DuckU

deathbyraptor: rainbowdashismypatronus: deathbyraptor: FOR...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:02:51 -0400

rainbowdashismypatronus:

deathbyraptor:

FOR SALE

Shy, 5 year-old 14.2+ gelding. Stunning bay with minimal white markings. A real sweetheart Shy comes from a rough past but has been getting a lot of love and attention this summer. He’s developing into a fantastic mount, Jumper or event prospect with flashy leg movement. Still needs work but definitely worth it. In need of an Intermediate to Advanced rider.

He has never taken a lame step in his life, an easy keeper with solid legs and a good heart. Can be turned out alone or with other horses. He goes barefoot, and has good strong hooves. Shy was a rescue but we’ve been working very hard this summer and just needs to finish building up his confidence. He jumps beautifully and is smooth and comfortable under saddle.

Contact me for more information (Deathbyraptor) or elizabeth.wilensky@otterbein.edu

Currently in Southeastern Connecticut.

This pony is a total sweetheart! An amazing jumper and event prospect.

Shy is currently jumping 2’6 consistently with the height going up almost daily!

Video

Please signal boost this! He’s a wonderful horse that needs a forever home.

Hello all! I know I have been absentee on this blog for a while. I’ve been quite busy this summer with this gorgeous creature! Meet Shy, my summer project. He is in need of a more permanent home and I felt like this blog has a better audience for him. He is a dream horse and I just want him to find a place where he can live up to his potential. Please share this around and contact me on my personal blog (linked further up in the description) or email me if you are interested!

Hey guys sorry it's been ages, just checking to see if anyone still follows this blog and it you would like me to start posting again?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:11:59 -0400

-Liza

Hello followers! The holidays have been crazy for me but I'm back on track now. Clearly I am getting to the backlog of user submitted photos. I am trying to get those done for you guys. I love you all so much for submitting them and valuing my opinions even if I am bad at being timely in my responses you guys brighten my day! I'll be online for the rest of the night so feel free to submit/ask!

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:46:13 -0500

-Liza

Me on Caprice This angle is much better for me to see what your...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:42:00 -0500

Me on Caprice

This angle is much better for me to see what your position actually looks like. So here is what I’m seeing. I see the same problem with your hands/arms as in the last picture; pinching your elbows to your horse’s neck and resting your hands on his neck. Because of this your chest is slightly collapsed and your back is hallowed out and stiff. You need to open your chest up and stop leaning onto your arms/the horse’s neck. This will also help with the pinching I’m seeing in your knees. Because you’re throwing your weight forward onto Caprice’s neck you aren’t balanced in your seat so to compensate and keep yourself steady you are pinching your knees against the saddle.

If you pull your center of gravity back a bit and sink your weight down through your leg you can help with your forward tip. Your position is actually really solid and it would be very, very good. Your position is an interesting study for me, you’re not ducking or doing anything serious but you are off just enough to make a difference. My biggest suggestion is to stop leaning on your horse’s neck if you do that and get your center of gravity back over your seat and through your stirrups everything should get a lot better.

Working on the flat in your halfseat will help you build the strength and balance you need to kick your center of gravity back. Another good balance exercise is to (at the walk) stand up as straight as you can and try to stay standing as you go around the ring. This is great for balance and core strength.

Thanks for submitting, again :D

-Liza (Submitted by: stop-this-trainnn

Me on a horse named Ciara This angle is a little hard to get a...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:33:00 -0500

Me on a horse named Ciara

This angle is a little hard to get a good feel for you position over this fence but I can do my best with what I have.

You appear to be pinching a bit with your elbows. Notice how they are very close, if not touching your horse’s shoulder. Pinching her arms closed like this constricts your chest, if also causes your hands to be very close to your horse’s neck. This also forces you to use a crest release, which though in itself isn’t bad, is considered a very amateur method of release. You are executing the crest release very nicely here but this position seems very stiff and not flowing. When your body is stiff while jumping you can hinder your ease of movement and you ability to follow your horse over the jump properly. Opening your chest up and bringing your choulders back a bit should help with your pinching elbows. Also, trying a different style of release will help with your hand position. You don’t want your hands pressed onto the top of your horse’s neck, follow through your jump motion and try an auto release to keep the line from bit to elbow more intact. Using a crest release can potentially remove your direct contect and thus make recovery a bit difficult.

Sorry for the minimal critique this angle is not the best. Your position looks pretty solid though from what I can see. (I will give you better crits on the other pictures you submitted. Sorry it took me so long to get to these.)

-Liza (Submitted by: stop-this-trainnn)

Hey guys, finals are over and Alison and I are on break. I will catch up with all the submissions and questions within the next couple days so keep 'em coming :D

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:30:29 -0500

-Liza

Who are you? Are you a BNT or a rider?

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:09:34 -0500

Both Alison and I posted bios a little while back (our blog isn’t that long so they aren’t that hard to find) but for your convenience both bios are now linked at the top of the blog. Please. Do read them.

Can I ask you a question? Since you asked about mine, what are your qualifications?

-Liza

Thanks for submitting! You’re actually the first. For that...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:02:00 -0500

Thanks for submitting! You’re actually the first. For that you get…uhhh my love :D (I’m assuming this is a personal picture? But I’m not sure)

Ok so this is actually a pretty good fence. But since you wanted critique I’ll get nit-picky for you. Your position is pretty solid, your eyes are up your back is flat your elbows are slightly bent, you have a good hip angle for this sized fence and your leg looks solid. Your horse is pretty round and he is using his back which is good. But here’s what I see that I don’t like as much. Your stirrup looks a bit far back on your foot which is preventing you from flexing your heel as far down as I would like to see. It’s also making you stand a bit through your knee a tip forward. Because of your slight forward incline you’re getting a bit pinchy through the knees (to keep yourself from going too far up his neck.) The pinching in your knee is making your leg tilt JUST A TAD too far back. I would like to see it close to your girth. (A good way to work on that is grids and bounces.) You are also perched (probably also because of the things I mentioned above) a little too far forward in your saddle, not a lot mind you I’m just being super picky :D. I think if you got your stirrup on the ball of your foot, and put your weight straight down to your heels that would fix a lot of the things I’m talking about. It would bring your leg forward to where it should be which would bring your seat back just a bit, get rid of the pinch in your knee and it would look really good.

The other thing I want to talk about is your hand. You are doing a pretty ok crest release here. Pressing your hands into his crest so as not to jab your horse in the mouth but this is not my favorite kind of release because it breaks your straight line from bit to elbow. See how any pressure you put on it would become indirect and therefore less effective. I do like that you have nice contact on him and it doesn’t look like you’re hitting him in the mouth or anything so it is an acceptable release method, just not my favorite. All you would have to do to change that and make it a more smooth release is the same thing you’re doing but bring your hands a couple inches below his crest on either side. Doing that might also help you bring your elbows in a bit, they aren’t chicken wings but they are cocked out to the side just a bit, you want to keep those tucked in just a bit more.

But overall this is a very nice fence and your position is pretty solid here. As I mentioned before I was being super nit picky. The biggest thing is getting those stirrups on the ball of your foot and your weight in your heels and I think you’ll be good. Again thank you so much for submitting, if you have any questions just let us know.

-Liza (Submitted by: warmbesideyoursmile)

You mentioned "jumped out of the tack" in one of your posts. What does that mean exactly?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:42:33 -0500

Ah yes, jumped out of the tack is saying that when the horse jumps you are forced out of position. So it is to say that the horse has such a big, powerful jump there is no way for you to jump with a good position (i.e. sinking in your heels, legs straight and against your horse, butt out of the tack but still close, back flat, elbows slightly bent etc.)

A story example (Yay story time) being last year during one of my lessons we were playing chicken (raise the jumps until someone is a. too scared to do it, or b. your horse can no longer do it) and I was on a horse who has a tendency to over jump/jump way bigger than necessary. He also likes to flick his hind end up a lot over the fences. We were at about 3’3 or 3’6 I can’t remember and he decided to over jump, I wasn’t prepared and in the air my butt was about 2 ft away from the saddle, I had no weight in my stirrups and I was pitched up onto his neck: jumped out of the tack. It was NOT pretty, but super funny. I managed to stay on, luckily but it is very possible to fall off over their neck in that situation.

In the Hunter ring these days it has become a fad that you want to make it look like your horse’s jump is so big and powerful you can’t stay in the tack so you pretend or force yourself out of the tack. So it’s not as extreme as my story but that’s where ducking comes from. Looking like you’re being pitched forward onto the horse’s neck = jumped out of the tack.

Novel length response brought to you by:

-Liza

Submit is now turned on. Feel free to submit pictures of yourself or anything you find and we will discuss what we see.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:35:32 -0500

-Liza

Can I send you an image and ask what you think about the poistion?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:26:21 -0500

Of course you can.

-Liza

I thought today I would talk about a case where the...

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:30:29 -0500

I thought today I would talk about a case where the rider’s eq is good but the situation is making a huge problem.

Because we don’t have a shot of this event at the beginning of the jump it is hard to tell if the rider here started out with good a good position to begin with. But given the horse’s position now you can tell that he legitimately got jumped out of the tack. This is not for “show” this is not forced by the rider or the rider jumping up the horses neck, or ducking or anything like that. The horse has got his head between his feet and is staring at the jump like it’s going to eat him which has not only popped his rider UP out of the tack but has taken him forward onto his horse’s neck. The rider his trying so hard to stick with his horse and as far as I can see in this image he would’ve had fairly strong eq had his horse not thought the fence was incredibly scary.

This rider is doing his best with his situation at hand. I would have loved to see a series of shots off this jump (before, this and after) to see how the whole thing went especially the end. The way this is going from this picture alone the end of the fence probably didn’t go so well. If he didn’t fall off he landed on the horse’s neck and had to haul himself back into his saddle in the middle of his jump course.

I do love this picture so much. The horse is adorable and I thought it would be a fun Friday image. I know, I know, this is not a picture of technically bad eq but I thought I would change it up, do something a little different. It’s also the last day of classes and I needed to do something light because my brain is fried and this didn’t need much in depth critique.

-Liza

I fixed our Ask box so please feel free to ask away!

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:23:48 -0500

-Liza&Alison

So I have seen these pictures of Chase Boggio online and even though he's a champion rider, I have seen many pictures of him with his elbows straight out. What sorts of disadvantages does that bring about, and wouldn't that be bad eq?

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:19:00 -0500

Let’s start from the beginning (and by beginning I mean the end of your question). Yes, that would be considered bad eq. Proper form, always, no matter what you’re doing is a straight line from bit to elbow, your elbow should have slight bend to allow for movement in response to the horse’s head positioning. The way Chase Boggio holds his elbows is what I call chicken arms (I don’t know how many others call it that… but I do). Holding your arms like that requires you to have tension in your elbows meaning you can’t give a proper release or allow your horse to move its head much without hitting it in the mouth. It also forces your back and chest to be stiff because of how awkward it is.

Probably the biggest problem with this though is that it removes your ability to apply direct effective pressure on your bridle. When applying pressure to your bridle/bit a direct rein should be a rein moved straight back toward your hip with Boggio’s common arm position in order to apply a direct rein he must flex his wrists which still doesn’t allow for a proper pressure.

In short the chicken wing position is just awkward. There is no spring to his elbow which means no release (which is why his horses are often flat, inverted and head-high over fences) and you can’t provide direct pressure. Not to mention it looks really weird and ugly.

I hope that answers your questions :)

-Liza

breakawayxo: duckeru: I don’t quite understand what this rider...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:44:00 -0500

breakawayxo:

duckeru:

I don’t quite understand what this rider is doing. I believe that is her right hand I have circled in red. I can’t figure out how that is to her advantage. Not only is she ducking to the left, her left hand is supporting weight/leaning on his shoulder blade forcing her elbow back so it’s almost touching her knee. Her leg is swinging back, she’s crouched and her position is compromised and because she’s grabbing the horse’s crest she has lost her outside supporting rein. Ducking is bad enough but this one is just confusing…

-Liza

I’m not sure on this, but I’m pretty sure it’s to get the horse’s lead right. My coach taught me to exaggerate the lead change because I always rode the horses that didn’t know how to get them, so we had to exaggerate a little bit. Some coaches are so picky about it they tell their students to do it anyways. I hate when people do it! I also hate the new trend of sticking your ass to china and chest down to hell. Blah, it looks horrible to me.

That was my assumption as well but at the same time this one struck me as a bit ridiculous. Also that much exaggeration doesn’t belong in the show ring (in my opinion) my trainer always told me to “make it invisible”.

This blog is devoted to hating the trend of ducking (“ass to China and chest down to hell” as you put it.) We post critiques and rants about equitation in general but the majority is ducking. We love to hear opinions and thoughts from people :D

-Liza

So I know we’ve been slow to update here but we’re...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:31:25 -0500

So I know we’ve been slow to update here but we’re coming into finals and it’s been intense (I am the queen of excuses I know I know :P)

I just came across this on my personal blog and I just about died. This is probably the weirdest thing I have ever seen. How does one even get your leg up there like that?! Seriously how is that possible? How did he manage to get his leg up there and manage to not eat it on the other side of the fence? (I’m assuming based on other comments that he made it over the fence)

Where is his weight cause it sure as hell isn’t in his heels… How can this…? I can’t even… No. Just no.

Sorry for the lack of eloquent critique, a) my brain just isn’t functioning properly. Too much to do. b) There just are no words for the atrocity that this picture is.

If I was to EVER see anyone jump like this in person I would take their horse from them and rip them a new one. This is even more dangerous than ducking and everything else we have looked at on this blog thus far. How the hell has he gotten away with this and how the hell has he made it to this level? This is unacceptable and he should not be allowed to ride like this. NO ONE can make any arguments for this guy. There is no excuse. This isn’t just his leg sliding back this is… I don’t even know this is incompetence.

-Liza (This may or may not be the last post before Finals, depends on how much I decide to procrastinate. LOVE YOU GUYS FOR STICKING WITH US)

deathbyraptor: My Horse Has Five Hearts Authored by Kymberly T...

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:20:10 -0500

deathbyraptor:

My Horse Has Five Hearts

Authored by Kymberly T Lee
Illustrated by Rusty Fletcher

My Horse Has Five Hearts is a book that teaches young children a wonderful lesson on the function of the horses hoof - and how it acts like a heart. The book shares a perspective from the child and the horse that your children and grandchildren, in fact, all children especially those 8-12 will love reading. This delightful scientific lesson will teach kids about the parts of the hoof, inside and out, the circulatory system, the various shapes a horse’s hoof can take on, and how important the horse vet and shoer can be. Beautifully illustrated by Rusty Fletcher, and enjoyably written by a mother and daughter who know how important and pivotal the horse has become in our society.

The book takes on a topic that is not taught to many children and yet is so desperately needed thanks to the young co-author Laken, age 10. This colorful and insightful explanation of how the circulatory system in the horse is only one-way when it gets to the legs, and counts on the pumping action of the horse hoof to help it back up the leg - is a treasured learning that goes a long way to helping the horse be a healthy companion.

This is a beautiful book written by a pretty inspirational woman whom I have had the opportunity to meet personally. Kym Lee is the owner of Nolan Hoof Health and leads a very important charge on the importance of hoof care and health in the horse world. Her company is not well known but it is a vitally important resource.

I had the privilege of hearing the book before it was published and it is adorable and wonderful for horse lovers of all ages. Spread the word; the children of the horse world are our future and they will lead the way on new and much needed hoof practices.

-Liza

Since I lied to you guys yesterday I thought I would do...

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:07:04 -0500

Since I lied to you guys yesterday I thought I would do something a little different and fun for today.

I think this is a really cool image because it gets to show off every single phase of the jump. For this picture I won’t be talking about just ducking but the rider’s equitation throughout the whole process.

Let’s start at the beginning. First off, the rider is jumping up ahead of the horse. This is causing her to stand straight up in her stirrups. She’s lost the bend in her knee which is going to cause a balance and flow issue as her body has a lot more work to do to stay in the tack. Her face is almost touching her horse’s neck making her body have a very awkward angle to it.

Second phase, this is the rider’s ducking phase. She’s trying to re-synch with her horse which is causing her to over compensate and clutch her body to his neck. Her face is on the left side of the horse’s neck, she’s looking down her leg is swinging back though it is not as bad as some of the other rider’s we’ve seen. The horse is flat almost to the point of inversion, jumping with his head and neck fairly upright and not using his neck and back to stretch over the decent sized spread. Though the horse is doing a fairly decent job given the situation.

The third phase of this jump shows that the rider is still slightly ahead of her horse, she is coming out of her tuck almost as if they are on the downside of the fence. This phase though is not that bad. Her back is rounded and she’s looking down but her body position is fairly decent. Her leg is working it’s way back to where it’s supposed to he and her arms are good. Her horse is still not using his back and neck over the jump but they look ok here.

The fourth image we start to see some problems again. The downside of a fence is always tough. Everyone has their own way of handling it and it never looks particularly pretty. This rider’s legs are straightening out and their back to standing in the stirrups. their feet are level and almost parallel to the ground. Their doing a good job of not hitting the horse in the mouth by releasing through the elbows but they have also let go through their shoulder causing an awkward hunch where I would prefer to see them straighten up.

The fifth image looks a bit like a heap. The rider is standing on their toes and their coming to close to the saddle too fast. Their upper body is still hunched though they are making the best out of a bad jump and trying really hard to stick with their horse.

In the final image the rider is already touching into the tack through their seat meaning that when the horse finishes it’s landing it is very likely the rider will slam down on it’s back due to g-forces.

All in all not the worst images we’ve looked at on here before but an interesting study of what poor equitation can look like. This very well might’ve just been a bad fence and the jumped beautifully for the rest of it but I found this mini-series interesting and decided it would be a good example of exactly what happens when your position is off or inaccurate.

-Liza

Sorry again followers. Alison and I are both college students and this semester got really busy. (Alison is trying to graduate this spring and I'm on a overload schedule right now.) I feel like we're always apologizing to you all but I promise I will have a post up sometime today.

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:38:44 -0500

-Liza

hockey—is—life76: “It’s not like breaking a hockey...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:42:00 -0500

hockey—is—life76:

“It’s not like breaking a hockey stick or breaking a tennis racket,” he said. “For (horse riders), we become very close to these animals and have respect for what they do for us.”

-Eric Lamaze

I thought we should touch on this seeing as we are an equestrian blog and this is probably the most tragic thing we have witnessed in a long time if not some of our lifetimes. Hickstead was the best jumper in the world if not the best horse just in general. Eric Lamaze was an extremely lucky man to have had the chance to work with the horse of many people’s dreams. My heart breaks for him. No one should ever have to say goodbye to a friend and especially not in the way we lost Hickstead. Lamaze and Hickstead were the perfect team and my heart goes out to Eric and his family. Rest sweetly beautiful boy, you will be missed. <3

-Liza

(I know we don’t typically reblog very many things but I found this to be the best photoset out there, so why build my own?)