Doing Something

After my dressage lesson Wednesday, I had talked to my husband for a while about how to think faster and do things faster. He works with people on a variety of issues using conversational hypnosis. We went through some exercises on what I would be feeling or seeing as a cue to remember to sit up and ride. Obviously ideally I am remembering to do that all the time, but I struggle to remember both the course (or dressage movement at a specific spot) AND ride. I think the conversation really, really helped my execution of things during the lesson Friday. My friend and I roped another friend into joining us to hang out (and VIDEO!). 

As a side note, while I grew up taking weekly lessons from the time I was 8 until I left for college at 18, I have definitely not replicated that consistency with lessons since then. Holy moly, it is amazing the progress that can be made with regular, good instruction. This was just a month ago and we now have a totally different trot, canter, and jump. It's not that I didn't know this intellectually, but feeling/seeing it happen is totally different. 

We warmed up in our usual way, but we're getting more and more insistent on good transitions. JT said rather than thinking trot-trot-trot-TRANSITION-walk-walk-walk where you ruin the last 4 strides of the previous gait and first 4 strides of the next, think trot-trot-trot-trot-walk-walk-walk-walk. Basically, ride the motion of the gait you want from the second you ask for the transition. That way you don't spend 4 strides "recovering" from your transition. She said I was getting so much better with my upper body control in the trot-canter transitions, rather than throwing myself at him I was staying back and balanced. He still is not round through that transition, but he's much less hollow. She again was having me ride the first 3 strides of the canter as though I was asking for a medium. Together we have a bit of a tendency to slog along for the first few strides after an upwards transition, so she really wants to eliminate that feeling and make it a nice forward transition into a clean gait. 

Jumping we started out trotting a crossrail back and forth. The first two times he launched a bit, so we kept going until it was smooth trot to the base. A bit of over correcting from the initial exuberance switched to too lazy till we found the happy medium. At one point she asked me what I was thinking about as I was heading to the jumps. Uhmmmm.... I really couldn't tell her. More than 3-4 strides out I'm usually thinking about the quality of the gait and keeping him forward and bending. The last few? Something like "Uhh JUMP?!?" At the trot I do know what I'm thinking and sometimes even saying "1-2-1-2 or trot-trot-trot-trot" in order to keep the trot rhythm and not break to a canter the last stride. She recommended I think of something at the canter too (yes, that sounds like a good idea LOL), she said she counts 1-8 and then starts over again. This helps to keep a steady rhythm. I'm not sure if that will be my method exactly, the first try wasn't fantastic because I got to a long spot on 8 and went "8 JUMP!" Something to think about going forward though. 

We were doing our friend the 5 stride line in 6 this time. And y'know what?? I was sitting up, riding, and committing to it from the very first stride of the line. It wasn't always beautiful, first time through he jumped really nicely over the first but a bit big and we ended up tight to the second. But no one died and he didn't actually even touch the rail.  

Lots of standards in the way here, but you get the idea 

After the tight spot, I did a bending line to the liverpool. It wasn't the course she'd given me, but we did it REALLY well. 

I apologized for going off course, and she told me not to apologize. She said that the only things to say sorry for are chasing or pulling the last 1-2 strides before a jump and committing him to a bad spot because of that or repeatedly doing the same dangerous thing. Point taken

We looped down through our old friend of one stride crossrails that he did much better than on Monday and then put together a longer course. 

We finished up by going through the last bending line a few more times, making changes each time. I can't use up all my good video on one post though, so that will be a video for a later day! 

He was HOT afterwards even though it was only 10 AM, so I took him back to the trailer where he drained the other half of the 5 gallon bucket that he had started on before our lesson. He is a good drinker and I am super grateful for that. I hosed him for about 15 minutes under the fan, he drank some more, and then we headed back out to watch my friend's lesson. Someone was lunging in a Pessoa in the dressage ring behind the jump field and he was fascinated. Like stood there staring the whole time (5-10 minutes). It was kind of adorable. I haven't been around him when people have been lunging before, so I don't know if it was just the lunging or the Pessoa too. 

What is that?? Not alarmed, just very observant and curious

After they finished lunging and his entertainment left, he picked at grass a little bit and then settled under the covered roof with my friend and me to take a nap. 

So sleepy, worked very hard

MOM, stahhhp taking pictures of me, I'm napping! 

My friend who was hanging out hadn't seen him since we moved barns. She commented on how much we had progressed under saddle (not hard since I wasn't riding him when we moved) and how much nicer he was on the ground. He cuddled up to her a little bit at the start of his nap and got some sleepy head scratches. He's really, really becoming a very nice horse. He's pleasant to be around on the ground, just about loads himself on the trailer, and is becoming REALLY fun to ride as we install more buttons and he learns how to carry himself. 

Wednesday we are headed out cross country schooling! I can't wait!