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I am happy to announce that Amanda Johnson Dressage LLC will be located in Loxahatchee, Florida, from January 15 to March 15. We will be traveling down and sharing a barn with Underhill Farm. I will be available for training and lessons in the Wellington/Loxahatchee area during that time, please contact for more info! Pip, Anakin and Oxford are looking forward to the warm weather!
The weekend of November 13-15, I had the opportunity to ride in two clinics. One clinic was at Tempel Farms with Conrad Schumacher, the other clinic was at Silverwood Farms with Lilo Fore. Both clinics were fantastic and I learned a lot.
Pip Piaffing at Schumacher Clinic, Tempel Farms
The Schumacher clinic was great. Pip felt very good, and we made great strides over the weekend. Our last ride of the clinics was probably one of the best rides I have ever had. He was so excepting of the Piaffe and Passage, and by the end of the ride we had very elevated, relaxed, carrying, powerful, passage. Wow, what a feeling! A great part about it is I have been able to reproduce it at home! Always a good thing!
Jamaal Lilo Fore Clinic
The Lilo Fore clinic was so much fun! I rode my new young horse, Foley the first day. I sent Foley to Klaus Biesenthal to be started undersaddle, and when he gave me the OK that Foley was indeed broke after a few months, I brought him to Silverwood the first of November. I was very impressed with Foley, he is only 3, and has only been at Silverwood for 2 weeks. He handled everything very well, the people coming in and out, the tractor coming through the arena, having our first lesson together, and all I can say is, “good boy Foley!” I also rode Jamaal in the clinic. We worked on the flying changes. He was able to do a clean change from left to right, but from right to left he was always slightly early in front and slightly late behind! We tried various exercises to try and get it clean, and what seemed to work the best was to ride the canter very forward and have the whip in the outside (or new inside) hand. I was to create large, jumping strides behind, and then ride forward into the change and tap him with the whip when asking. We ended the clinic with a very nice, big, expressive and CLEAN change! woo-hoo!
Anakin and Kaye-Eileen
Kay-Eileen rode Anakin in the clinic and learned a lot! Lilo really worked her, and by the end of the clinic she was riding very well! Denise was also able to brave it out and take a lesson on her horse GiGi with Lilo. I was unable to see it, as I was riding with Schumacher at the time, but I heard from Lilo that it went very well, and she thought GiGi and Denise were a super-cute pair!
Thank you to Hannah for taking great photos!
Directly after Regional Championships there was a Schumacher clinic held at Tempel Farms. I rode Pip, and we were able gain more confidence in the Piaffe work. When that clinic was over, Pip, Anakin and I hitched a ride with Stewart Underhill and proceeded to go to his place, Alpine Farm, for another Schumacher Clinic! We both had early rides at Tempel Farm and were able to pack up early, go to Silverwood to pick up Anakin and then make our way to the Twin Cities where Alpine Farm is located. When we arrived at Alpine we were able to unload, and work the horses than go pick Schuamcher up from the Airport. Talk about a long day! The Symposium at Alpine was a blast. Anakin was a star and showed how to develop collection in the young horse, and received some high praise from Schumacher. Pip performed his I-1 Freestyle, and proper warming up techniques. It was fun to be back in Region 4 and meet up with some old friends! I wrote an article about these clinics for the IDCTA Scribe, which can be found here: idcta_scribe_december_20091
Pip
The Region 2 Championships were held at Lamplight Equestrian Center in the first weekend of October. This time of year we could have gotten any weather imaginable. What we got was rain, rain, rain. I think the only show it did not rain at this year was in Kentucky! Pip handled the rain and mucky footing pretty well the first two days, taking a reserve championship in the LEC Championshipsat Grand Prix and I-2. However, asking him to perform for the third and fourth day in the muck was too much for him. He is just not strong enough to perform the Grand Prix 4 days in a row, in sloppy conditions. So next year we will try for the Regional Championships at Grand Prix! Anakin performed very well, and has really grown up this year! He was Reserve Champion at First Level LEC Championships, and 3rd place in the First Level Freestyle LEC Championships. For his Regional Championships he was in the ribbons for an 8th place finish at First Level, in a large class of 32! He had an minor blow-up in the freestyle for 5th place finish. Jamaal had a difficult time with the footing, with his massive size and platter feet, he was sliding around a lot. He still performed with much gusto, put in pretty mistake free tests. He came in 8th place for the Second Level LEC Championships, and finished a respectable 12th out of 27 in the ABIG/USDF Second Level
Vemilion B
Championships. The lovely, exuberant, Vemilion B had some exciting classes at the show. He started off on the edge, but put in a pretty clean Open Training 4 for a 70%, for his second class in the scary arena 7, he spent most of his canter work bucking and leaping around and trying very hard to tell me we need to vacate the premises immediately! When he was good, he was very good, and we ended up with a 61%. I wanted him to have a good Regional Championship test so I took a risk and rode him with no whip or spurs, thinking a dull lazy test might be better than a brilliant test with a high possibility of bucking. He was very good during his Training Level Championship ride, but boy did he feel lazy! His ride was good enough for 8th place out of 24! Glissando was 3rd in the First Level LEC Championships, and 5th at Second Level. In the Regional Championships he came in 12th place at First Level, and 15th place at Second Level. My students also did very well, Dee Glen and her horse Dimitri showed in their first Regional Championships and came in 5th in the Training Level AA LEC Championships, and 8th at First Level AA LEC Championships. For their Regional Championships they placed 8th (out of 34!) at Training Level AA, and were 19th out of 33 at First Level AA. Nicole Chiappetti and her horse Oxford showed great improvement over the weekend, taking a 3rd place in the Regional Junior Championships, Reserve Champions Third Level Jr/YR LEC Championships, and 5thplace Third Level Regional Championship Jr/YR with a career high 67.558%! Finally, Renee McKinley had a fantastic weekend! She was Champion Pr. St. Georges AA LEC Championships, Reserve Champions I-1 AA LEC Championships, had a 9th place finish for the Regional Championships I-1 AA, and they were ABIG/USDF Region 2 PSG Adult Amature Champions! They even got a fancy write up about their wins in the Chronicle of the Horse! Congrats to all for a very successful Region 2 Championships, may next year bring better weather!
Well, Pip and I made it to Gladstone to compete in the USEF Festival of Champions! I remember when I first started to ride Pip in 2003, when he was a naughty 9 year old Training Level horse, that I thought he was nice enough to compete someday at Gladstone. Thinking back on it, I may have had too high expectations for that rank 9 year old, but no one stopped me from trying. Thanks to the support from my family, friends and especially Pip’s owner, Barrie Anderson, we actually made it to Gladstone, and were quite competitive! We took an overall 4th place in the Brentina Cup Championships, and placed 2nd in the first round of competition! It was a wonderful experience and we made some new friends there. I think Debbie McDonald might just be one of the nicest people around for helping me out at Gladstone, thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m pretty sure I still have that red Gladstone mud on my shoes!
Debbie McDonald Clinic
Gracious Gretchen lent me her trailer so I could take Pip to the Debbie McDonald clinic at Praire Sun Stables in the beautiful New Glarus, WI. Hannah came along to watch and groom and we met up with Kate Kostenbader at the clinic. Debbie was so quick in her teaching, she could catch a mistake coming before it had fully arrived. I really enjoyed her teaching and I think we made great strides in two days of the clinic. Improving the activity and connection, Pip was able to get more in front of the the leg. What I am really happy about, is that the week after the clinic, it seems that a lot of what we worked on, has stuck! I couldn’t have asked for better help a week before we leave for Gladstone!
Dressage at Tempel Farms is the last Brentina Cup Qualifier in the Region, so I had entered it just in case I happened to need a drop score. Luckily we were able to get a high enough average to be in consideration for the Championships, so Pip was able to enjoy a weekend off of showing so he could rest. The weather was cool, with some spotty showers, but Sunday was an absolutely perfect day. My Dad came in to town to visit so, he was able to hang out and watch me show on Saturday which was really nice.
Jamaal
This show is Jamaal’s last show until Fall. Soon, it will be too hot for him to comfortably work. Jamaal put in solid rides all weekend with scores up to 70.5%. He seemed to be more settled at this show and was not calling out nearly as much. Ramza was able to get him a double stall, so he had plenty of room to move his big body around.
Glissando
Glissando had his first show of the season and his first show in a couple of years. He was a pro at the show, and also put in some nice tests. A few hiccups here and there, but showed that he is very solid at first level with scores from 69%-72%. Second level can be a little bit of a stretch for him at times and his scores ranged from 60%, 64% and 65%. He was able to get his first set of qualifying scores at first and second levels. Darlene also got inspired to show him first level later on in the show year!
The previous Sunday, at Dressage at Lamplight, my zipper busted on my boots. Marti, from Horse of Course, was able to do his magic and sew my boot together so I could compete comfortably. On Monday, I was able to take my boot into Fedele’s in Antioch, IL, for zipper repair. Fedele is incredible! He was able to replace my zippers by the next day! What service! Thank you Marti and Fedele for repairing my boots!
Well we all made the trek down to the Horse Park for another Brentina Cup Qualifier. Gretchen canceled her tickets for the Indy 500 to trailer us down, which was sooo nice of her, thank you, thank you, thank you! Hannah, my working student, also came with to help out. The Kentucky Horse Park was beautiful, and the footing was outstanding! The weather was very nice, and hot, in the mid to upper 80’s. Much, much, warmer than the 60 degree days we have been used to!
Pip at the Kenucky Horse Park
Friday was the Brentina Cup warm-up test. It went fairly well, but lots of little mistakes. We recieved a score of 62%. I decieded to scratch my I-II ride on Saturday and focus on schooling. Lars Petersen was there, and generously agreed to help us out. He was able to help me get the Pirouettes, Piaffe, and Passage much improved. We felt ready for my 7:40am ride on Sunday! Pip warmed up great, and everything felt better than the day before. In our ride we had better Piaffe, Passage and tranisitions, better Pirouettes, but still losts of mistakes. A score of 63% secured us spot for Gladstone! We receieved good comments from the judges, which is always nice! Now it is a few weeks of schooling for Pip, before we make the trek to Gladstone.
Dressage at Lamplight was another successful weekend! It was the first horse show outing for Jamaal and Anakin. Both horses behaved very well. We had horrible weather on Friday, it was cold rainy and windy, there was even a show delay due to lightning. By Saturday afternoon it started to clear up, and Sunday was absolutely beautiful!
Jamaal Medium Trot
Jamaal created quite the fan club at Lamplight and we were getting requests from the sidelines in the warm up to show the crowd what he can do. He was quite the sport! On Friday he suffered from some tension as he did not like to go from the warm up with horse to the arena all by himself. He did his job, had clean tests, but not as “brilliant” as they could be. I am surprised he did not lose his voice from calling out so much! He received a 64% and a 65% for his second level rides. Saturday morning the footing was very sloppy from all the rain and he was having some trouble maneuvering his giant feet around the arena, but as always he did his job. In our test, Jamaal had to make another pit-stop to go to the bathroom at the end of our serpentine with simple changes in 2-4. He just had to stop right as we were facing the judge, Axel Steiner! Axel seemed to get a chuckle out of Jamaal, as he was laughing with me at the end of the test! His second ride was at the end of the day and the footing had finally dried up and Jamaal felt like himself again, I could go for it more and ask for more expression, we received a 69% and high point at second level! On Sunday we had just one ride, and he was great in that as well. He received a 67% and another high point championship at second level!
Anakin
Anakin was a very good boy at his first show away from home. He was quite balled up in a few warm-ups but usually he was able to let himself go and do some good rides. On Friday, he was able to show before the rain started and he put in a nice first level test one, but with one mistake he still received a 69%. I scratched his second ride due to the weather, I didn’t think it was fair to either of us, as we were one of the last of the day. On Saturday, our first ride of 1-2, was going super until he did a flying change after the canter lengthening and I made too big of a correction which then goofed up the last 3 movements of the test (which I think we received all 4-5’s on!) but an overall score of 65% was not too bad! He was then able to put in a decent 1-4 for a 68%, and ended up with the reserve high point at first level. On Sunday, he was tired and a little tight in his back, but he was able to let me ride him more and our scores improved. A 73% at 1-1 and a 71% at 1-4, winning the high point at first level!
Pip in the I-2 with his fan club looking on
Pip’s ride on Friday was at 1:00pm in the middle of the storm. The test was I-II and it was being judged by the same judge as the Brentina Cup test on Saturday, so I wanted to ride the test and get a feel for some improvements I can make for the ride on Saturday. My personal goal for the weekend was to do both rides with clean lines of flying changes, and that goal was accomplished!!! On Friday, I was very proud of Pip! He put in a very solid, clean I-II in very bad conditions. I tried to ride very conservative in order to save some energy for the next day, and the score of a 63% reflected that. On Saturday, the footing was still sloppy from the rain, but at least it was nice out! He felt a little blah, and it was very difficult to get him up to the bridle. We were able to put in a clean ride, but with very little energy. A score of 62% put us one step closer to qualifying for Gladstone! Upon returning home, and the next time I rode him in the double bridle, I noticed that it was put together wrong! I had changed the browband on the bridle before my Brentina Cup ride and had twisted the snaffle cheek piece around the noseband cheek piece, no wonder it was difficult to get him to go up to the bit! Moral of the story: always double check your tack!
The first show of the season was very successful! Everyone got their first qualifying score for Regional Championships. Dee and Dimitri received their Training Level score, and Abend was able to give Renee a nice Mother’s Day gift of a qualifying score and one score towards their Silver medal at Intermediaire I!
Jamaal turned quite a few heads and picked up some blue ribbons. He scored a 70% at 2nd 1, 69% at 2nd 4, 71% at 2nd 2, and despite me going off course and a pit stop to go to the bathroom a 64% at 2nd 4!
Anakin was able to keep his show nerves under control and put in some very solid First Level tests. He scored a 74% at 1st 1, 67% at 1st 4, 70% at 1st 4, and 67% at 1st 2.
Pip was stellar at this show. He put in a very nice Brentina Cup test, and was trying for me the entire ride. It felt good, and it was so much fun to be showing at this level! His score of a 67.692% will help us out as we continue on to the other Brentina Cup Qualifing shows! I had been focusing so much on the Brentina Cup test, that I neglected to look at the Intermediaire II. It is never a good idea to ride the test for the first time in the show ring! I was very pleased with Pip as we maneuvered around that test, and we scored a 64%!