Finished dressage! Lynx tried so hard and was so confused.... I had bridle tag numbers on the sides of his browband, as is appropriate for dressage tests, but he thought they were odd blinkers and so defaulted to the old correct answer of "pace". I did eventually get him into the trot during the second half of the tests, so I count it as a victory.
Between tests we hacked around the show grounds in an effort to help him understand the job here is like the job at home, trot only. Once we'd walked all over and then returned to the arena he realized trot was the right answer. Our second test was similar, he didn't get the trot until the second half. He had it beautiful in the warmup, so he DID do all I asked of him this morning. What a good guy.
This halt photo makes me laugh... the look on Lynx's face says "well what the heck was THAT?!" A surprisingly common reaction horses have to their first official dressage test. He's an awfully good sport!
Back at the stall afterwards Lynx has been super chill. He does look for me when I leave the stall, but had been happily eating and drinking.
Smiling photos as we started on the road this morning... ah we were younger then.
It was kind of a wretched drive up, taking many hours longer than it should have. With three accidents (thankfully none involving us), truly scary drivers cutting us off trying to get ahead. Horrific traffic around DC, and again Baltimore, and again Philadelphia and again getting on the NJ turnpike. Yeesh.
We did arrive safely, if grumpy, just barely before dark. Lynx is already a champion for riding in the trailer that long and being that well behaved! He ate and drank well in the trailer. He unloaded and happily had a long guzzle of water, ate his dinner, and was busy working on his hay bag when we left him to go set up camp with my trailer.
Our ride times are about 8:45am for our first dressage test, and about 10am for the second. It will be an early start, but we'll be done before lunch. Hopefully we're both feeling better in the morning!
Well we had quite a morning here at Bit of Honey! Kathy and Dylan came over to ride with us, and happily it was in the 60s instead of the 100+ degree weather we were enjoying last week. Not sure if it was the cooler weather, the excitement of having Dylan here riding with us, or whatever might have been trouncing around in the woods by my fields, but both horses were a little on edge.
Neither horse misbehaved, but Dylan was keen to do some trotting when he'd usually happily just walk, and both horses kept giving severe side-eye to the woods by which we rode. We did narrowly miss a big black snake as Lynx and I were riding through some taller grass, but I was able to stop Lynx early enough and redirect so as not to bother the creature.
Mostly Pascal the border collie took care of the monsters in the woods, running through the edges of the trees while we were at the edge of the fields. I put bells on the dogs for these exact circumstances. The dogs can investigate anything suspicious and the horses don't worry because they can hear the bells and know the dogs are on top of it.
Lynx was a little wound up too, even when we went to do a little gymnastic work. He's been asking during the last several rides if we can jump, but I prefer not to unless someone is with us for safety reasons. Since Kathy was here, we started with walking over the poles, then trotting through them. Lynx was rushing a bit (probably anticipating a bigger jump and cantering), so I set up the line in a way that would slow him down and make him think.
Five trot poles, a raised pole, then five more trot poles. This gave him the little jump he was looking for, but also enough footwork to slow him down.
It worked well, so we next changed it to be 5 trot poles, a raised pole, then 2 canter strides to a crossrail oxer. The first time through Lynx LAUNCHED over the little oxer, he'd been waiting for this! Subsequent trips through the gymnastic slowed him down and yielded more conservative jumping efforts. All part of figuring out what's required to get through the line!
Sadly, the pivo once again decided it would rather video Dylan setting fences with Kathy instead of us jumping them, so my video is limited. We got some cute shots of Dylan, though!
The final video challenge for the ReBrand Initiative Trainer's Challenge was submitted last week.
It's fifteen minutes, and covers the training Lynx has received between July 6 when he arrived to when the video was due, Sept 9. It's a summary of his transformation and the great progress he made while here at Bit of Honey.
Here's the list of classes in which Lynx is entered for Nationals next week. The other trainers in the ReBrand Initiative Trainer's Challenge have also shared their classes, and some of us will be in the same classes/divisions! It's so exciting to see these horses having made so much progress. It says a great deal about the Standardbred breed that they can so easily adapt from harness racing to being riding horses in such a short time!
Some things I've discovered about Standardbreds through this process is that so many of these horses have the athleticism of a thoroughbred, the brain of a quarter horse, and the gaits and body of a warmblood. I'm confidently predicting once word gets out that this is the ideal adult amateur mount, it's going to be hard to keep them in the barn. They will be in demand. They will likely start taking the sporthorse world by storm as the majority of folks are looking for something steady, safe, athletic, with a good sensible mind.
They come in all sizes and colors, and so many are truly sound coming off the track because harness racing isn't the same kind of pounding on them as the galloping racing thoroughbreds does. Once started under saddle and balanced in regular gaits they will be appropriate for a wide variety of riders.
Additionally, starting them under saddle is very straightforward and their good temperaments absolutely lend them to being wonderful uncomplicated prospects. I'm anticipating that I'll have quite a few coming through the Bit of Honey Training program in the near future. While my personal horses will likely continue to be OTTBs, I recognize that it's a more specialized rider who enjoys a thoroughbred and the skill set they require. Standardbreds fill the niche space between thoroughbreds and warmbloods that so many adult amateurs are searching for!
If you'd like to get on the wait list to be considered as a future home for one of the Standardbreds that will be getting a Bit of Honey Training education, reach out to BitOfHoneyTraining@gmail.com.
I also am starting to fill the waitlist for owners wanting to get their Stb started under saddle before advertising to a non-racing home, and folks interested in this can contact the same email.
I feel so fortunate to have been able to work with with MMXX Standardbreds on this training project with Lynx. It will be such fun to finally meet everyone in person at the show this week, and I love the graphic they shared of the MMXX Nationals team!
It's fun to be part of another team after having run the Bit of Honey Training crew for so many years. Onward to Nationals!
Since Lynx came to me for training and much of my background is in eventing, with plenty of endurance, cow work, trail riding, and classical dressage sprinkled in! Sometimes I wonder if I ended up eventing because I loved fast trailrides over big jumps, or because I couldn't decide on one discipline! Either way I can find all kinds of options for a horse as a career after racing! As a result, Lynx has had a very full and well rounded education over these past nine weeks!
A portion of that time has been spent introducing him to basic dressage. Since correct dressage really is the foundation for anything else he might go on to do, this has been an important piece of his learning here.
As Nationals starts just one week from today, we've been reviewing the skills from the two dressage tests he'll do there. While he does canter here at home on each lead, and even gives me pretty clean flying lead changes while we're out galloping in the fields, he's not yet balanced enough to do it slowly on a twenty meter circle. Because of that I've entered him in USDF Intro A & B, which are walk/trot tests. I want to set him up to be super confident at the show!
Of course we warm up and cool off by walking around in the fields with the dogs. They're good about assisting with the dressage schooling, but do enjoy our morning hacks.
This morning Lynx and the dogs and I worked a little on our dressage test for Nationals, then went for a walk and headed back to the barn because Lynx had a massage scheduled! Jaime Hammond came out again too work on him once more time before we head out of town next week.
Lynx of course remembered her and was very interactive and communicative throughout the massage this time. At the beginning he nuzzled my hands and gave me some reciprocal grooming as she stared working on him. By the end he was very politely asking her to spend a little more time on the effleurage of his forearms with a gentle nudge with his nose every time she'd stop.
Lynx also feel asleep for a bit because massage just feels nice.
Happily he got a good report! All the places where he had some tension last time had resolved, and he's built some good correct muscling over the past month. He's in great shape heading into his grand finale for the ReBrand Initiative Trainer's Challenge.
