Robson Farms
Dressage Training and Instruction
Dressage Training and Instruction
3/24/11
The storm of the century hit Southern California on Sunday. We got 6 inches of rain in 24 hours, lost half of the main barn roof, 3 pasture fences were destroyed, the arena wall blew down, trees down across the road and everything under water. Thankfully, my horses weren't in the main barn and were soaking wet but safe. It is raining most of this week but then supposed to be nice and sunny again. All the roads into and out of the farm either had trees down or were flooded out so we just hunkered down and waited it out. I-5 had over 700 wrecks and more than 100 trees came down on houses and cars in just our area. It was a very impressive storm!
Next week we go back to Burbank for The Festival of the Horse. It will be our CDI debut and Theos will show First and Second Level. Should be a fun weekend!
3/18/11
Check out Theos' new sales video! He is looking quite grown up these days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtPZ6bN-5C4
Random picture of the day...Zedonk at the neighbor's farm. Why aren't they called Zonkeys? That is a much better name if you ask me!
3/14/11
We are back from Del Mar and the whole crew had a very good weekend. Justin came down for another visit and all the pieces are finally coming together for Piloto, what more could a girl want? Friday we started off with a 65% at PSG with mistakes in both lines of tempi changes. Saturday we had a very clean I-1 test and earned a 66%, which ended up placing us 3rd out of 15 horses. We left quiet a few points on the board too, like getting 6's on our shoulder-in both ways as well as the half passes. I usually get 7's on those so still room for improvement! Sunday we were the only FEI freestyle and despite some tension, we still got a good score of 69%. Leslie then had to one up all of us and get a 71% on her PSG horse. We are still working out the kinks in the freestyle but it seems to be coming along. I have posted links for the tests below. This show did have some very nice prizes with quality bridles for the Champions and an $85 gift certificate just for winning a class.
PSG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8THVyzD0QYw
I-1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VdHSIwE4PM
Freestyle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbtS0jcODNA
Maybe the best news coming out of the weekend was Piloto's tail stayed in for all three tests! Leslie decided he got the better scores because he was so happy to have a long swishy tail. I am thinking of ordering different colored tail extensions so we can better express our mood on any given day or maybe match his tail to my breeches! I can see a new fashion trend in the works!
Showing out of my usual Portland/Auburn area has made me realize how lucky we are with the quality of show management at our shows. At Burbank, they had me listed as riding a horse named "Just Push Play" (a First Level TB whom I had never met) in all my classes. They apparently got that corrected in the computer but not in the show program. Then when I was warming up for my first class, I was informed I had the wrong bridle number. It was the same one placed in my packet by show management and after some scrambling, it was determined that I did indeed have the correct number on but all the day sheets, judges sheets, etc were wrong. For Del Mar, a Canadian gal training with us had to scratch her young horse weeks before the show. Once ride times were finally posted, they had scratched her CDI horse and not the young horse. It wouldn't have been too big of a deal except she is trying to qualify for the Canadian Pan Am team and this was a qualifier she needed. Several of our barn mates couldn't get any confirmation from show management if they got into their classes or not until the day we were planning to leave. Then on Sunday, no one showed up to play the music for my freestyle. The judge was very accommodating and waited for the appropriate person to show up. When she finally did, she was madly texting on her phone and still wasn't ready to play my music! All of this leads up to...THANK YOUR SHOW MANAGEMENT, even if they get cranky by Sunday! We have a great crew in the PNW!
I've had several requests for a photo of my entire truck set up. Here it is. Karen Turner named the little car Panda. I like it!
3/8/11
Today is bath day and then off to Del Mar tomorrow. Piloto got one last chance to get dirty for the week and did he ever take advantage of it! I think he secretly wants to be brown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_h8eziN1k
Then he had to run around and show off just how dirty he really was...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjjrCTuuB44
I had also told everyone that we would be stabling at El Campeon Farms. It ended up that they were full so we are staying at Royal Oaks Stables. It is part of Ventura Farms, which takes up most of Hidden Valley. Ventura Farms was a big time Arabian breeder a few years ago but seems to be scaling back. Our farm has movie crews show up periodically to shoot horse scenes which is pretty fun to watch. Here is a link so you can see where we are staying.
http://www.venturafarms.com/display_filming.cfm?page_ID=1E978179-ED80-4D30-A361EEE3163EB628
That is all for now. I will let you all know how the show goes this weekend. I have 24 horses in my Prix St. Georges class, including Guenter Siedel and Kathleen Raine. Time to up our game for sure! Off to bathe Piloto....
3/5/11
The weather has finally warmed up so I can start working on my farmer tan. I don't think I've ever had one this early in the year before! We hit 70 yesterday and it's supposed to be close to 80 today. Yay for me!
I saw the funniest farrier rig yesterday at the barn. The guy was driving a bright red mustang convertible with a small work trailer on the back. Lucky for all of you, I had my phone handy and managed to get a picture!
At the last horse show, Leslie decided Piloto looked "dumpy" with his short tail, as if he'd just been pulled out of the pasture. That led to the exciting hunt for a false tail that matched his natural one. We tried it out yesterday; Leslie declared it a success so now it's part of our show kit. I am living in fear that the dang tail is going to fall off in the middle of my test and lay there like a dead thing. I plan to practically super glue it in to avoid that problem. Leslie couldn't guarantee me a 5% bump in scores but she thinks the overall presentation will be much more polished with a long swishy tail. Thankfully Piloto is a good sport about all of it! We leave Wednesday for Del Mar. I have 24 horses in my PSG class with slightly less in the I-1. Should be a fun weekend with much better weather than last time.
2/28/11
Sorry for the gap in updates. It turned into a very busy week. Last Friday Justin came to visit. I was supposed to pick him up at the airport at 8 pm. You can imagine my surprise when he knocked on my door at noon with a new toy hauler and Smartcar inside. It is the only time in 12 years of knowing him that he managed to pull off a surprise! Now, I can haul the trailer behind Vanna with the little car inside and be completely set up at shows! I now roll down the road at around 70' long but it is worth it! Here are a few pictures.
We also went to the Mid Winter Dressage Affaire in Burbank this weekend. We showed PSG, I-1 and the I-1 freestyle. It was a challenging weekend weather-wise. Now before you start complaining about the weather back home, we had torrential downpours, hail and even some snow! Yes, all of that in Southern California! The barns and arenas were all flooded so they moved all the rides into the indoor arena. That meant we only got 20 minutes of warm-up as they were controlling the number of horses in the very tiny indoor warm-up area. 20 minutes just isn't enough time to get an FEI horse ready to go but we managed. We were in the 60's all weekend with some very good moments and comments. Leslie has completely changed the quality of trot I am asking for as well as the quality in the pirouettes and tempi changes. It's still not confirmed but heading in the right direction!
The quality of horses here is unbelievable but you still see the amateurs over mounted and scared of their big moving horses. It's a shame because it's supposed to be fun! Steffen Peters was here with 2 small tour horses and Ravel. He rode Ravel in the Grand Prix on Friday and the last tune up before the World Dressage Masters in FL. I was unfortunately riding in another area so didn't get to see Ravel go. Would have been worth watching as he scored a 75%. He also rode Weltino's Magic to a 76% and a 75% over the weekend in the small tour CDI classes. Lovely tests to watch and it all looked effortless!
The LA Equestrian Center where we were showing this weekend is huge and set up for the convenience of the riders. They have bridle trails all over the property and all vehicles have to yield to the horses. Even in the city of Burbank, they have cross walks designed for the horses. The cross walk buttons are mounted shoulder height specifically for people riding through town and needing to get across the street.
We have the next 2 weeks off, then we head down to San Diego for The Dressage Affaire in Del Mar.
Sunset first night in Rancho Murietta Hot air balloon over horse show Lives next to Piloto and Theos...I call him Peter!
2/12/11
Piloto finally got to officially meet Leslie. She agreed to ride him for me to help assess just where we are. Her first comment was "He's a little like sitting on a French Bulldog, eh?" I think that means he's round and squishy. It was very helpful to watch her ride (not every day you get to see a many times Olympian sit on your horse!). When Piloto made a mistake, Leslie just continues asking him for what she wanted. Pretty soon, he decided it wasn't much fun to be off the aids and he really stepped up. Leslie demanded a lot more than I normally do and rode the changes in a much bigger canter. It was very impressive! There is some video floating around that I will try to post. She declared him "fun to ride" and felt like a much better collected trot was in him along with the beginnings of passage. We followed that up with a lesson for me on the next day. We worked on him owning more of the ride and just being more reliable on my aids. It's a bad feeling coming into a pirouette and not knowing for sure if he's with you or not. Some of the canter work was stellar with some very good lines of tempis. I started to get a feel for the new and improved collected trot. The best part of all of that was I started riding Theos with the same level of expectation and got a drastically different trot from him. It was bordering on passage but I could stretch it bigger for a very impressive collected trot. Super fun!
The other funny/interesting thing was Captain Mark Phillips decided to stop by for apparently no reason. For those of you that don't know, Capt. Phillips is a serious player in the eventing community and I believe the current team coach. As he approached the arena I was riding in, the dogs immediately went on alert and started barking. Cabo approached Capt. Phillips and licked his hand. The man nearly jumped out of his skin! Not every day your dog gets to sample a Team coach!
We are working out our show schedule and I will do two more national level shows before trying our first CDI.
Hope all is well at home!
2/9/11
Survived driving through LA to meet Greg, my farrier. People are actually more polite here than in Oregon. I didn't get cut off once or have to slam on my brakes because someone was being rude.
2/7/11
On our way to Thousand Oaks. Saw my first palm tree today. Very glad to be out of the cold and snow!
2/6/11
The show has been a mixed bag. Parts of all the tests were good, just not able to put them together at the same time. Piloto has been fairly tense during his tests and needs to get over show nerves. He's such a stoic guy that I forget he really hasn't had all that many show miles. Leslie got to watch our I-1 test and had some very good feed back. I had to ride my freestyle to the wrong music today. I turned in a CD and didn't check to see what version it was. Karen Robinson had completely revamped our music and choreography. I noticed at the last minute and made the executive decision to ride the new choreography to the old music. No one but Stan, Linda and myself noticed. Several ladies in the stands were crying so I guess it worked out ok after all. Live and learn, always double check your freestyle music! Still got a 66%, even though all the transitions were off! The other interesting thing about all the trainers here are they all have accents. Must be a prerequisite to be a professional here. I am taking suggestions for what accent I should adopt for my time here!
2/2/11
First ride today at the show grounds. Show boot zipper broke, good thing I have an old pair in the truck. Boys were fresh and screaming for each other but basically good. Leslie has a 5 year old Andalusian stallion that she is hoping will be an international horse for her. Man can he move. Been under saddle for one year and is showing 3rd level with the most amazing trot when he gets focused. Will be fun to see how he develops.
2/1/11
And we're off.... Finally have horses loaded and on the road for CA! First stop, Rancho Murieta for our first show of the season. Showing was a last minute decision so I feel completely unprepared. No guts, no glory like Deb Kane always says. I haven't ridden Theos for nearly 6 weeks as he stayed at Piloto Ranch while I was in Washington so it should be an interesting weekend. 15 hours later, we get to the show grounds. Nothing like driving through Sacramento in the dark with horses, not really sure where I was going! Got the boys unloaded and promptly flooded Piloto's stall when I left the hose running. Not the best start! Leslie and her horses are already there so I will get to meet them tomorrow.
1/28/11
Vanna is finally done! For those of you that don't know, I had a major renovation of my horse truck, Vanna. Old Vanna needed some major work done so Justin and I decided to just replace the old truck. "Just" replace the old truck turned into a month long ordeal and nearly made me late for my California departure. Old Vanna drove just like any stick shift truck. New Vanna drives like a true semi-truck, no clutch allowed for shifting! I think Justin got more than a few new grey hairs teaching me how to drive it!
October 2010
It was a bumper crop of year end awards for clients of Robson Farms Dressage! Marianne Thomas Champion Training Level AA. Carrie Tibbets Champion Intro Level Open, Reserve Champion Second Level Open. Stephanie Stout Champion Second Level JR. Deb Kane Reserve Champion Training Level Open. Barbara Doherty Champion First Level AA.
The storm of the century hit Southern California on Sunday. We got 6 inches of rain in 24 hours, lost half of the main barn roof, 3 pasture fences were destroyed, the arena wall blew down, trees down across the road and everything under water. Thankfully, my horses weren't in the main barn and were soaking wet but safe. It is raining most of this week but then supposed to be nice and sunny again. All the roads into and out of the farm either had trees down or were flooded out so we just hunkered down and waited it out. I-5 had over 700 wrecks and more than 100 trees came down on houses and cars in just our area. It was a very impressive storm!
Next week we go back to Burbank for The Festival of the Horse. It will be our CDI debut and Theos will show First and Second Level. Should be a fun weekend!
3/18/11
Check out Theos' new sales video! He is looking quite grown up these days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtPZ6bN-5C4
Random picture of the day...Zedonk at the neighbor's farm. Why aren't they called Zonkeys? That is a much better name if you ask me!
3/14/11
We are back from Del Mar and the whole crew had a very good weekend. Justin came down for another visit and all the pieces are finally coming together for Piloto, what more could a girl want? Friday we started off with a 65% at PSG with mistakes in both lines of tempi changes. Saturday we had a very clean I-1 test and earned a 66%, which ended up placing us 3rd out of 15 horses. We left quiet a few points on the board too, like getting 6's on our shoulder-in both ways as well as the half passes. I usually get 7's on those so still room for improvement! Sunday we were the only FEI freestyle and despite some tension, we still got a good score of 69%. Leslie then had to one up all of us and get a 71% on her PSG horse. We are still working out the kinks in the freestyle but it seems to be coming along. I have posted links for the tests below. This show did have some very nice prizes with quality bridles for the Champions and an $85 gift certificate just for winning a class.
PSG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8THVyzD0QYw
I-1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VdHSIwE4PM
Freestyle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbtS0jcODNA
Maybe the best news coming out of the weekend was Piloto's tail stayed in for all three tests! Leslie decided he got the better scores because he was so happy to have a long swishy tail. I am thinking of ordering different colored tail extensions so we can better express our mood on any given day or maybe match his tail to my breeches! I can see a new fashion trend in the works!
Showing out of my usual Portland/Auburn area has made me realize how lucky we are with the quality of show management at our shows. At Burbank, they had me listed as riding a horse named "Just Push Play" (a First Level TB whom I had never met) in all my classes. They apparently got that corrected in the computer but not in the show program. Then when I was warming up for my first class, I was informed I had the wrong bridle number. It was the same one placed in my packet by show management and after some scrambling, it was determined that I did indeed have the correct number on but all the day sheets, judges sheets, etc were wrong. For Del Mar, a Canadian gal training with us had to scratch her young horse weeks before the show. Once ride times were finally posted, they had scratched her CDI horse and not the young horse. It wouldn't have been too big of a deal except she is trying to qualify for the Canadian Pan Am team and this was a qualifier she needed. Several of our barn mates couldn't get any confirmation from show management if they got into their classes or not until the day we were planning to leave. Then on Sunday, no one showed up to play the music for my freestyle. The judge was very accommodating and waited for the appropriate person to show up. When she finally did, she was madly texting on her phone and still wasn't ready to play my music! All of this leads up to...THANK YOUR SHOW MANAGEMENT, even if they get cranky by Sunday! We have a great crew in the PNW!
I've had several requests for a photo of my entire truck set up. Here it is. Karen Turner named the little car Panda. I like it!
3/8/11
Today is bath day and then off to Del Mar tomorrow. Piloto got one last chance to get dirty for the week and did he ever take advantage of it! I think he secretly wants to be brown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_h8eziN1k
Then he had to run around and show off just how dirty he really was...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjjrCTuuB44
I had also told everyone that we would be stabling at El Campeon Farms. It ended up that they were full so we are staying at Royal Oaks Stables. It is part of Ventura Farms, which takes up most of Hidden Valley. Ventura Farms was a big time Arabian breeder a few years ago but seems to be scaling back. Our farm has movie crews show up periodically to shoot horse scenes which is pretty fun to watch. Here is a link so you can see where we are staying.
http://www.venturafarms.com/display_filming.cfm?page_ID=1E978179-ED80-4D30-A361EEE3163EB628
That is all for now. I will let you all know how the show goes this weekend. I have 24 horses in my Prix St. Georges class, including Guenter Siedel and Kathleen Raine. Time to up our game for sure! Off to bathe Piloto....
3/5/11
The weather has finally warmed up so I can start working on my farmer tan. I don't think I've ever had one this early in the year before! We hit 70 yesterday and it's supposed to be close to 80 today. Yay for me!
I saw the funniest farrier rig yesterday at the barn. The guy was driving a bright red mustang convertible with a small work trailer on the back. Lucky for all of you, I had my phone handy and managed to get a picture!
At the last horse show, Leslie decided Piloto looked "dumpy" with his short tail, as if he'd just been pulled out of the pasture. That led to the exciting hunt for a false tail that matched his natural one. We tried it out yesterday; Leslie declared it a success so now it's part of our show kit. I am living in fear that the dang tail is going to fall off in the middle of my test and lay there like a dead thing. I plan to practically super glue it in to avoid that problem. Leslie couldn't guarantee me a 5% bump in scores but she thinks the overall presentation will be much more polished with a long swishy tail. Thankfully Piloto is a good sport about all of it! We leave Wednesday for Del Mar. I have 24 horses in my PSG class with slightly less in the I-1. Should be a fun weekend with much better weather than last time.
2/28/11
Sorry for the gap in updates. It turned into a very busy week. Last Friday Justin came to visit. I was supposed to pick him up at the airport at 8 pm. You can imagine my surprise when he knocked on my door at noon with a new toy hauler and Smartcar inside. It is the only time in 12 years of knowing him that he managed to pull off a surprise! Now, I can haul the trailer behind Vanna with the little car inside and be completely set up at shows! I now roll down the road at around 70' long but it is worth it! Here are a few pictures.
We also went to the Mid Winter Dressage Affaire in Burbank this weekend. We showed PSG, I-1 and the I-1 freestyle. It was a challenging weekend weather-wise. Now before you start complaining about the weather back home, we had torrential downpours, hail and even some snow! Yes, all of that in Southern California! The barns and arenas were all flooded so they moved all the rides into the indoor arena. That meant we only got 20 minutes of warm-up as they were controlling the number of horses in the very tiny indoor warm-up area. 20 minutes just isn't enough time to get an FEI horse ready to go but we managed. We were in the 60's all weekend with some very good moments and comments. Leslie has completely changed the quality of trot I am asking for as well as the quality in the pirouettes and tempi changes. It's still not confirmed but heading in the right direction!
The quality of horses here is unbelievable but you still see the amateurs over mounted and scared of their big moving horses. It's a shame because it's supposed to be fun! Steffen Peters was here with 2 small tour horses and Ravel. He rode Ravel in the Grand Prix on Friday and the last tune up before the World Dressage Masters in FL. I was unfortunately riding in another area so didn't get to see Ravel go. Would have been worth watching as he scored a 75%. He also rode Weltino's Magic to a 76% and a 75% over the weekend in the small tour CDI classes. Lovely tests to watch and it all looked effortless!
The LA Equestrian Center where we were showing this weekend is huge and set up for the convenience of the riders. They have bridle trails all over the property and all vehicles have to yield to the horses. Even in the city of Burbank, they have cross walks designed for the horses. The cross walk buttons are mounted shoulder height specifically for people riding through town and needing to get across the street.
We have the next 2 weeks off, then we head down to San Diego for The Dressage Affaire in Del Mar.
Sunset first night in Rancho Murietta Hot air balloon over horse show Lives next to Piloto and Theos...I call him Peter!
2/12/11
Piloto finally got to officially meet Leslie. She agreed to ride him for me to help assess just where we are. Her first comment was "He's a little like sitting on a French Bulldog, eh?" I think that means he's round and squishy. It was very helpful to watch her ride (not every day you get to see a many times Olympian sit on your horse!). When Piloto made a mistake, Leslie just continues asking him for what she wanted. Pretty soon, he decided it wasn't much fun to be off the aids and he really stepped up. Leslie demanded a lot more than I normally do and rode the changes in a much bigger canter. It was very impressive! There is some video floating around that I will try to post. She declared him "fun to ride" and felt like a much better collected trot was in him along with the beginnings of passage. We followed that up with a lesson for me on the next day. We worked on him owning more of the ride and just being more reliable on my aids. It's a bad feeling coming into a pirouette and not knowing for sure if he's with you or not. Some of the canter work was stellar with some very good lines of tempis. I started to get a feel for the new and improved collected trot. The best part of all of that was I started riding Theos with the same level of expectation and got a drastically different trot from him. It was bordering on passage but I could stretch it bigger for a very impressive collected trot. Super fun!
The other funny/interesting thing was Captain Mark Phillips decided to stop by for apparently no reason. For those of you that don't know, Capt. Phillips is a serious player in the eventing community and I believe the current team coach. As he approached the arena I was riding in, the dogs immediately went on alert and started barking. Cabo approached Capt. Phillips and licked his hand. The man nearly jumped out of his skin! Not every day your dog gets to sample a Team coach!
We are working out our show schedule and I will do two more national level shows before trying our first CDI.
Hope all is well at home!
2/9/11
Survived driving through LA to meet Greg, my farrier. People are actually more polite here than in Oregon. I didn't get cut off once or have to slam on my brakes because someone was being rude.
2/7/11
On our way to Thousand Oaks. Saw my first palm tree today. Very glad to be out of the cold and snow!
2/6/11
The show has been a mixed bag. Parts of all the tests were good, just not able to put them together at the same time. Piloto has been fairly tense during his tests and needs to get over show nerves. He's such a stoic guy that I forget he really hasn't had all that many show miles. Leslie got to watch our I-1 test and had some very good feed back. I had to ride my freestyle to the wrong music today. I turned in a CD and didn't check to see what version it was. Karen Robinson had completely revamped our music and choreography. I noticed at the last minute and made the executive decision to ride the new choreography to the old music. No one but Stan, Linda and myself noticed. Several ladies in the stands were crying so I guess it worked out ok after all. Live and learn, always double check your freestyle music! Still got a 66%, even though all the transitions were off! The other interesting thing about all the trainers here are they all have accents. Must be a prerequisite to be a professional here. I am taking suggestions for what accent I should adopt for my time here!
2/2/11
First ride today at the show grounds. Show boot zipper broke, good thing I have an old pair in the truck. Boys were fresh and screaming for each other but basically good. Leslie has a 5 year old Andalusian stallion that she is hoping will be an international horse for her. Man can he move. Been under saddle for one year and is showing 3rd level with the most amazing trot when he gets focused. Will be fun to see how he develops.
2/1/11
And we're off.... Finally have horses loaded and on the road for CA! First stop, Rancho Murieta for our first show of the season. Showing was a last minute decision so I feel completely unprepared. No guts, no glory like Deb Kane always says. I haven't ridden Theos for nearly 6 weeks as he stayed at Piloto Ranch while I was in Washington so it should be an interesting weekend. 15 hours later, we get to the show grounds. Nothing like driving through Sacramento in the dark with horses, not really sure where I was going! Got the boys unloaded and promptly flooded Piloto's stall when I left the hose running. Not the best start! Leslie and her horses are already there so I will get to meet them tomorrow.
1/28/11
Vanna is finally done! For those of you that don't know, I had a major renovation of my horse truck, Vanna. Old Vanna needed some major work done so Justin and I decided to just replace the old truck. "Just" replace the old truck turned into a month long ordeal and nearly made me late for my California departure. Old Vanna drove just like any stick shift truck. New Vanna drives like a true semi-truck, no clutch allowed for shifting! I think Justin got more than a few new grey hairs teaching me how to drive it!
October 2010
It was a bumper crop of year end awards for clients of Robson Farms Dressage! Marianne Thomas Champion Training Level AA. Carrie Tibbets Champion Intro Level Open, Reserve Champion Second Level Open. Stephanie Stout Champion Second Level JR. Deb Kane Reserve Champion Training Level Open. Barbara Doherty Champion First Level AA.
