. Maher then guided us each through the same process, to teach us how to do these on our own horses, and explained how these evaluations can help us become more familiar with our. horse, which, in turn, allows us to catch little changes in their bodies before they become big problems.
Next, our group moved to Dr. Melly and Lear, another participant’s horse, for front leg evaluation. We began with a quick quiz on basic anatomy of the front limb and shoulder. Next, we evaluated feet and shoes, what that shows about conformation, and how it impacts movement. One of the parents asked about digital pulse, so Dr. Melly explained what it was, and demonstrated how to find it. She also guided us through finding it one at a time.
Our final stop was with Dr. Machin and Rush, another participant’s pony, for the hind leg. We had another quick quiz about the hind limb and haunches, and about how many joints in each joint collective. She also showed us about the 4 muscles of the stifle, and how to. flex and test each area of the hind end.
It was a longer lecture, but certainly not dull. A huge thank you to the vets at Atlantic Equine Services.
After the lecture, lessons began. Today, everyone had semi-private lesson with Lendon. Harmony was very good for our ride, despite us throwing a lot at her. She started out quite tense and unwilling to be off my leg. In our warmup, she kept tensing up and attempting to change or break. Lendon had us begin the lesson with working on forward and back in the canter. We went medium down the longside to a collected canter in the shortside. This helped her remain listening to my leg and seat, and softly accepting my contact. After a short break, we repeated the exercise in the other lead. After another break, we picked up the canter, and worked on half-pass to counter-canter through the short side, and back across the diagonal. Counter-canter helped her become more through and even, despite it being a hard exercise for both of us. She was much more supple and through when we finished.
Our test for the day was bringing a sheet of short-term goals that we had filled out to our lesson, and switching a whip. Lendon is very picky on that subject, and believes we should all be able to do it very well.
Once Harmony was all cooled off, untacked, and bathed, I turned her out, which gave me time to eat my lunch and journal my notes from our ride. I also got a little bit of homework done.
Lendon called us to a meeting to watch a video provided by our fitness instructor. It was on the exercises we would do in our dynamic warmup for fitness. Lendon was once again in charge of fitness, which today was in the arena. The instructor wanted us to do the exercises for 20-40 meters, which means not only was the arena the perfect length, but we were able to spread out along the long side and social distance so we could remove our masks. Because most of us were still quite sore from Sunday’s fitness, all we did was the dynamic warmup. This short fitness allowed us to finish quickly, which in turn allowed us to finish PM chores and go home early.
Wednesday
Today was a regular start, which was appreciated by the WITees. After chores, my trainer came in to tune up Harmony, then I got on for a quick ride to feel the difference. According to my trainer, she started out very similar to yesterday, stiff on the right rein, and not engaging her right hind, making throughness very difficult to achieve. After being ridden by my trainer, Harmony felt great.
Much like the last few days, I had lunch and did homework before the lecture. We were planning on a Zoom lecture, but the technology was not working, so Lendon gave us a lecture instead. She talked about a few general housekeeping rules, then got into some dressage theory. She talked about what makes a good trainer, a few horses from her riding career, and half-halts. She then asked us if she was saying anything in our lessons that was the opposite of what our trainers at home say. This led to some explanations of following with your hands in the different gaits, and how Lendon teaches.
After the lecture was more fitness. Lendon has us watch a new video with some core exercises. We got it all done despite Lendon’s phone not cooperating. In the last few days, the fitness instructor has sent us each our own workouts that we all needed to do during fitness today. I got the lower body one, but I did not have the right equipment, so I did the core workout, which was bodyweight. After fitness was PM chores, which were quick today, so we went home early.
Thursday
I did not sleep very well last night, because we stayed up too late watching the news. Based on everyone else’s expressions as we walked into the barn, most people did similar. As did Lendon apparently, because she kept forgetting my name during the lesson.
Today was also day 1 of the Robert Dover Horsemastership Week (RDHMW). Because of COVID, there were no general spectators allowed in the venue, but the United States Equestrian Federation was livestreaming all morning. Our amazing stable manager was able to hook up the livestream to a monitor in the front of the barn where we could all watch throughout the morning. I was popping in and out several times today to watch.
Every year, Robert gives a speech on riding and riding theory to open the Robert Dover Horsemastership Week. This was our lecture today. Once his speech was finished, we watched videos of Charlotte Dujardin and Laura Bechtolsheimer’s freestyles.
Our test for that day was leading and jogging our horses. This test was supervised by the stable manager and Lendon’s assistant. It was surprising to see all of the different ways people jogged their horses.
My lesson did not go very well today. Her back was quite sore, so she was uncomfortable in our ride, so we had a very short lesson.
Later in the afternoon, after chores, we had our fitness. After warming up, we had a nice yoga flow as the workout. That was the last thing in our schedule, so we went home.
Friday
Today, we got a very special and generous invite from USDF to audit day 2 of the Robert Dover Horsemastership Week. We very quickly finished our chores, then began to get ready to go to Global (the dressage show grounds in Wellington). Having gone last year, I was struck by the how different the whole event was conducted during the pandemic.
I first noticed the differences in getting to Global. Last year, we tried to cram as many people into a car as possible, no masks, etc. This year, it was 4 people in a car, sitting as far away from each other, fully masked, and windows wide open. None of us were willing to take chances.
When we arrived at Global, we were only able go in through one entrance. We had to walk through a tunnel that took our temperature before we were allowed past the parking lot. We got to the arena, and set up our chairs 6 feet apart under the covered arena. We were there a few hours, and I took so many notes. Very excited to get back on Harmony and ride what I learned.
Speaking of Harmony, our amazing vet came in and looked at her back. It was a quick visit, but I decided to let her rest, as Lendon is planning a schooling show for Sunday.
We also had a test today. The first-time WITees are assigned with reading the USDF training manual, while the returnees have to read “When Two Minds Align” by Beth Baumert. I feel like it went really well.
The RDHMW was our lecture for the day, but we still had to do fitness. As normal, we started with our warmup, and then began working on our legs. The workout provided was almost entirely with equipment, so we improvised. Instead of resistance bands, we used polo wraps, a mounting block as steps, and did everything requiring weights with just bodyweight. There were lots of leg lifts in different positions, but what really killed me were the wall sits. There wasn’t really wall space for all of us, so we leaned against the fence posts.
Saturday
Once again, we went to audit RDHMW. However, today was very cold, and the covered arena acted like a wind tunnel, leaving us shivering in our chairs through most of the morning. We were able to watch two rides today, which was less that yesterday, but no less educational.
Fitness today was on the early side, and shorter. We worked on our arms with some resistance bands. There was lots of work especially for our shoulders and triceps.
Tomorrow is the schooling show, so everyone was getting prepared today. Harmony was feeling good, so I decided to ride her today. It did not go very well, and her back was hurting afterwards, so we decided not to ride in the show tomorrow.
Lendon gave a talk about the show tomorrow. She talked about what to expect, what was expected, warmups, and why we are doing this. This talk went quite long, so we had a short fitness, focused on personal exercises. We went home very late today.
Sunday
Show day! The WIT show was in the afternoon, but the RDHMW show (where the participants rode a test in Global’s CDI arena) was in the morning, so we watched that. There was quite a lot to see, and the WITees were inspired to perform better in their own show.
When we got back to the barn, it was test time. Everyone has to read a CNN daily newsletter, and get tested on the week’s news on Sundays.
After the the test, everyone else started preparing for the show; braiding, grooming, polishing, and cleaning. Like a regular show, yours and your horse’s hair have to be braided and bunned, but you don’t have to wear show clothes or whites. I was able to get a little bit of homework in between helping Lendon and the stable manager prepare.
The WITees had to warmup in the big field, because the arena was where the show was taking place. As I was not showing, I was asked by several WITees to video their rides. Some WITees had great rides, and some had a few problems (or as Lendon helpfully put it, had more opportunity for improvement!), but everyone came away feeling positive about the experience.
After the show, Lendon called us all (and the parents) to another meeting to recap the show and hand out prizes (individually wrapped chocolate candies). There were several different awards, like horse most resembling a dart, to highest score, to non-participation award (that was me:) ). She also announced prizes for the three highest combined scores of the anatomy test from last Sunday, the Manual test, and the news test. I was one of the three. Finally, Lendon closed out the meeting with some wisdom about the warmup, and how to improve it for next time.
Wow! What a week. I am already exhausted, and yet so excited for the next adventure.
Leah Drew 