Want to do dressage

I have only just been able to blog after getting over the shock of this and I think I may never recover.
Isabell Werth has been suspended from competition! I just can't believe that she would ever do anything wrong. Ever. But apparanlt one of her horses has tested positive for a banned substance. And then Isabell admitted it! This so can not be happening.

I just realised how long it's been since I blogged anything.
I have just been so busy with everything
Still in Germany, still riding, and lovin it
Saph and Fly By are now both GP. I really want to get stuck into the competitions, but my trainer keeps saying to wait for the time being. He says that, it's better to start at Hagen with Horses and Dreams at the end of April.
God, that's like ages away.

My trainer has turned into a slave driver. Honest. I was supposed to have today off as a reward for working hard over the last week. I made plans to go into Cologne for the day to do a bit of shopping and get some presents for my mum and dad. This morning, however, my trainer tells me that there is a new horse coming onto the yard who is owned by Saph's owner and I have to ride him. Bye-bye to day off, then. Not complaining too much about the new horse. Apparantly he is Saph's full brother. Let me tell you, his dam and sire breed them big. He is enormous! I swear that he is nearly 18 hands high - a whole hand taller than Saph is. His name is Midnight Sapphire, also known as Fly by because he is quick. He was bred to do showjumping, but took aversion to jumping fences when he got to a competition. However, he makes a lovely dressage horse. He is pure power in his extended work and piaffe and passage. I was breathless after I rode the first extended trot on him. My trainer says that he my end up reaching Grand Prix before Saph purely because of the power in his movement. Wow, 2 Grand Prix horses, that is the stuff of dreams.
So now I have to work twice as hard to get Saph ready for our first competition together for a year next week and to prepare for what could be Fly By's last competition before he makes Grand Prix level a couple of weeks later. I can't wait!

Guten Tag everyone.
I am now writing from Germany for the next couple of months. I have spent the past few days settling in and getting to know Saph again. I'm positively sure that she's grown over the past year. Our trainer is pushing us hard at the moment as we are entered in a show only a couple of weeks away and need to give a good performance if we are to move up the Grand Prix level this season. We only need a couple more good placings or wins and we are in the very upper echelons of dressage. I really can't wait for that to happen, imagine competeing against Anky and her artificial horses with Saph.
Well, going now as need sleep. Have to be up at crack of dawn in th morning to start all over again!

I had a bit of a discussion today with a friend who has found out about my blog. Her first questiong was: "Why did you choose Kizzie for your username?" I will admit that Kizzie isn't my real name, that's Nadja, but it's not the best username in the world and so I chose Kizzie. Why? Well, Kizze just happens to be the name of my horse. She's not the biggest and has a total aversion to flat work of any kind, prefering to do a jumping lesson if she's got a choice. She actually happens to be quite good at jumping, and if I had the nerve, she would do fairly well. Unfortunately I don't, so she has had to get used to all this useless flat work. I do give her some variation, occasionally I let someone wih slightly more confidence than myself jump her so she doesn't get too bored. Unfortuantely for her, she will be going to Germany with me at the end of the month, and will probably find new ways of driving my trainer and his staff mental trying to inject some excitement into her dull, boring flat work lessons. I'll be nervous wreck by the time I come home in September.
Kizzie is 16 hands high, bright bay with a white star in the middle of her forehead, and white pasterns on her left forleg and right hindleg. She is of fairly unknown breeding and we have owned her since she was 4 years old. We think there is a bit of Irish Draught in her and possibly some Thoroughbred, but not too sure. It certainly would accout for her ability to rocket along at speed for long periods on the rare occasion that we go on a hack out. Dad says that she has the potential to be a death trap in the wrong hands, so we have to be careful if someone asks to ride her as to how experienced they are.

So that's the story of my username.

Kizzie

I am going to have to join the debate on "artificial cadence". As someone who has been in dressage training for a few years now, I have seen many different ways of getting a horse to produce exagerated movements. One is extensive use of RollKur, just keeping the horse moving with an overbent neck and it's head behind the vertical. If done often enough, when asked to extend, mainly in the trot, the horse produces an exagerated movement, where it appears to gain more ground than it is. Another popular one is raised pole work. I have used this to encourage a horse which drags it's feet to lift them correctly. Some riders have used this exercise to the extent that the horse lifts it's leg a long way from the ground in Piaffe and Passage and the power is not truely from the hind quarters. I have been lucky in that my current trainer in Germany, trains his horses classically, so they have planty of natural cadence, and are always springing from their hind quarters in exercises such as Piaffe and Passaeg, and Flying changes. Saph is a perfect example of a classically trained dressage horse. her movement seems to flow forwards, in her Piaffe and Passage there is no hesitation, she is very light on her feet. I know that my trainer has been worrying that when she is moved upto Grand Prix level, she will inevitably be marked down because of her lack of extravagant movement. It is something that I feel is wrong, and that riders and trainers in dressage should work to rid themselves of training extravagant movements into horses.

Recieved another phone call from my German Trainer this evening. Not long got off the phone, as he likes to talk (alot). He wanted to pass on some advice from Saph's owner to me. Apparantly, she heard that I was coming back over to Germany, and decided that I should ride Saph again. Anyway, her advice to me: Don't look for a dressage horse. You are a very talented rider. Keep doing what you are doing and the horses will come to you.
I'm not too sure if to follow that or not, as I have been told that you shouldn't wait for the horses to come to you. My trainer says that Saphs's owner has a good idea of what she is talikng about, but it's a good idea to keep an eye out for a suitable horse. The idea is that if you get a good owner, who also happens to be well-off, that you are getting good results with their horses, then they trust you to find them their next potential superstar. So that is what I am going to do. My trainer says that I already have Saph's owner on my side, and that she has a pretty good eye for horses, so if she finds one that she thinks is the business, then I could be called on to give my opinion of how the horse will go for me. I'm actually quite happy about this. I've never had an owner who likes me before . Will keep you posted on how the relationship goes.

I have just read a post about what constitutes a real dressage test and felt compelled to add my own little bit of dressage humour:
An old Portugese dressage master who was known for his terrible temper and rude language died and went to heaven. St. Peter greeted him politely at the Pearly Gates and in a friendly way asked him to supply his name. In a gruff voice the dressage master told him.
"Well," Said St. Peter, "You can come in, provided you don't shout at God when He can't get His horse into an outline."
Hope it makes you smile.

I received a phonecall from my trainer in Germany, this morning, asking if I wanted to go over for another training stint at the end of next month. I had to agree on the basis of the competition chances over there. I went over for a few months last year and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I was given an absolutely brilliant horse to ride called Saph, a black Trakhener-Arabian cross, formally known as Sapphire Shimmer. She is only young, but shows great promise for the future. Her self-carriage is amazing, perfect balance and the most graceful mover you will ever see. I was also allowed to ride her sire and dam while I was there, when they were sent to the yard to do some flat work. The mother, a former showjumping mare (Trakhener) was very well balanced and a elegant mover. The father was simply out of this world to ride. His trot work was effortlessly foot perfect at all times, and he had an amazing sense of balance. I was informed that he had done showjumping and dressage at the higher levels before his rider quit riding after her divorce a few years earlier. I did ask to meet his former rider, but she did not come to the yard while I was there, which was a shame as I would have liked to talk to her about competing at the highest level. I asked my trainer about the prospect of riding the stallion again this year only to be informed that he had sadly passed away late last year. He will be missed by all who knew him, and especially those who had the privalege to ride him. An amazing horse whose ability lives on through his youngstock.
I am looking forwards to renewing my partenership with Saph when I go to Germany, if I am allowed. I know that it is the policy of my trainer to sell some of his horses, but he holds onto the good ones. Hopefully that is the case with Saph.

The last few days have been spent looking at potential dressage superstars. I have seen many that move well, are still young enough to be trained to my style of riding and have loads of potential. You may wonder why I am not announcing that I have bought one of them. I will tell you: the price. For example I was taken in by the advert for a lovely looking liver chestnut gelding who is only 5 years old, and working well for his current rider. the aksing price? £25,000. I am not kidding you, they wanted 25K for a 5 year old horse. That is Performance Sales International money. I was shocked to see how much they were asking. That is the problem when looking for a dressage horse. Most people seem to think that if you are buying such a horse you are made of money and up the price accordingly. I could buy a showjumping prospect the same age for a fraction of the price and get an amazing deal. I have the feeling that that is the market that I will have to start looking at, as showjumpers have to do the basic ground work on the flat before they start jumping.
Will keep you posted on the search
Kizzie.