of flamboyant Fjords and outside reins

Well, besides the fact that the idea of Radar as flamboyant is kind of hysterical, this visual has helped me ride the trot so much during my last few rides, really getting him to move uphill and into my hands instead of plowing forward onto the forehand. We did a bunch of sitting trot work on Sunday, working on the exercise where I get an inside or outside bend and then improve the trot from that spot. I realized once again that the saddle I'm riding in, a JRD that is custom for Radar and his owner, is not particularly ideal for me! I got so sore at the spot where the saddle skirt ends and meets my thigh. Definitely wasn't a muscle soreness issue, more of a hitting me in the wrong spot when I sit really deep issue. Oh well, as Mia said it's a mark of a good ride to have these sorts of issues. We got some really good trot work done from this place, more of the flamboyance--definitely skirting the tendency to collect and suck back yet still remain connected to the bit. Mia said my sitting trot has really developed recently... she tried to claim that on Radar it was one of the best in the barn, I don't know if I quite believe her but I'll take the compliment!

Today we worked on bending into changes of direction and circles, and I once again worked on activating my core and thus using my outside rein. It's fascinating that I can do one thing without activating my core properly, and have it slightly fail, but then once I'm organized and have my body aligned and activated correctly I can change both his way of moving and my own way of using my body. It was a really good ride.

Riding through the problems you didn't create, take two...

Seriously, this is the bane of my riding existence right now. I had a few months where basically me and Radar's owner were the only two riders consistently riding him. His owner doesn't really ask him to work that hard, so when I was really the only person consistently asking him to bend and give a bit on the reins he really was able to do a decent job of it. Over the last two or three weeks he has been getting used more in more serious jumping and dressage lessons and, ironically enough, these make him so much stiffer. Ridiculously stiff in fact, and more resistent to going forward. Usually forward isn't that much of an issue with him (with spurs and a whip!) but even that was hard at first last week. I really had to get after him. But we actually ended up having a fine ride on Friday, we really worked through his stiffness (I totally felt it the next day-- my arm ached!) and got some good sitting trot and canter circles by the end.

Mia said he was a lot better and less stiff on Saturday from my ride-- nice, but I wish I could benefit from someone else riding him before I do and getting him all nice and loose! I guess anyone who either rides other people's horses or even purchases their own horse who has prior training deals with this to some degree. It's somewhat frustrating but entirely understandable. I'm riding him earlier tomorrow so it will be before his other rider comes-- hoping that will make a difference for the better!

Riding what you didn't create

So today I got on Radar and immediately sensed a difference from my previous rides: he was resistant, stiff and in general not very forward. He kind of felt like the Radar of six months ago, not the horse I'd gotten accustomed to riding. Apparently he had a heavy weekend work-wise, and that definitely effects him. I warmed up as usual, then watched another lesson for a while. Mia pointed out that both me and the other girl riding were riding other people's horses, horses whose owners and riders had created problems or difficulties that we now had to deal with. I guess I never really thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense. Now I know that if I owned a horse I would create my own myriad of problems but it's still an interesting concept to think about. We worked on a lot of counter-bending and sitting trot work, getting him to pick his front end up and use his hind end--ending with some pretty successful circles. Mia said that really the only thing standing between us and an intro level dressage test is the circle, and that it's a goal we are definitely considering for the Spring! Exciting. Not that I don't expect to be beaten by some 17 hand warmbloods, but it will still be fun and different.

Radar as a furry exercise machine...

Yesterday I got on and was really tight and sore, so my lesson really consisted of me focusing on giving the right kind of leg aids to protect my muscles (thinking of an upward leg aid instead of just closing my legs tighter helps a lot) and keeping Radar as long and low (ha! Radar as long is kind of an oxymoron, but long for him) and maintaining an even pace while working a bit on getting off of my left seat bone. It was actually a good ride for both of us, sometimes you kind of need these kinds of relaxing-yet-still-productive rides.

Too much leg!

So after a week off of lessons and still recovering from a nasty ear infection, I managed to have a wonderful lesson on Friday. We worked a lot on leg yielding, both in the posting trot and the sitting trot, getting Radar to a point where he is straight before starting the leg yield and figuring out how to encourage more sideways movement. I actually was using too much leg (seriously, I never thought that would be an issue!) and had to play around with how to use my outside rein as a a supporting rein of sorts for encouraging sideways movement. It's weird to think of doing that, after I spent so many years trying to not have my horse drifting through the outside shoulder to the rail in the leg yield to realize that using that rein is sometimes very helpful and provided the half-halt Radar needed. Did some really good sitting trot work and got one amazing canter circle totally unintentionally... it felt really good! It made me dizzy, though, so we kept it at one each direction. Radar was such a good boy and definitely deserved the peppermint he received after my ride.

he likes me, he really likes me!

Friday:

I had such a generally pleasing ride on Friday. When I went to get Radar from the gelding pasture he started chewing as I put the halter on, and he was "relaxed", shall we say, during our lesson breaks. We did a lot of work on leg yielding bending left, since that's his more difficult direction, and did fairly well with it. Did a bunch of canter circles, including a right lead one at B that was actually successful! I was slightly worried about the prospect of how steering would work but it did.

Tuesday:

Despite a bit of loose horse drama (practiced my emergency dismount for the first time in a while!) I had a totally amazing ride on Tuesday. I finally got the concept of tightening my core in the sitting trot to avoid bracing and arching my back (which hurts!) and when I did that Radar totally started to move out. His trot totally changed for the better (ha! Wicked reference, couldn't help myself) but was still relatively easy to sit. I had such a fun lesson and I can't wait to see how it translates to my lesson on Friday.

This ride really got across the point to me that I need to do some cross-training of some kind. Am going to investigate splurging on a Wii Fit, since I've wanted one for a while and am not really pleased with my local pilates/yoga options.

Spiraling

In my Tuesday lesson Mia had me working on a new spiraling exercise at the trot. The geometry of it was slightly confusing to me at first, but it was basically ride a circle and work on getting true bend and the moment I felt Radar releasing and relaxing I immediately rode him out of the circle on a straight line as a reward. This exercise really made his trot so much more animated than usual. During our canter work Mia had me visualizing my downward canter transitions as creating two levels of trot: one trot that brings him down into the trot from the canter, the other trot that organizes it and gets him moving nicely again. That really helped, and we had some good canters by the end.

and when you ride your circle like a square...

it's actually more successful! In my lesson on Friday we ended up working on canter circles tracking left, which are really difficult on Radar since he's fairly resistant to bending and truly yielding that direction. It was actually really a matter of taking what I've been doing really successfully at the trot and trying to make it work at the canter, too. We had varying degrees of success with the canter circle, but got excellent trot work so it wasn't all that bad. And even when Radar wasn't doing it "right" (yield? bend? why the hell should I do that when I can plow to the right!) he was comfortable and happy with his job. Not a bad ride at all, I think. Just waiting for the canter breakthrough to happen for us...

We actually successfully cantered a few circles!

Now that we've gotten the concept of "straight"...leg yielding is so much easier! On Tuesday we warmed up with the usual alternating counter-bend, true-bend exercise, then progressed to doing a few short leg yields once both directions of bend were established. It's so much less work to get a good leg yield now that I can pretty much "feel" when Radar is straight. We definitely were more successful than previous attempts. The other big breakthrough was in our canter work, which once again all comes back to straightness and the outside rein. Radar's canter is pretty bad, and takes a fair amount of micro-managing to get it done successfully for more than a few strides. I wish I still had access to Bandit, who I could literally canter around on the buckle and really work on my seat and myself. My lesson concluded with a bunch of canter work, and I actually managed to get Radar around a few circles without breaking-- and our downward transitions have gotten so much better, I can really get him settled and organized now. A very good ride overall.

Forwardness and transitions

In my lesson on Friday I worked a lot on the idea of forwardness in both my upwards and downwards transitions. At the walk I tried to get Radar as forward as possible while not making him strung out, so that I could get good trot transitions without having to resort to using my whip. We did more work with trotting forward into canter-trot transitions and was slightly more successful than last week.

Independent hands and the canter

Tuesday's Ride:
I actually had a great ride on Tuesday, despite the ridiculous rain and arena flooding... we actually used the flooded areas to provide good places to leg-yield. I've kind of found the "sweet spot" as far as figuring out when I'm sitting straight in the sitting trot--finally I'm not over-correcting myself and over rotating. It's much more comfortable, too.

Friday's Ride:
On Friday I actually had a funny experience when my sitting trot was easier than the posting trot! It's so much easier to feel my own straightness when I'm sitting. I worked on my elbows and hands and trying both to allow my arms to "bounce" ever-so-slightly, and re-thinking the half-halt as stopping that "bounce" a bit. Radar is great for exercises like this since he doesn't really get offended by over-exaggeration and trying to figure something out. The idea of allowing my hands to do two rather different things at once really helped me with the left-lead canter departs, too, in that I figured out the concept of counter-bending without completely abandoning the true bend. Some good short canter spurts, especially once I got the concept of making him actively go down to the trot instead of just falling into it. A really good lesson!

A fun exercise ride

Did a short exercise ride on Bandit before volunteering this afternoon, it was so much fun! I'm sad there is only one more week of the year left, I enjoy riding him. Did a lot of trying to bend him, maintaining some sort of rhythm at the trot, slowing him down with my seat and organizing his trot a bit. I have to say again that I enjoy his canter so, so much! It's funny since he works best with minimal contrast-- quite a departure from the need-contact-to-canter issues I've been having in my lessons. His canter (well, lope-- it's slow!) is so smooth and easy to ride. I tried to work on keeping my elbows back and, of course, my seat deep to prepare me for tomorrow's lesson. All in all, a very fun ride even though I didn't quite "work" as much as in a formal lesson

Schooling the Transitions

So in my lesson on Friday, I did my usual warm up, working on bending, counter-bending, etc. Unfortunately, Radar's trot seems to be best when he's slightly counter-bent to the right to deal with his drift - fine for schooling, but not ideal for showing. While any judge should see what/why he's being ridden that way, you'd still get deducted for it. Hence, he won't be a show pony any time soon! When we went into the canter Mia had an interesting idea for me. Since I (and basically all the people who regularly ride him) am not strong enough to school Radar's canter (well, keep him cantering while schooling it!), we worked on schooling the transitions into and out of the canter. Basically, bending and establishing contact with the outside rein to get a good canter depart, cantering literally four or five strides, then bringing him down into an organized trot. Believe it or not, that actually worked and we got some fairly organized canter and trot transitions. It was a really good lesson, although I do wonder sometimes how my skills would translate onto a horse with both dressage training and some natural ability for the discipline. I've spent so long riding horses with physical issues and off-breeds, it would be sort of fascinating to see how that would translate into a proper "dressage" horse...

Had a funny issue vision-wise this lesson, too... I have Moebius Syndrome, a neurological disorder which among other things means that many (most?) of my eye muscles are paralyzed. I kept cutting off each end of the arena when I was riding the quarter-lines of the long sides... I literally felt like I was about to crash when I was in fact 10 feet away! At least I was the only person riding in the arena at that time, so I only had to watch out for myself. Luckily by the time I got onto my canter circle I was doing slightly better but it was kind of weird since that doesn't usually happen too often.

Riding a "school horse"

Although Radar is privately-owned, the fact that his owner subsidizes her board by allowing him to be ridden in lessons makes him in some ways similar to the school horses I have ridden my entire riding life. Thankfully these are mainly "good" things - being ridiculously patient, tolerant of somewhat questionable riding at times, and generally a pretty easy-going personality. Alas, today, I experienced a rare not-so-good product of riding a horse ridden by others - the after-effects of so-so rides that you have no control over. Yesterday Radar was worked pretty hard and wasn't too happy about it. Today when I asked him for a little bit of right bend on a circle tracking left, he really got resistant to it and totally ignored my aids. We decided to forgo the circle entirely, and just worked on bending both ways going large. Thankfully that worked well, and I ended up with a forward, bending and happy pony.

I brought my camera out and Mia got a few really good photos of us - I really want to try to be better about this, thinking about all the horses I have ridden over the years who I don't have any photos of to remember them with... I played around a bit with Photoshop to make myself a desktop background with these photos:

A sitting trot to make your heart swell

Well, horses being horses, the plans for a longe lesson got cancelled due to horse injuries. So I was back on Radar. I was a bit worried as soon as I got on because my back was really tight and achy. Posting the trot didn't really feel all that good, so I basically went straight into a large circle at the sitting trot. My sitting trot was actually really good, I was able to relax my hips and sit really well. Mia had me working on different ways of opening up my right hip, eventually telling me to visualize my crotch opening up and facing right (a little graphic, but I'll take whatever works!) and that helped to much... I finally was straight! I was able to sustain this on both the circle and going around the entire arena. We tried a few baby leg yields in this position and my right leg (of course, the leg with the problems!) isn't quite strong enough to effect my pony--thankfully I have spurs now--but I will work on that.

As I was untacking, Mia said my sitting trot was enough to make her heart swell -- aww! Occasional validation is always nice, especially for those of us who don't show so don't have the ribbons for "proof" that what we're doing is exciting and important for anyone other than ourselves.

Mixing it up a bit

Today at Xenophon I rode Bandit before all of the students came, it was the first time I had ridden him in about a month (when I was riding Echo instead). Bandit is basically the antithesis of what I've been working on in my dressage lessons: slow, doesn't particularly like contact, basically a western pleasure-type horse. And for what therapeutic riding is, he's excellent. So part of riding him, for me, is working on letting go of my dressage ideals and going with how he wants to be ridden. And once I get past that, his little jog and lope are so cute and comfortable I could definitely get used to them! Tomorrow I have a longe lesson, my first in about two years... should make for an interesting day!

Counterbend, leg-yielding and the canter

So I'm capable of executing fairly decent counter-bends and leg yields at the trot, especially on Radar who likes to hang his head left and drift right. I understand the concept of essentially bending him to enable straightness. After doing some really good sitting trot work (well, once got my right hip and thigh released) I tried some of the same ideas at the canter. Weirdly enough, tracking right was actually slightly easier, I worked on trying to release my hips while still bending him, etc. It was harder tracking left since I needed to keep the slight counter bend to get him straight while still paying attention to my seat... so much to think about! But a great ride overall.

Sitting trot success, now on to the canter...

Had an "extra" lesson today- I'm going to try to lesson twice a week for the next few weeks, since I have no idea how I'm going to be able to ride after I graduate and (hopefully) get a real job. I rode Radar, who was his usual wonderful self. Worked on getting him bending by doing nose-to-the-rail bends down the quarter lines turning into true bend through the short ends. That was very successful so we went into the sitting trot, wow! It has improved so, so much over the past few months! My hips have gotten so much looser in the trot that I can really let myself follow the horse's bounce and still be able to influence the horse. Unfortunately, I also learned that my hip looseness hasn't quite helped me at the canter! I literally completely tighten up my hips in the transition, which definitely doesn't help Radar's so-so canter in the first place. Mia said I need to work on thinking about rounding my back a bit more in the canter (not ideal, but just for now) because that slightly releases the hip angle. That did work, and our last canter was better.

Envy! Maybe not?

I think almost all of us wish something were different about our riding life sometimes. Of course I wish I had access to expensive, high-quality schoolmasters and shows. Perhaps someday I will, but I do have to realize every so often that I am learning and growing immensely as a rider - perhaps more than I would grow in a different riding environment. I like having the horsemanship knowledge and background that makes me confident and knowledgeable, and am continuously amazed when people who are exposed to echelons of the horse world that I will never reach don't know things such as identifying horse breeds that I spent my entire childhood reading and re-reading about. It's just nice to get a bit of perspective every so often. It was ridiculously hot yesterday, so I just walked Echo around a bit before lessons. He was good, as usual, I love older, well-behaved Arabs!

The Little Things

It's amazing how the little things can drastically change your ride and your horse's performance. I was having a perfectly fine lesson today, I was getting the job done... but I was crooked. Actually, more like torqued oddly to the left. So, for the rest of my lesson I worked on moving my left hip forward and upward... and it was amazing what this little change did! Suddenly, bending and flexing to the right became so much easier, we could leg yield both directions with minimal effort, and were generally working very well together. Have I said I love this pony?

Aren't horses amazing?

We all know that horses are wonderful animals, but every so often something happens that makes me think about it. I volunteer at a therapeutic riding center, where children with a multitude of disabilities receive therapeutic riding and hippotherapy. This year I started leading a young girl who is nonverbal, and was very afraid to get on the first lesson... once she was on, however, she didn't want to get off! I love doing her lessons because she's so happy to be there and conveys that happiness even without being able to tell us. Another girl I lead has an ASD and becomes easily overwhelmed and confused by directions and stimulation, but the mare she rides seems to sense this and compensates for her. These horses and ponies are simply incredible in their patience, their calmness, and their ability to sense what their rider is capable of and adapt to it.

I think as a rider, and especially as a dressage rider, I've become attuned to every little part of my body and my position that needs to be better, or that will never be as good as I want it to be. I guess it is good to step back every so often and realize how fortunate I am to be able to ride and to have had access to horses in my life.

Now THIS is why I ride...

So I'm tired, slightly blistered and very dusty, but so happy with my ride today! I didn't get a lesson last week so I was a little worried about how I would feel, but everything is coming together so nicely that I had a wonderful ride! We were forward, bending (well, as much as a very stiff draft pony ever bends...), and connected. Towards the end of the ride, even our canter came together well - I'm finally at the point where I'm both comfortable and effective at the faster gait. Had a good collected sitting trot into the canter, too. Can I say it enough that I love riding this pony?

Had a talk with my instructor about figuring out how to get an extra lesson or ride in for the next few months... it's hard figuring out what horses I can ride and how I can afford it - but I hope I can make it work for the next few months, since I have no idea what I'll be able to do horse-wise once I finish grad school and start working.

Knowing versus doing...

Dressage is cerebral, I think that is part of what I love about it. But, alas, you also have to be able to do what you're thinking about. For a good year or so, I understood the theoretical aspects of what I wanted: inside leg to outside rein isn't that much of a stretch, is it? But my body just would. not. cooperate with that idea. No matter how well I conceptualized what I wanted to happen, I couldn't get it to translate to my riding.

Over the past year, as my instructor has pointed out to me, I finally started to get the concept of feel. I can actually sense what I'm doing and am beginning to make the changes necessary for my pony to go so much better. It's just so nice to finally be able to think about doing something, do it, and get the desired result! Hopefully more breakthroughs are eminent...

Why Write? Why Blog?

Actually these two sentiments are fairly intertwined, and things I ask myself (repeatedly!) when things aren’t going so well on either front. The simple answer, of course, is that it makes me happy and fulfills me in some way. This blog is perhaps mostly for myself, for me to chronicle my journey as I learn, struggle, and enjoy the horses I am so lucky to have in my life.

And who, exactly, am I? Grad student (almost done!), hopeless academic, theater-loving city girl who fell in love with horses at summer camp and never looked back, life-time lesson student who has yet to own a horse of her own, dressage aficionado, a rider who sometimes struggles to ride with a neurological impairment, and ultimately a (shameless) wanna-be competitive rider…. someday in the future. When I have time. And money. And talent.

I have ridden both school horses and privately-owned horses over the years, and the horse I currently ride is a privately-owned Fjord pony. We struggle with the same things many amateur dressage riders face: impulsion, straightness, forwardness (how many times do I hear “more forward!” each lesson? Quite a few!), and believing in ourselves. Recently we have become more “connected” with each other–well, that mostly amounts to me actually having a clue what my body is telling the poor pony to do!–and have begun to work on collection and rhythm.

No new horse blog would be complete without shameless pony pictures. Here is my poor, long-suffering pony dressed up as a hot dog last Halloween… posted because the expression of utter indifference is so hilarious:

So, more dressage blogging is to come soon!