Where was I? Oh yes, Tuesday night... My BegInterVanced Class!

[Traveling back in time to Tuesday night...]

So after my pretty good lesson with Henry, I brought him back to his stall to untack and prepare for my college lesson, which I thought would be starting in about 15 minutes. As soon as I got back into the main barn aisle, though, one of the boarders told me my students were already there. Whoops! I saw two girls checking out the horses and figured that must be them, and told them I would be ready as soon as I could. I took of Henry's saddle and bridle and put him back in his stall, and then nervously went over to talk to them.

I cracked a few dumb jokes and to my shock, they laughed! Something about how I had always dreamed of a "tall, dark, and handsome horse" but ended up with "short, chunky, and red", which is true but doesn't make me love my horse any less of course! As much as I told myself what my dream horse would look like the three horses I have spent the longest time riding have all been chestnuts with 'tude! Anyway I gave them a quick tour of the barn, and then we waited in the (gloriously warm) tack room for about ten minutes because there were still three more students we were waiting for. We talked about majors, the weather, and riding experience, and when the rest of the group came in we went over barn rules. The three that came in later (they were on time, the first two were early) had all ridden at our barn last semester. One of them has been riding for a while and is working at Training Level. The other two have ONLY ridden for one semester... about ten rides. The first two girls have ridden for a few years (one dressage, one hunters), but not recently so they are a little rusty. Well, okay then.

The three girls who have ridden at our barn last semester all wanted to stick with the same horses that they had been riding. Fair enough! The other two girls got matched up with an old Morgan mare who makes a lot of faces but who is generally a willing ride, and an old cow horse that was the first horse I ever trained :) He's ADORABLE and a total sweetheart, and also a bit of a chunk. Love that horse. The first test I ever rode on him was at a schooling show at our barn. We entered at A, trotted down the center line, halted at X, and... he started SCREAMING for his friends. Poor little guy! He did the test very well, hollering the whole way, and afterwards the judge commented that I had kept my composure much better than he had.

It took a little while to get everyone tacked up, and I was lucky that the three girls had already ridden at this barn since they knew where everything was and could get ready independantly. I did have to help out with bridling for most of them, which is understandable since schoolies have a knack for getting their heads *just* high enough to be impossible to reach. We got everyone on safely and adjusted stirrups, though it seemed like everyone wanted their stirrups a lot shorter than I would have put them... it's been a while since I taught lessons. Once everyone was walking at a good pace and warming up I blabbed on for a while about position, and how I tend to talk a lot, and how I am happy to answer any questions about anything. I asked what each of the girls had been working on when they rode last.

Girl 1 - Rusty Hunter: "Well I was jumping. And working on my position, and trot diagonals"

Girl 2 - Rusty Dressage: "Sitting well at the trot"

Girl 3 - Ten Rides In: "We were doing some cantering"

Girl 4 - Also Ten Rides In: "Well in trot, we would like, not sit and stand but just stand" Umm... 2-point? "Yeah"

Girl 5 - Obviously, Relatively, Advanced: "Connection, and doing Training Level tests"

Oh boy. Two beginners, two intermediate riders, and one (relatively - relative to her co-students) advanced rider. Now I have to walk the line between keeping things interesting for the more experienced riders, keeping things achievable for the less experienced riders, and keeping everything safe for everyone.

Then I asked them what they wanted to get out of this semester, if there was anything they wanted to learn, any specific goals they wanted to accomplish, etc... Blank stares. Oops, forgot this is supposed to be a fun PE credit! I guess I will alo have to walk the line between keeping things laid back and actually teaching important equestrian skills!

I had them work on circles, showing them the size of a 20 and 10 meter circle at the walk. I had them do a 20 meter figure 8 at the walk, emphasizing the lovely round quality that a circle should have. I had them do a serpentine at the walk, again, trying to tell them that they should keep the half circles rounded. We'll be working on that a lot more, looks like. Then we picked up the trot. Or rather, the Obviously Relatively Advanced girl did. She was awesome. Sort of did her thing, steered away from any impending pile-ups, did circles, worked on getting a nice contact with her horse. Ten Rides In 1 and 2 were bouncing around with heels up, hands either in her lap (1) or up in the air by her face (2). Rusty Hunter and Rusty Dressage were trying to keep the old schoolies on the wall and in a trot, and were a little tipped forward, but no major flaws. Sigh...

After a few minutes of posting trot, working on diagonals a lot, I asked them to sit the trot for a few minutes. Ten Rides In 1 seemed very confused... "Don't we always post?" We gave the horses a long rein walk break for a few minutes and then when we shortened them up to get them ready for work again, I tried to re-emphasize the aids. How you should use only as much as was necessary, but enough to get what you asked. I tried to re-emphasize position. How you should keep your shoulders back and down, and push your butt into the saddle (by this point, I was FREEZING, despite my pantyhose + breeches + jeans and my t-shirt + 2 long sleeved thermal shirts + sweatshirt).

We picked up some trot again and I asked them to do some 20 meter circles at the trot, either at A or at C. There were some very near traffic incidents, but everyone survived. Then I asked them to all come down to C and do a FULL 20 meter circle at the trot, keeping them going at a nice pace and working on keeping the circles round. ORA did a beautiful circle. TRI 1 & 2 gave some nice efforts. RH and RD couldn't keep their ponies at the trot the whole way around their first couple of tries, but were determined to get it right, and soon did. Then we all cooled out, which took a lot longer than I thought it would. After 20 minutes of trotting two of the horses were sweaty, the furry beasts! We got everyone put up cool and dry and I thanked the girls, they said see you next week, and I finished putting my tack away.

By this point it was about 8:30, and I was exhausted. I didn't pick Henry's stall - I like to clean it at night when I can to make it easier for the barn crew in the morning, and so that he doesn't lay in as much poop; I did get him some nice warm water and his blanket though. After my first BegInterVanced lesson I think I know what we'll work on next week:

• position- without this foundation, you can't work on anything else; this is also a safety issue (heels down, eyes up, etc)
• working on the aids to get prompt transitions and keeping your horse listening
• keeping tabs on the schoolies' temps - no way do I want to get them sweaty again
• trot diagonals
  
• mmmmaybe some cantering, if they're ready and express interest

I actually couldn't sleep Wednesday night because I was planning out what next Tuesday's lesson would consist of, how crazy is that? I did ride Henry last night but I will post about it later. I warned my students that I talk too much sometimes... guess it applies here too!

Icy outside, but very cool in the ring!

What can I say? I am so lucky to have such a great horse. As I was mucking his stall post-lesson tonight, I kept hearing Martina McBride singing "Blessed" in my head (cheesy, yes, but oh well!).

When I got to the barn, there were some younger girls in the tack room (they help out with the barn chores, sometimes teach lessons, etc and board their horses there). As one exclaimed, "I love these boots, they were $75!!!" I figured it would be a frustrating night. The woman whose lesson is right before mine has a beautiful upper level horse, who gets all the fanciest gear you could imagine. I heard the two girls mocking her for using a quarter sheet - "It's just a little piece of fleece, it's not going to keep him warm!" "So and so has one too" "Yeah she has a PINK ONE! *snort*" (the last comment made right before one girl pulled a HOT PINK brush out of her tack box, which the other girl complimented...) - and then put them out of my mind as I brought out MY quarter sheet and started grooming Henry.

He was a little upset (again) that I was disturbing him right when he should be forehead deep in hay, and once again, the 4pm lesson mom put carrots in his feed bin without asking. I sighed, brushed out his mane and put his saddle on. We warmed up walking and trotting a bit before my trainer was finished with the other lesson, and when she was ready to start we picked up a trot and worked on leg yields, shoulder-in, and small circles for a few minutes. The trot he gave me, right off the bat (with the quarter sheet on) was amazing. It's like he KNOWS when we're about to have a lesson and just turns on the charm. I worked on bending his ribcage with my inside leg, fingers, and leg, and worked on something I read on some blog or forum somewhere - stepping into my inside stirrup and lengthening my body on the outside (from hip to shoulder) to help him lengthen on the outside. He was phenomenal.

After a walk break, we did some collected walk-canter-walk transitions. He is getting better every day and his canter is so uphill, floating, and light I feel like we're not even touching the ground. Down transitions still need work, but he is building his strength and stamina every ride. A few times he picked up a counter canter but hey, nobody's perfect, and his counter canter is super comfy! He's going to dominate at 2nd level... erm... someday!

After what was perhaps one or two circles too many, we took another walk break. My trainer and I agreed that we have to be careful not to work him too hard, which is difficult because he tries so hard that it's almost impossible to know when he's getting tired. He will go until he just can't hold himself together, instead of gradually trying to tell me 'Oh hey, I'll be getting tired soon... hmm, I'm sort of tired... still only kind of tired, check back later... okay I guess I'm tired now'. Plus his canter is so cool to ride (and watch, apparently - my trainer dropped the T word - THIRD level quality) that it's tempting to savor it. However, the reason it's so great is because he tries with all he's got every time I ask, and then suddenly he realizes, 'Oof, I actually need to take a break!' so I will be extra vigilant not to do too much. He's a quick learner too, so drilling is boring and counter productive. Lucky me :) Anyway she said that with this quality of canter, and striving towards 2nd/ 3rd level movements, it would get me great scores at 1st level, and would keep his mind engaged. He needs work, wants to work for me, and this type of horse would get cranky if I didn't challenge him.

After the walk we took a large circle in the trot and worked on shortening and lengthening his stride - not by much, but enough to get him started thinking about lengthenings. My trainer explained that I should treat them like transitions, not gradual changes, and expect an immediate response from him. What that got me was quite a few lovely canter transitions, and several almost-halts, but hey, I can't blame him for trying to do what he thought I wanted! So this week I will be working on this more. My trainer said to expect similar results for the next few months, but we'll see ;)

So, homework:

• still working on my position! ("much better" this week but I'm not going to get complacent!)
• 1st & 2nd level movements (shoulder-in, leg-yield, and new! turn on the haunches) with an emphasis on good bending through his ribcage
• trot shortening (gathering energy) and lengthening (a few strides) and working on prompt responses - treating them like transitions
• working a little bit on collected walk-canter-collected walk transitions, always maintaining the lovely uphill canter that we know he can do (and LOVES to do) to build strength
  

I think this week I will also try to do one fun/cross-train day, like grooming, ground manners, & longing, or working over ground poles and crossrails or something, just so that he knows sometimes we can loosen up and not worry about all the hard work we've been doing in the ring. The weather will probably not cooperate enough to get us outside any time soon (like, in the next 4-5 months) so I'll try to find something we can do indoors. Not even snarky teenagers or mountains of manure can change the deep-down grateful feeling I get when I'm working with Henry. I really have been blessed!

Here comes the flood!

Yesterday the weather was quite warm, into the mid 50s I believe. This meant that I wouldn't have to deal with Henry's scooty-OMG it's cold attitude. Yay! However, there was also a great deal of precipitation yesterday. Hmm...

When I got to the barn there was a jumping lesson again. I heard the trainer talking to the boarder afterward and she's a lot younger than I thought! She's looking for high schools! It's hard to tell when some young riders are so dedicated, and so quiet, but I suppose I was like that when I was her age as well (only sans horse).

Henry made some faces at me as I was tacking up, probably because it was shortly after he had been fed and he wanted to keep eating his hay. Oh well. My limited schedule becomes your inconvenience, buddy! There was another boarder there whose horse is in the stall next to Henry and she too was tacking up, but got into the ring before me (I waited until the jumping lesson was over, so as not to get in the way of the HUGE WB careening around and hurdling over things.

As I was getting ready to get on, I noticed something shiny in the ring footing - turns out it was someone's pocketknife (thankfully closed)!!! Then I started to walk around on the buckle and hmmm... what's that noise? Above the din of the rain on the metal roof, I heard an engine. I looked out the end door and there was a tractor, lights on, idling in the mud. Apparently there would have been a deluge followed by a very muddy ring if not for the impromptu ditches being dug. Henry was a little wary of all these shenanigans but after a couple of laps around the ring he settled down quite a bit. The only thing left to deal with was my neighbor-boarder, who apparently thought it was quite alright to practically run into Henry on her way around the ring. Um, what? Good thing he's not a kicker!

I warmed up with some shoulder-in at the walk, as well as some small circles and halts. His trot work was pretty great, though halfway into my ride there was another lesson starting (2 riders) so I mainly stayed on a large 20(ish) meter circle at A. Thankfully the instructor of that lesson made a point of asking neighbor-boarder not to follow too closely, saving me the trouble. I tried to work on some canter-walk transitions when I had a clear path, which was a little difficult, but towards the end we were doing quite a bit better than last week.

I hate sitting at a desk all day, and I really need to get back to the gym, because my position is one of the most important things I need to work on. How can I expect Henry to work and be his best when I'm tipping forward or being inconsistent with my aids? I'm not being fair. It's just so tempting to sleep as late as I can in the morning, hit the barn right after work, and not even think about the gym, but the consequences are *ahem* starting to show. I'm REALLY not a morning person but I might have to try to muster the motivation to get up and work out BEFORE work, because there's really no other time in the day I have free, but winter weather makes it oh-so-nice to stay under all my blankets when I wake up...

These time (and motivtion) limitations will certainly be exacerbated next month, when I will be taking a class (or two) at the community college, working full-time, trying to move my horse up to 1st level & taking lessons, and teaching a lesson at the barn... the BO asked me if I would be interested in teaching a beginner level weekly night lesson - um, YES!?! I taught a few private lessons there before I left for college, usually small kids getting acclimated before joining a group lesson. The lesson I would be teaching next month would be a beginner-level group lesson of college students (they get a PE credit - how cool is that?) and would involve teaching grooming, tack, anatomy, safety, basic riding technique, position, etc; a lot of what I've done at summer camp in years past, only with people whose attention span is longer than 15 minutes. I'm excited to hone my skills and I am finding more and more how much I love meeting new people, so hooray!

I have my own lesson tonight, and I can't wait to find out what we'll be working on. I will be using my quarter sheet to warm up with (I am keeping it in my locker, under my saddle as I read on COTH that the wooden rack could damage the flocking) because it has suddenly gone from 55 yesterday to... 30 degrees out today. Blech.

Yeah, Monday was just too cold.

Another week, another amazing, enlightening lesson with my trainer. I am dumbfounded at her ability to turn simple exercises, periodic reminders, and visualized metaphors into amazing results in my horse. I am LOVING these lessons.

I was nervous that Henry might still be a little wild as he had been on Monday, or that worse, the weather might not have been the only reason for his acting up. What if his back was hurting? What if his mouth was hurting? Thankfully, he plodded around on the buckle to warm up for a few laps, even though we were in the trainer's ring (which he has only been in once before).

We started with some trot, asking for a bit of an over-bend, to get his body loosened up. I worked on keeping my shoulders back and sitting up, not pulling back with my hands, and keeping my legs on. Every now and then his head would pop up or he would try to pick up the pace, but my trainer said that every time he does that, I should sit up and hold my half halt until he relaxes. It works! I got him so that he was going around with his shoulders up, neck relaxed, mouth light but steady, and bending nicely, with a steady tempo. Where was this when I needed it on Monday???

We did a few shoulder-in to 10 meter circles, making sure both of my legs were on to support him when I asked his body to move around. We did a couple of leg-yields to reaffirm my half-halt (so that he would move over nicely instead of throwing his shoulder to the outside and squirting over to the wall). We gave him a walk break and then when we picked him up, did some work at the walk.

The walk is the hardest gait for me. He is so willing, so eager to please, that his walk can end up looking very tense and way too fast. We worked on "halving" his walk - reducing the speed and stride by half (two or three times!) to get him into a calm, collected walk. As my trainer said, I'm fighting against his nature, so I will have to teach him how to walk differently, and that this new, s l o w e r walk is really awesome and definitely what I want.

From the walk we did some canter transitions, and from canter back to walk, emphasizing my upper body balancing his tendency to tip on to the forehand. Then we did a figure 8 exercise where we cantered a 15 meter circle in one direction, (tried) to walk on center line, and then cantered a 15 meter circle in the other direction, and so on. After a little while his canter-walk transitions were getting a lot closer; my trainer explained that since he has such a nice big stride, it took him longer to get organized to be able to walk. After three or four of those figure 8s, his canter was amazing! It was uphill, rolling, rhythmic, and so light... I hope I can get that again this week!

My trainer complimented the canter, and then his personality in general. I love the feeling of validation that I'm getting from these lessons, since my last trainer kept telling me that if I really wanted to be serious about dressage, I would need a new (read: expensive) horse (read: warmblood). Nuts to that. Henry is AWESOME.

So, homework for this week:

• position, position, position! (I am "sitting twice as well as last week", but I "still need to sit up more" - yup!)
• keeping my upper body up to help balance him
  
• holding my half-halts until he is willing to stay at the tempo I want
  
• keeping the bend and a feel on the outside (pushing him into the outside rein)
• keeping Henry's body "under my saddle", not strung out in front or dragging behind (not that the latter is EVER an issue - he's got too much motor, if anything)
• keeping the walk calm, collected, and s l o w
• canter-walk transitions to increase his confidence in my asking for down transitions, and his ability to organize himself at the canter
  

Should have seen this coming!

Well, I was so busy this past week/ weekend I left Henry to his own devices for four days. There was a pretty bad snow squall/ deep freeze Sunday to Monday, so when I went out to the barn last night, I expected to spend a little longer on warming up, but boy oh boy I was surprised at him!

I had to wait about 15 minutes to actually put his tack on and get out in the ring because there were three horses already out there - and one was doing a jumping lesson. I had an interesting discussion in the tack room with two other boarders about various H/J trainers we knew and had worked with (or in my case, worked for). It is a teeny tiny small world up here. Yikes. I had better keep things like that in mind and keep working on spreading good karma!

When I got into the ring he was totally subdued; he stood like a statue while I got on, and then we walked around on the buckle and he put his head down. I did some light trot work to get him warmed up quicker, and then when I tried to put him together he got antsy. I was still trying hard to work on keeping my position, which includes keeping my leg on. We still haven't gotten to the point where my legs can stay on and he'll listen to my seat and upper body to stay slow and relaxed. He got a little upset and picked up the canter a couple of times - I swear I could have done some lovely pirouettes with that canter! He wasn't going anywhere fast, just didn't think I wanted a slow trot.

Then things got interesting. He was getting worried because of my legs. I kept trying to push my shoulders back and put my hands forward. He can go BIG when he feels like it, but when I tried to hold him back, and actually make turns, he started to pogo-trot. I worked on transitions - trot-walk, walk-halt, halt-trot, trot-halt. That was okay. We took a short break. Back into the trot and when I tried to sit and slow him down, he actually let out a few (tiny) bucks and into canter. Okay then!

Apparently I should have longed for a while before I got on, but I was already strapped for time. We worked on some more transitions and I mainly stuck to posting the trot, and he gave me some nice moments towards the end of our almost hour-long ride. Hopefully since it is about 35-40 today, instead of 15-20 like last night, this won't be the sort of ride I have for my lesson tonight.

I was also having a really hard time with my right seat bone. For the life of me, I can't seem to keep it where I want it. Maybe this has something to do with driving a lot - using my right leg more to step on the pedals? I need to get back to the gym more often and do yoga and pilates at home, as I have done in the past. The weather and shortness of days make me loathe to do much more than curl up with a good book, and I usually don't get to the barn and the gym on the same day. Given the choice, I would go out to the barn. But, it looks like I need to dedicate some more time to working on MY body, before I ask Henry to work on his. Hopefully by springtime we will both have much more toned bums!

"Boy, Henry looks like he's got a lot of energy tonight!"

Truer words were never spoken. If I put some logo stickers on him you would've sworn you were at a NASCAR race. Jeez. Last night I tried to do all those position adjustments my trainer mandated on Tuesday. Shoulders back, butt in the saddle, hands forward, and LEGS ON. I tried, despite Henry taking that to mean "ok, let's GO!"

I worked a little bit on shoulder-in, leg-yield (one or two each way) but mostly concentrated on rhythm and tempo while maintaining a better position. It's hard to do that when I've let him get away with not dealing with a consistent leg aid for so long. It's all my fault and I stayed as calm as possible (while avoiding crashing into the two other riders in the ring) so that he would stay calm too.

We finished up with some counter canter, which was a lot easier for him going to the right. I had a hard time getting him to pick up the lead going left. We'll get there!

I have to work tonight so Henry will get the day off, lucky thing! I am starting to think about what he needs for the holidays, too(well... he doesn't really NEED anything, but all those horsey catalogues are tempting)...

• new Himalayan salt lick (he really, REALLY loves that thing)
• bell boots that won't fall apart
• new water bucket (and a new scrub brush for me)
• saddle repair (needs to be re-sewn around the pommel, and maybe replace billet straps?)

What's on your horse's wish list?

Reeeeeally looking forward to tomorrow...

Henry was a peach tonight. Despite the two other riders in the ring who couldn't be bothered to steer - or be polite about sharing the ring (one almost ran into me twice and then muttered something about "target practice"!!! - these are students, not boarders, but common courtesy at this barn is, as far as I know, to use the "short arena" space for lessons and leave at least a 20 meter circle at A for other riders... or at least pass left-to-left!) he really did try.

I was feeling a little sore and that wasn't helping, either; my shoulders got sloppy and I ended up not sitting as deeply as I should have...grrr. After a little trot warm-up, I went right in for some serious leg-yield practice. Inside track, quarter line, center line, you name it. There is SOMETHING I just don't get going to the right (that is, going left, but leg-yielding right). If I am too soft with the outside rein his shoulder pops out and he scoots over to the side. When I half-halt and take a stronger feel of the outside rein, he stops moving off my inside leg. Just goes straight ahead, and just scoots if I give him a nudge or a tap. He was also being a dork about bending left - especially at the spoooooky end door. It was a totally clear night, by the way. No rain, no snow, no horse-eating boogeymen waiting to jump out of the shadows (I don't think...). I must be doing something with my position that is too dramatic on that side, but I can't see or feel it. When I was younger, I know that I was always too strong in the right rein - maybe that's coming back, or maybe I'm overcompensating by being to weak? That nagging thought, coupled with the thoughtlessness of other riders, and a good helping of sore, tired muscles to boot (thanks, uterus!) made for a less happy than normal ride.

HOWEVER! The Syracuse men's basketball team is 7-0 after steamrolling Colgate (I usually end up driving around in circles to get it on the radio - no TV!), I have a lesson tomorrow night wherein hopefully my leg-yield issues will get sorted out, my horse is as cute as a button, even when he's drooling in my helmet (thinks there's cookies in there - they've got to be somewhere!), my board bill was cheaper than I thought it was going to be, and now I have a hot shower and Moby Dick to look forward to. It's things like this that make me happy to be alive :)

Sleet + Laundry Day = A Sunday Without Henry

But! I did ride Saturday afternoon. When I got to the barn there must have been 9 or 10 cars in the parking lot. By the time I was tacked up the indoor ring had miraculously cleared out :)

We warmed up with some trot circles and serpentines, as well as some trot-halt-walk transitions (trying to get him to fight his natural instincts to slide to a stop and curl up!). After a quick break, because I haven't clipped him this year, we worked on leg yields from quarter and center lines, shoulder in, and lengthening on 20 meter circles and across the diagonal. I have a tough time keeping him from overbending and throwing his shoulder at the wall when we leg-yield to the right. His shoulder in wasn't too bad, but it was better going left. Hmm...

Then we took another quick break and started up again with a couple of canter transitions, then on to counter canter. This is a BRAND new concept for him, as I have avoided it until last week. I wanted him to always nail his leads, and feel confident that he would balance himself at the canter. When I first started to train him, I don't think Henry had ever been asked to canter on a circle. I thought a few times I would bite the dust because he would get quicker and quicker to avoid having to balance himself. He would fall in to the inside, speed up, and run through down transitions. He has gotten a million times better and his canter is actually quite comfy now. Saturday, his counter canter was spot on... well, 80% of the time.

I have come to believe that the better I am as a rider the better able Henry (or whatever horse I'm on) will be able to understand what I'm asking and do it well. I know most horses have a "stiff" or "strong" side and that's surely a factor in all of the things Henry and I do but I am constantly trying to analyze my own position, my aids, and how I'm doing as a rider. I do have a tendency to lean just a little forward; this is probably left over from my hunter/jumper time in college (I never heard the end of the snarky "dressage seat" comments) as well as a bit of hesitancy to really sit on Henry lest he get quick and/or unbalanced. I have to GET OVER IT and keep my shoulders back! I'm crazy if I think he'll actually run off with me. He's never done anything like that, and will slow down willingly (sometimes even before I ask). I think he's less fit than he needs to be because after a 45 minute ride on Saturday, he was starting to get sweaty and strangely keen on interpreting half halts as "Stop, we're done!" Part of this is probably also that I'm asking for new and different muscles to work and for him to let me do new and different things.

I am going to head out to the barn tonight and try to fine-tune those leg-yields before my lesson tomorrow. Hopefully he's not covered in mud...