are we showing? who knows!

Spring weather is making me anxious! Still don't know if the show on Saturday is on or not so I can't decide whether or not to be nervous about it! Had a really good lesson yesterday after a bad one on Friday. One of the many visualizations Mia has given me recently is the concept that I'm aiming for my contact to be a 2 out of 5, strong enough to be there but light enough to not impede Radar's momentum. Regulating our rhythm is also a big idea, since I am able to get Radar moving forward pretty decently sometimes but definitely can't keep the pace steady for the whole test. I have to think about foregoing some of the power to get an even pace. So I'm totally prepared for the judge to be not at all enamored with the idea of attempting dressage on a Fjord, lol. As Mia said, with a learner judge you have no idea what you're going to get. Oh well, it's really for fun anyway. My goal is over 60%, seriously. Anything in that range or above is perfectly decent... I mean, I'm an ammy riding a 13 hh Fjord! Should know tomorrow whether this is happening or not so I can properly freak out or not...

a good lesson, once I figured it all out...

Radar was a tad backed off in my warm-up, I was pulling him back into the contact instead of pushing him into it like I worked on last lesson. Once I worked that out the ride was really good. I'm getting a lot better about not trying to learn into the circle and remembering where he wants to slow down and fall inward. Good free walk work, too, as long as I remember that the long diagonal doesn't end at B! Radar is pretty easy to push in the free walk without worrying too much about him getting too fast and breaking so I'm less worried about that than the other stuff.

Sending in my entry for the test clinic this week!

Pushing, not pulling...

So yesterday's lesson focused a lot on the idea of visualizing my hands and contact as pushing Radar forward into my hands instead of pulling him back to establish contact. With him you can really feel this, unlike on lighter horses, so I immediately understood what feel I wanted to achieve. Once again, the idea of moving my shoulders and torso a few degrees forward also really helped me and changed the entire position of my lower body for the better. It still amazes me that I have to work on sitting back a bit after I spent so much time after riding hunt seat learning to not perch and lean back! Rode most (actually, I think all) of the elements of Intro B and definitely feel very prepared. Still have to string them all together for the full test, but that will come in the next few weeks.

A great ride

Radar was so good in my lesson today, really forward and uphill all lesson. I don't know where this extra (good) energy came from, but I liked it! At the trot we worked on maintaining a nice "arc" where he was uphill and forward but not strung out and fast. Mia also had me working on not getting my shoulders behind the vertical, and visualizing my heels and lower legs going slightly upwards - however weird/incorrect that sounds - and that really helped me engage my core. Did a few run-throughs of most of test B, I got some decent free walks and worked more on circles (note to self: don't let the second half of the circle become smaller than the first half!) and diagonals (it's better to go error on the side of hitting the rail before the letter than being sucked towards the end of the arena).

a hack & a lesson...

I had a good ride on my own last Friday. I kind of needed to de-stress, so I put Radar in what Mia calls his "furry exercise machine" mode and did a bunch of exercises for myself--really working on getting my legs long and stable and doing a bit of sitting trot work.

Today in my lesson we again worked on walk/trot transitions--unfortunately for us (since they are a weak spot) they're a big part of Intro level tests. So after we (re)installed the go-or-pay-for-not-going mentality, we worked on center lines (managed to turn too early, turn too late and get a few perfect turns over the course of the ride), diagonals and circles. Working on letting Radar walk out a bit on the diagonals without getting crooked is challenging, those free walk diagonals are going to be the bane of my existence for a while. The trot work, although not perfect, is easier to organize.

transitions

So the thing I took away the most from my lesson on Tuesday was the kind of forward yet collected walk I need to achieve decent trot transitions. I need to really think about rocking Radar back onto his hind end before the upward transitions, and need a fairly collected walk to do that. To get the collected walk, though, I need a forward walk which he can collect from. So much to think about! In the trot tracking right I once again worked on getting his right leg to step under, which helps it so much. That and the visual of facing my shoulders/hips right which therefore places my right hand slightly back and my left hand slightly forward. Which makes Radar actually go straight, instead of hanging his head left as he wants to do. The other thing I'm working on and am getting the hang of is making my turns onto the diagonals into pseudo turns on the haunches, making them crisper instead of rounded. Luckily that's easier on Radar than some of the other elements of the test. Our best part is the free walk, we always seem to be able to get that movement pretty much down. So much to think about in a simple walk/trot test!

We have a date!

Well, a show date that is. Our first show together -- my first dressage show ever, not to mention the pony's first dressage show -- should be the first week of March. I did a lot of walk work yesterday, basically running Intro A & B at the walk. Made me very thankful that the circles are trot circles at this level, as walk circles take forever on a 13hh pony! I'm getting a good sense of what I need to do to get from the medium to free walk (although I have to figure out just how much I want to let him move out, I don't want to get on the forehand or get too racy and unbalanced), and working on the transition back to the medium walk Mia had me tighten my right rein first, to counter his natural tendency to drift right, and that helped my transition greatly. Ran Intro B for the first time, a little more interesting than Intro A even though that free walk diagonal change is a tad bit challenging. So excited!Oh, and the totally adorable cellphone picture was what I found in his stall when I went to tack him up. Had to get some peppermints for bribery to get him up, he definitely thought 3:00 pm was nap time!

Running the test!

So we're officially preparing for some dressage schooling shows (Rancho de los Amigos, and maybe Hossmoor) this spring and summer! I've been running Intro A in my lessons lately, really working on centerlines and straightness and getting Radar uphill in the walk and trot. The walk work will seriously be the longest minute of my life there, I mean his free walk is actually pretty nice but it takes forever on a 13hh pony! Mia was going to see if RDLA wanted to run the tests in the short court, that would definitely save a lot of time! Our circles are coming along fine, as long as I remember to face right! Mia worked with me on a concept she got from Mary Wanless, that I needed to view my left shoulder and hip as a connected triangle that needs to always feel "in front" of my right side (which is in fact straight). Once I really concentrated on that, my circles fell in much less than before).

In other news, Mia found a hunt coat in black that someone had left in her house that fits me perfectly! Even the arms are short enough, amazingly. Since I think my cheap one from college is too big, that was a nice surprise. So I'm all set gear-wise, even though I'll have to end up covering my Tipperary helmet with a helmet cover... kind of tacky but whatever, I don't feel like it's necessary to buy a new helmet when I don't necessarily need it. And I made it into the New Year's Resolution column of Practical Horseman! Kind of a boring resolution, actually (ride more and write about it!) but I'm kind of excited.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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!