Pictures!!

Hi Everyone!! Hope you are enjoying some beautiful Fall weather! We have had excellent weather this week!! I put some pictures up of me and Royal Rubin. "Rudi" is one of Heike's Grand Prix mounts. He is a 12 year old stallion by Rubinstien. I am lucky enough to ride him quite often! There are a few pictures of us having some fun after a good ride!! Here are the links. Enjoy!!

Royal Rubin:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/MTB-Dressage/129309447103592?ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=30115&id=129309447103592&ref=mf

Rudi and I having some fun!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/MTB-Dressage/129309447103592?ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=30123&id=129309447103592

Check out MTBDressage on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MTB-Dressage/129309447103592?ref=ts#!/pages/MTB-Dressage/129309447103592
MTBDressage.com is coming soon!!!

Please let me know if the links don't work for some reason!!

Thanks for reading!

-Meaghan

A New Tool for the Toolbox

The Bridge!

I was riding one of the young horses and Heike made a comment that I should really try to keep my hands closer together; create a little imaginary box right in front on the withers and keep my hands INSIDE. Normally when I ride young horses I end up having my hands a little lower and wider, which is fine sometimes, but eventually they have to accept the contact from a slightly closer and elevated hand. Sometimes I try to micro-manage every little moment and correct it before it happens. Sometimes this works out great but other times I get in the horses way and become a bit too busy. Not busy as in moving my hands around in gigantic movements as if I were painting an elaborate piece of art but simply just giving to many little aids in to short of time. Remember: give an aid, give the horse a chance to react, and then repeat if necessary.

The bridge is a great way to feel how slight your rein aids can really be as well as how much more support you can give with your leg and weight aids. It allows you to feel if there are any crooked points in your position and/or your horse’s body. Maybe you have been compensating with your right rein for what your right leg should have been doing?

To make the Bridge take the left rein in the left hand and lay the rest of the rein flat across the withers, then take the right rein in the right hand and lay the rest flat across the withers. Now take the extra part of the rein in each hand. You should have two layers of reins in each hand. This creates small “bridge” on top of the horse’s withers. The forces, in a way that doesn’t negatively affect your horse, to keep your hands steady and only using a slight motion of the wrist for your rein aid. I know it sounds confusing and it will probably feel impossible for the first few rounds but stick with it and really try to feel how your leg and seat aid should precede your rein aids!

After we have mastered the bridge we can move onto riding with only one hand!!

Thanks for reading!

-Meaghan

August!

Well....other than being a complete blogging slacker, there has been a lot going on this past month! August flew by!!

My friend Eliza, of www.elizasydnordressage.com came to visit in the beginning of August! We met up with another good friend of ours and went to Verden for the World Young Horse Championships! There were some incredible horses. I was completely blown away by the 5 and 6 year old classes! The breeding of some of the horses combined with world class training made it a complete pleasure to be an auditor! We also watched the Grand Prix, and the Special. For the first time I was able to Sune Hansen, the rider from Blue Hors ride. He was an absolute delight. He is a tall slender (not to mention gorgeous looking) man with a flawless position. He and his horses moved with such grace. His aids were nearly invisible. Although he has a few mistakes in each test, costing him the win, his rides were breathtaking. He is now the new picture in my head of what I want to look like on a horse and how I gracefully I want to ride. I am really excited to see how well he does at the WEG in Kentucky!

The weekend after Verden, my friend Pia and I drove to Munster to see the final class of the German Championships which served as the final selection trail for the WEG team. Isabell Werth was the clear winner, but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, spots were really close. I was most impressed by Matthias Rath's freestyle. His horse is known for having serious issues in the final piaffe, but he made a point to do 2 sets of piaffe in the final moments of the freestyle to show the judges that he has what it takes to make the team. He proceed to do almost 18 perfect steps of piaffe right in front of the judge at B while petting his horse. It was awesome!!! The competition arena is set right in the middle of the city with a beautiful historic castle as the backdrop. Wish I could figure out the picture situation!!!!!

After watching the Germans fight it out for their WEG team we raced home and quickly tuned into useflive.com (which had incredible live coverage of the US National Championships) and watched the Americans fight it out for our WEG team! It was an awesome weekend filled with some exceptional Dressage!! Not to mention got me super excited for the WEG.

Always more to come….

Meaghan

Time Off Has Its Benefits!

I have come to the conclusion that taking an actual vacation can be a good thing for one's riding! While you are away somethings get better, somethings stay the same and some maybe lose a little ground! Sure, if you take a day or two off things don't really change, but three weeks, well that gives you a chance! I can't lie when I got back the first two days of riding were tough, I was out of shape, (maybe had eaten too much while at home:) and I was pretty muscle sore! It didn't help the Mr. Meyners (seat coach) came my FIRST day back! But, overall since back I have been able to keep my hands down without too much of a problem. I know this sounds small but really its huge! I was constantly getting yelled at to keep my hands down! They weren't up around my ears or anything but they were just a little too high and as they crept up my seat would creep upwards too! So my hands: Better! My seat stayed mostly the same! My legs maybe lost a little ground. I have been working really hard to make my aids, in some ways quicker, but in other ways softer. YES its confusing! When I need a quick leg aid sometimes I am too slow. And at other times when maybe I could get away with a squeeze of the calf I go for a big kick which ALWAYS ruins everything! So quicker and smaller!

I am still trying to solve the picture mystery!! Everytime I upload a picture not only does it take forever but it loads as 5000 words of ADS&^%&_^FKMA R)(IQ $TUQ !!!! See my problem!! Help!

-Meaghan

PS. I am tryin to do a video tour of the stable to post on here!

Had a Blast at Home

Hey Everyone,

I know its been a while, but I am back from an awesome three weeks at home and ready to get back to riding! I will be better about blogging I promise! Home was great, I got to see lots of friends and family, eat way to much delicious food, and enjoy Boston and the beach!

My flight back was terrible. I couldn't sleep on the first 6 hour flight to Amsterdam, then I had to hang around Amsterdam Airport for 5 hours waiting for my connection flight to Hannover. I almost missed my connection because I was sleeping!! The nice steward lady woke me up! Thank goodness! Then the turbulance on the flight was so bad that people were screaming, breathing out of paper bags and stuff fell from the overhead bins! I am glad I don't have to fly for a while!!

Exciting news! Before the end of the month I should have my website www.MTBdressage.com up and running! While I was home both my parents and several friends put in an enormous effort to get it started! Thank you all so much! Can't wait to see what you think!

More exciting news! Eliza Sydnor is coming to visit me and other good friend Eiren and we are going to watch the World Young Horse Championships in Verden!!

I am working on putting some pictures up like I used too, but for some reason all the pictures that I upload come up as a large red X! So I am investigating that issue!!

-Meaghan

Struggling and Balance

So the last few weeks I have been struggling! I have been trying to sit so straight and so still that almost every muscle in my body aches. Ms. Kemmer has been on me about really turning the horses outside shoulder. Sounds easy, but as I am turning the outside shoulder my horse inevitably falls the inside front leg. I know that I need to make my horse use their inside hind leg to carry and push more of their weight, but its HARD! I always end up using way to much inside rein to make the turn and end up falling a little bit to the outside with my seat, but when I try to make corrections to my position and seat I make too large of an adjustment and then I throw my horse way off balance! Ahhh it’s a vicious circle. So every day I concentrate on staying straight, in the center on my horse, and using small invisible aids to guide my horses! Easier said than done and the real kicker is that I know all this! I completely understand the theory and basic principals but making my body comply is so much harder. I also struggle a lot with what is enough and what is too little. Sometimes I feel like I am way to easy on my horses and I should demand a little more from them because really that’s the only way we are going to move forward, but then some days I feel like I am pushing them over the edge and its information overload and too much for them to handle! What it really boils down to is that everything is about balance. Balance, balance, balance!! So my plan is to keep on trying to make my body do what my mind tells it to do while I am in the saddle and then I think I need to start taking a YOGA class. That’s all about balance and centering yourself, right! New plan: Yoga!! I will keep you updated!

Thanks for Reading:

Meaghan

Major Break Through!

Over the past two weeks I have discovered the key to riding! Ok well, not the absolute key but let's just say a key part to developing my seat further. I have always had a problem with hunching my shoulders. When everything is good nice and easy (aka I'm not really riding) then I can sit on the horse with my shoulders back and in great posture, but in the moment when I actually need to stay straight and strong in my upper body, I hunch my shoulders, fall a little bit forward and probably pull on the right rein! But now I have discovered the little area in the upper body known as the sternum. Yes, I know it has always been there but FINALLY I have started to use it! Keeping good posture and sitting straight really has nothing to do with my shoulders, I just have to remember to keep my sternum up and open. Each rib has to be separated! Seriously, it sounds crazy but really this has helped my seat tremendously. The action, motion, swinging movements (whatever you what to call it) of the horse's body has to flow through your seat and be absorbed without collapsing like a ragdoll. I use to try to keep my hips, legs, and seat so steady that I was absorbing all the movement in the upper part of my rib cage, making my sitting trot look like a slow moving wave, peaking right under my shoulder blades. But now that I have started to constantly remind myself of my sternum I have been able to absorb the movements throughout my entire body with the majority of it in the hips. This has made sitting the trot SOOO much easier. When I look in the mirror I really look as it I am finally moving with the horse as opposed to the flapping passenger. Now if I could only figure out how to give an aid at the same moment! Guess I need to save something for next week! Hahaha.

Hope everyone is enjoying some Spring weather!!!

-Meaghan

More Meyners Exercises

These are a few of the exercises that I worked on this week with Mr.Meyners.

1: 6-12 (Like the numbers on clock)
Lay on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the ground, and rotate your pelvis forward (6) and back (12). Try to alternate the speed and the height or intensity of each movement, but try to keep the exercise in motion.

2. Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Stretch your arms out to either side, shoulder length. Place one ankle on the other knee and let your knees fall from one side to the other while turning the head from one direction to the other.

3. Lay on your right/left side with your arm stretched out above your head, your head lying on your arm, legs long, and your pelvis at a 90 degree angle to the ground (this is the most important part). Lift both your upper body and lower body off the ground just for a few seconds, then rest and repeat. It is most important to keep your pelvis at a 90 degree angle to the ground, do not fall forward or backwards. It is better to repeat this exercise only a few times then switch sides. It more important to do it 5 times correctly than 10 times poorly.
To increase this exercise try to lift lower and upper body off the ground and then raise one leg higher up (separate your leg). If you are on the right side it is your left leg that you raise. Then lower your left leg back to the right one then back to the ground, don’t collapse on a heap in the floor. Make slow controlled movements.

4. Lay on your back with your arms stretched over your head and your legs long. Try to rise your upper body and lower body slowly and of equal height. If you are stronger with your lower abs don’t raise your legs rather than your upper can go, and vice versa. Repeat this same exercise while lying on your back.

5. Sit upright with your legs out in front of you in a triangle, with your pelvis as the tip of the triangle. Keep your legs long. Roll backwards onto your back and bring your legs over your head to touch the ground behind your head, then roll forward, legs back on the ground in front of your like a triangle and reach forward with upper body and arms. Don’t raise your shoulders to stretch further, just go as far as possible with your arms and upper body. Keep breathing and try to keep this a fluid motion, trying to heave your legs over your head and letting then mash down on the ground. (This is what happened on my first)

Each of these exercises should aid in suppleness and bringing together the right and left side of the body. Also the rotation of the head in the opposite direction as the legs aids in better coordination of the diagonal aids

6. To deepen your seat, sit either in the saddle or on a hard stool and have someone stand in front of you and make all different size circles (in all directions) with their finger. Try to follow their finger with only your eyes. Don’t move your head. It sounds crazy but it really works!

Have fun trying to make sense of these exercises. If anyone has any questions feel free to email me. They can be confusing!!

Good Luck and Viel Spass!!! (Have Fun)

-Meaghan

Melting Marshmellow vs. Magic Meaghan

Hello Everyone,

There is actually a good excuse for the serious lack of blogging over the past 5 months (I can't believe it has been that long). I have had NO internet. Can you imagine!! I live in a tiny, yet extremely cute little village! The cable company pretty much had to wire the whole village for DSL, but I now have internet!! WhooHoo! Ok, now that I am over having the internet, I can get back to writing my blog.

Reader's Digest version of the past 5 months: Riding is going great. Getting my butt kicked most days, but on a few, very rare occasions Heike has used the nickname "Magic Meaghan" and "Dressage Rider" to describe a few fleeting moments in over a 1000 rides over the past few months. ALL of the other moments are reserved for the "melting marshmallow" comment! Haha. Heike describes my sitting trot as melting marshmallow! Not good! So I am working extremely hard to have some positive tension in my upper body, which is only possible now that I have my lower leg on the horse (Instead of the beautiful, yet ineffective "dressage" leg that I once had)

I have ridden anywhere from 4 to 10 horses per day, ranging from out of control 3 year olds to seasoned Grand Prix horses. I have been able to work continually with Mr., Myners throughout the winter, and have made some big improvement in my seat and have been able to file away some excellent feelings of a deeper seat and seriously collected canter with a light rein contact. I will describe some of the exercises in the next few blogs. Some are crazy but they work.

Spring has finally come. The winter was so terrible. Everyone has said that it was the worst Winter Germany has seen in 20 years. So I am thinking of Wintering in New England next year, it has to be better that this insane German weather! Haha! At the stable there is a beautifully groomed galloping track, so I have spent alot of time outside in the past few weeks with my youngsters just going forward and straight without running away!! So much fun!

So I promise there will be more consistent updates from now on! Thank you to everyone for reading and your continued support! I hope everyone is enjoying springtime!

-Meaghan