Hanoverian NA Mare inspection - a chronicle of events

[endlessclimb]

Shayney was feeling nearly 100% today. I’m still doing a 10 day round of antibiotics just in case. Last time this happened, it was a month off for her. I don’t want to take any chances.

That said, I put her on the lunge with her flat halter and set up some trot poles. I set them up as two raised, two strides, two raised, two strides, two raised - just to change it up a little.

Ohhhh the things she did. Jump both poles at once, treating it as a double bounce. Jump the first two, then panic and put your feet in the middle of the second two then freeze and look at me say “oh shoot, this isn’t how this is supposed to go”. Jump every pole individually (I was hysterically laughing at this one, she was rather proud of herself). Stopping midway to walk through the rest of it with the horsey expression of throwing your hands up in defeat. And, any combination of the above.

But, in the end, she got it. I did 5 rounds through, then canter two laps skipping the poles, then 5 rounds through - both ways.

Oh Shayney. You try so hard, you’re just not very clever. Luff her. I just love how even when she gets it wrong over and over, she’s game and chipper to come back for another try

[Manni01]

I just saw this thread. First of all good vibes for your mare for the swelling!!!

i am no expert for the Hanoverian inspection, I only participated in 2 Oldenburg MPTs. One in Germany and one in the US.
There was no difference in the procedure only in the number of mares participation.

My first advice would be… don’t go over top with the free jumpig practice, once the horse gets the concept it’s going to be fine…. in fact my mare did her first free jumping at the MPT because I didn’t have jumps at home…

Second, it doesn’t matter how good or bad her free running is. The gaits shown under the rider are more important… with the Oldenburgs you have to ride forward like your life depends on it… I had two mares entered one mare was ridden by a hunter rider, who did a nice job but rode her like a hunter. Well I got an offer from somebody who wanted to buy her at the MPT abut no Premium, because the judge wanted to see expressive riding.
The other mare got a VerbandsPremium because I rode her forward…
And it’s only walk trot canter…
And I wouldn’t do a fake tail…

Good luck!! It’s going to be fun

[endlessclimb]

For Hanoverian the inspection does matter, per their inspection rules. If she scores too low in the inspection, nothing she does in the MPT ridden portion can get her approved.

[endlessclimb]

https://hanoverian.org/thoroughbred-and-arabian-mare-requirements/

The requirements are on this page - the MPT really has no bearing on whether or not she’s going to be accepted. It’s just IF she’s accepted, she would be able to be upgraded into the Main studbook.

https://hanoverian.org/procedure-for-pedigree-upgrades/

[Manni01]

I apologize for sharing my experiences because obviously it didn’t help at all, but your answer confirmed me why I am in the Oldenburg registry .
They do the inspection combined with the MPT and my one mare did not do well in the free running because it was also her first time ever being in an indoor. I was extremly disappointed actually but after the riding part (which felt really good) the guy doing the judging told me that she would get the VerbandsPremium although her free running wasn’t too good because Oldenburg wants to breed performance horses and for them it’s important to perform well with a rider…. He was really impressed by her and so far I have not met a person who doesn’t admire her. so imagine if he would have kicked her out after the free running….
But good luck to you anyhow!!! The mare looks really nice!!!

[endlessclimb]

Rode tonight. Woo boy was she lit. Spooky at stupid stuff and then really got wound up when she was staring at the horse eating logs, and tripped to her knees over flat ground and she got a boot and a spank over it.

Ah well. I rode the horse I had today for 30 mins (not counting warm up or cool down) and called it quits. I think the meds might be making her tummy hurt, even though she’s on omperazole. 4 more days of meds then she’s done.

[endlessclimb]

Sorry for no updates. Our dog had TPLO surgery Monday which threw my routine for a loop. Coming back, Shayney reminded me she was 5 with a rush of barn sour behavior, which resulted in a boatload of work for her. Tired 5 year olds are good 5 year olds. We’ve still been working on our sit and lift poles, on the lunge or under saddle. Yesterday was the first decent workout I’ve gotten out of her in quite a few rides, where she felt like she was trying to stay with the program. She got today off, and we will beat the drum again tomorrow.

[endlessclimb]

Well, I had a decent horse yesterday. Not the best, but overall giving it a try which is all I really want.

As for me, I want to continually scream “shorten your reins instead of breaking at the wrist!!!”

We worked on a million transitions w/t, then t/c, interspersed with the sit and lift poles. Then we worked on a bigger trot and canter, interspersed with the sit and lift poles.

[endlessclimb]

I really worked on a quick half halt immediately after the poles, to encourage her to sit back and not dump on her face to make it over. Outside of almost killing us once, she caught on pretty quick that it was a strength not a speed exercise.

[beowulf]

Fingers crossed for a quick recovery for your dog! Love the pictures you just posted, you and Shayney look great.

[Warmblood1]

She looks really good. I really like how she is reaching forward to the bit, is over the back, is not being compressed and she looks nicely balanced. Transitions will serve her well. Great work.

For broken wrists, try a driving rein.

Another great exercise is tennis balls or little footballs under the arms between the shoulder and elbow, pinning them to your sides. This helps keeps the elbows close to the core which also helps maintain arm position.

[endlessclimb]

Yep, the elbows do the ricky Bobby creeping up. I will try the driving rein to start and see if that helps!

[endlessclimb]

Well Shayney and I needed a break from the grind so we decided to head out back and I lunged her over the XC jumps. Good workout for her, and a good mental break for us both.

Some of the stuff out there is preliminary sized… we skipped those and stuck to training-ish or below. She was bold, a bit of a hooligan but in a cocky way which made me laugh. One refusal out of who knows how many jumps - I think the sun hit it funny because she wasn’t scared when she stopped, just confused. I laughed, let her take a breath, then sent her back and she went right over no problem.

Ditches, banks, logs, tires, railroad ties, and a stacked pile of wood looking one.

Good girl Shayney! This was her first time over any “real” XC stuff. I normally am a huge stickler for keeping things tiny, but the smallest thing out in the field is novice height. If she would have shown hesitation I was more than ready to pull the plug on the session but she turned into a jump seeking missile and gave everything I pointed her at a go, and all of them on the first try!

I like to take breaks from the regular stuff. Maybe that impedes our progress but I think it helps us both mentally.

[BatCoach]

Looking good! She’s getting stronger and looks like a fun ride.

[chestnutmarebeware]

She’s looking great! But inquiring minds want to know if she’s touching the electric fence?

[endlessclimb]

She seems to have stopped doing that. Now, she’s hitting her head on the window frame in her stall regularly.

Dory!

[JB]

@endlessclimb

I like to take breaks from the regular stuff. Maybe that impedes our progress but I think it helps us both mentally.

Taking breaks IMPROVES progress Progress, mentally and physically, is in part about what you’re actively doing, obviously - can’t learn to jump well if you never jump. But when you’re not jumping, the neural pathways that were started during the process of jumping, continue to form a little bit. Jump a little more, another little bridge, and more building when you’re not jumping. It’s both about muscle memory, and about the brain triggering things to happen.

When people say “I turned her out and she must have really thought about what we’d done because she was SO MUCH BETTER”, it has zero to do with her thinking about it - guaranteed she didn’t think about anything other than grass, snoozing, playing. But those neural pathways became a little (or a lot) more established.

Progress is just as much about doing something else, as it is doing the thing.

That applies to the horse AND the rider

[endlessclimb]

We had a decent ride yesterday. I was a little short on time, but I still set up the cavaletti (intentionally just a titch tighter than normal to get even more sit and push), and then two ground pole set quite a ways from each other to work on canter adjustability.

The tighter sit lift poles honestly did not go very well, I felt like she was trying to paddle to get over them. Maybe she was a bit sore from our XC playing the day before.

The adjustability exercise she was great for. I could get 7, 6, 5, or 4 whenever I wanted it. Funny to think it was so easy and uneventful for her - just last winter that would have been too much for her to accomplish, especially changing between the strides without a mini-war. Hard to see the forest for the trees sometimes.

[endlessclimb]

Here’s our Free Jump Friday from yesterday. I am trying to find the sweet spot of where to let her go so that she gets to the first jump nice without it being an “aaaand they’re off!” type take off.

I am going to have to warn the helpers that she wants a SNACK when she’s done - she’s taken to running to me quite fast (too fast, frankly) and being quite excited to come get her treat after she finishes. I had to start stomping and waving so she’d SLOW DOWN on approach.

Even though it’s not perfect, I feel like this was an improvement. I didnt do the V poles, but had the ground line rolled out a bit. Thoughts?

Shayney Free Jump Friday 8/26

[JB]

Ohhhh, SO much better! The “I’m gonna 2-stride all these 1-strides” made me LAUGH! The line right before that, and the ones after, were really quite lovely. Why? She slowed down and took a bigger, boundier stride in between everything, so that she was up and over, not just forward.

If you’re treating her after every line now, I would wean off that. It sounds like she’s gotten demanding about it, so yeah, you’ll have to start pretty aggressively warning her off. It’s fine to come your direction, but she has to learn to slow and stop if she wants a treat.