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.