Had a wonderful time at the NWDA Summer Show! I showed Brio Tanzen owned by Himmel Tanzen Farm and was pretty consistent around 66% at First and Second Level. Sarah Chiodi and her new borrowed pony friend Aslan had a great first outing together with scores up to 66% at Intro Level - kudos for getting to know him in a week and rocking it! And of course thanks to Natascha Artang for giving her the ride! Congrats to Annah Riggs and Kyra for having a successful first recognized outing at Training and First Level, Alex LaFleur and her trusty Jute with great scores up to 67% at Training Level. The Artang twins did great with Selma breaking into the 70s and Annsofie having wonderful rides on Bastian the Freisian up to 66%. Amy and Sebastian were busy proving themselves at Second Level, earning the last Second Level score needed for Amy's USDF Bronze Medal - they've been consistently in the 60s for the last couple of shows. Congratulations everyone for having successful rides and surviving another sweltering horse show weekend. Thank you NWDA for providing great show opportunities in the north land!!
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Well what can I say? A fabulous weekend all in all. Goals achieved all around! So, so proud of my partner Rhumba, who helped me earn my final score for my USDF Gold Medal at Grand Prix with a 63% - and in the oppressive heat no less! I don't think it's quite sunk in yet! I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to ride this incredible horse and I can't imagine a better partner to climb the levels with. I can't believe the years long quest for medals is over! I had such a blast showing Brio, owned by Dale Lewis and Holly Sampson of Himmel Tanzen Farm. He's been an absolute joy to train and compete and all around fun guy to be around. He had a great debut at Second Level scoring up to 67%. All of my crew had an excellent weekend as well. Teresa Kolar earned her last scores at 2nd Level with Ava for her USDF Rider Performance Award,Amy Miller conquered 2nd Level and earned both her 2nd Level scores for her USDF Bronze Medal on Sebastian, Alexandra LaFleur and Jute took home JrYr High Point on Saturday, Susan Gagne showed her young Eros for the first time, ending the weekend with a 62% at Training Level, Sarah Chiodi earned good sportsmanship award in my mind for gracefully accepting her misfortune with a lame horse, and Natascha Kempe Artang's twins and ponies had a successful first recognized show outing and looked cute doing it! Go team Sweet Water Equestrian LLC! I can't thank enough my parents Cindy and Roger Nelson, and Nathan Pollesch for being there to cheer us all on this weekend and through the years, Spring Hill Farm and Himmel Tanzen Farm for giving me the opportunity to ride such fabulous horses, and of course as always 'the village' for working so hard to put on these shows and for being just so fun to be around and for being so genuinely supportive and helpful. We had a great schooling show, the first show for most people to kick off the season. Huge congrats to my working student Sarah Chiodi who took Jr/Yr High Point at Intro Level on Saturday with a 66%. It was her first show ever and a little extra nerve wracking as her usual mount was lame leading up to the show. A generous offer from Amy Miller to use her horse Sebastian instead allowed Sarah to still compete at her first horse show ever and to do well, despite only riding him a few times the week before the show! Another huge congrats to Annah Riggs for earning Reserve Champion High Point on Sunday with her horse Kyra. It was their First Level debut and they had lovely tests. Congratulations to all for a job well done! As always, 'the village' was amazing. What a gracious and generous group of people. I'm constantly reminded how lucky I am to be a part of it. Thank you to North Woods Dressage Association for yet another excellent show! Everyone had lots of fun at the Ulf Wadeborn clinic hosted by the North Woods Dressage Association and Spring Hill Farm. We organized a New Test Seminar including demo rides of some of the newly released 2015 tests. Ulf is a USEF 'R' judge and gave an excellent breakdown for auditors of the requirements of each level. Rhumba and I demonstrated the Grand Prix and were assigned plenty of homework for the rest of the weekend with excellent results. I really enjoyed Ulf's straightforward, calm and clear way of teaching. His message was very organized and his theories and techniques were effective and easy for everyone to understand. I admired his ability to teach all levels (we had everything from Intro to FEI) equally well and all with the utmost respect for horse and rider and attention to detail. We will hopefully be organizing another clinic with him in the very near future! Stay posted! We did it! Rhumba and I made our Grand Prix debut at Otter Creek Farm. We earned one 60% - a Gold Medal score for me - only one more to go! We have plenty of room for improvement and had some unusual mistakes in the ring but I was very happy to see some 7s and 8s for our piaffe, passage, and pirouettes. I am so very grateful most of all to Rhumba, who has made this whole journey so much fun and is always willing to try to figure all of this stuff out along with me! As always thanks to Spring Hill Farm/Andrew Baertsch for giving me the ride on this guy! Congratulations goes to Teresa Kolar who keeps picking off scores towards her USDF Bronze Medal, and earned her last score at 2nd Level! Super Groom Sarah Chiodi and her blessed mother Lisa were on hand to help with everything. Thank you all! The Dressage Foundation's Continuing Education for Dressage Instructors Fund, established by Maryal and Charles Barnett, has awarded grants to five individuals to attend the United States Dressage Federation's Instructor Certification Program. Lehua Custer (Burbank, CA) , Lisa Hall (Export, PA), Julie Laity (Camarillo, CA), Patty Mayer (Santa Rosa Valley, CA), and Leah Nelson (Duluth, MN) each received a $1,000 grant to further their education as instructors. “We are so thankful to the Barnett’s, whose generosity has made these instructor grants possible" said Jenny Johnson, TDF's Executive Director. "It is important for instructors to continue their education for the betterment of our sport as a whole. The USDF Instructor Certification Program has been beneficial for so many instructors, so we encourage others to apply for these grants in the future.” Instructors attending any portion of the Instructor Certification Program, including the workshops, pre-certification, and testing, can use individual grants through this Fund. Individual grants are awarded twice per year and the next deadline for applications is July 1, 2015. I had a student last week request a 'core awakening' lesson, where we could focus on position and engaging the core while riding. We did a couple of exercises off the horse to 'wake up' her core: some planking, side plank and sitting on the exercise ball to focus on how her core was working all the time to keep her stable. After that, I had her get on the horse for a lunge line lesson. Without stirrups she experimented with sitting the trot - she is very strong and athletic, especially in her legs from other activities that she does - but those leg and hip muscles really wanted to take over when she rode! It was when she was able to recruit her core to do the work that she was able to relax with a long leg, and when I gave her the stirrups back, she was able to keep them more when her core was working. One thing I've learned from my time with BioRider is that when the correct muscles are strong, those are the ones that 'volunteer' to do the work when your balance is challenged - and that's exactly what you want. This is why I think it's SO critical for riders to cross train. Focus on training the right muscles for riding and you'll be riding easier in no time! I must admit that after nearly three weeks of focusing on nutrition and sticking to a workout program of my BioRider workouts and climbing/yoga 4 times per week, I am absolutely seeing benefits. I climbed the first 5.11 grade climb I've done in over a year! I'm so excited to climb at that level again - it's SO much fun.
3 Goals/3 Weeks I find this is the perfect time of year (between Thanksgiving and Christmas) to recommit to a healthy eating and exercise routine. For the last few years I've been doing a 2 week long 'cleanse' or as I like to think of it 'self-discipline boot camp' where I adhere to a restricted diet without added sugar, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, and most animal products. It's a little crazy but it really challenges me to realize habits I've developed and be disciplined enough to break away from them. I always find a new healthy habit or two by the end of it that is lasting. So, when a student of mine told me that she just started a 3 Goals/3 Weeks program with some friends I thought it was the perfect time and jumped on board! There's even some incentive involved! Every member puts $5 in the pot to start, and on December 22 whoever has the highest % of weight loss gets half the pot and whoever adhered to their goals the best gets half the pot. There are 2 weekly goals and one daily goal - everyone gets to choose what is best for them. Weekly goals are worth $3, daily goals are worth $1 - meaning you get charged for each goal you break! My goals are as follows: Daily Goal: Adhere to 'cleanse' diet Weekly Goal #1: Climb/Yoga/XC Ski/or Spin 4x a week (in addition to riding 4-6 horses per day and BioRider workouts) Weekly Goal #2: Cook at least one new recipe each week This is week one and it's going well. Wish me luck! |
AuthorLeah Nelson Archives
January 2021
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