Dry, dry, dry

Ben Cross Country: The Monday before the Thoroughbred Expo, we headed back to Magnolia Sands. Ben acted like he had never left the property before and was very wowed by the grassy area full of new stadium jumps. To be fair to him, there were miniature Scottish highland cows, a donkey braying, baby horses cavorting, and two barking dogs all within the first 5 minutes of arrival with the dogs arriving just as I had his hind feet up to stud him. Once we got out to the field he was fantastic over the jumps. We had one very generous mess up at a wedge where he would have been well within his right to slip by it, but he looked out for me and went even with our crooked approach. In my defense the approach was somewhat crooked because he was spooking like crazy at a jump to the left hand side. In his defense, I knew the spook was coming and didn't change anything about my ride. Pretty cool that we're at the point where he is sometimes generous with me. We did the novice and training ditch wall and then the full BN/N coffin. We moved on to the water and did a jump in the water as well as two jumps at the water's edge, including a two stride line where the second jump was right at the edge. We returned to their incredibly spooky half coffin where the ditch is at the bottom of a large slope up and down. We definitely broke this down piece by piece last winter, so we went straight for the ditch to wedge. He went, but required a lot of encouragement. We did that a few more times to smooth it out and then did the up bank to a wedge and then down bank. 

Magnolia Sands - Jan 2023, no photos this go round

Overall, a great, confidence building go. JT's working student observing remarked on the nice shape he makes over fences. More and more I'm looking at pictures and am just in awe of this horse I get to have as my partner. He seems like a horse way out of my price range at this point. Knocking furiously on wood, things are going so well with him. His feet are looking better and better too. There was a lot of crumbling at the end of the summer, but his farrier feels like next summer we're going to be in a much better situation. 

Goggles Jump: 

Where did this whole adult horse come from?? 

The next day was a jump lesson for Goggles in the morning. He was really super. The flat portion was a lot of getting him up off his right shoulder and then releasing the second he did did and then praising. When we moved on to jumping he was very exuberant. We spent a while trotting across rail back and forth. Similar to the attitude that keeps the last rail of the course up, things went better when I started pretending we were headed to another jump afterwards. This helped me get/keep ourselves together. Otherwise he was landing and partying and I was landing and... Something? Something not super productive, but it got a lot more productive once I started focusing on directing his exuberance somewhere.

Getting broad across that chest too, sir

Ben Dressage Pt 1: 

That same afternoon, Ben and I had a lesson with a dressage trainer at the GY's farm. She really liked Ben, which already biases me towards her. We mostly focused on test riding tips this go round, so I'm interested to get into the weeds of things more. I think she really wants to improve his canter - she had us playing a little bit with a "collected" canter and wanted me to work on developing three canters - the working, "collected", and extended. We have a much better extended than we do collected at this point. Asking for collection led to a lot of breaking to trot, but she said to just keep trying and keep the canter in my hips and leg position so he understands. She also recommended that at least for now I allow my reins to slip a tiny bit when we do the trot to walk. While it isn't really ideal and will be addressed eventually if we work on a true collected walk, this simply helps him keep his shoulders up and the motion forward for the time being.

When it gets cold out, she simply CANNOT face the world and covers her face with her paw, sometimes her tail as well

As far as test riding tips, we worked on leg yields, simple change through the trot, and one loop canter serpentines. First level test three has leg yields off the rail to the center line that I was a bit fussed about. She recommended NOT keeping a huge inside bend through the corner of the short side before starting. Think about having him straight with the outside of his outside eye almost in view. Then give myself the full 12m (they start at V and P) to go straight and then exhale and start the lateral movement. The straightness through the corner made a HUGE difference. I told her I struggled with leg yielding left (and have on every horse...) and then the first one I tried to show her was probably the best leg yield left I have ever done. LOL. Sooo she couldn't help me a lot there since it was magically a really nice leg yield. 

The simple change through the trot she cautioned to do more half-halting. He does them like we're out in the jumper ring, so not as balanced and uphill as they want to see in the test. 

We also played with the one loop canter serpentines - keep the inside bend and even allow a little haunches in on the first half of the loop, then once you reach X, straighten and just allow them to head straight back to the next letter. She said it is technically a serpentine and riding it that way makes it a bit of a V on the second half, but no one notices or cares. This helped because in our right one loops, it has felt like he is diving/I am allowing him to fall through his left shoulder really badly once we reach X. 

Was absolutely WILD a few days later in the cold and wind

In spite of cross tie impatience, was an absolute GEM on the same cold, windy day

Ben Dressage Pt 2: 

We had another lesson on Tuesday. This one I told her I wanted to work on whatever holes she saw in our foundation. She watched us again for a while and then commented that he makes a beautiful snapshot, but she noticed some tension in the base of his neck and loss of balance every time we changed direction. She pinpointed that was mostly when he slipped behind was in the change of direction. We did several exercises, all with the same sort of focus. After a w/t/c warmup, she had us do a three loop serpentine. First we did it all with right bend, making sure the bend was true and I was kicking his shoulders into it with my inside leg forward. We did that twice and then switched to left bend. Then we switched to all counter bend. Partway through the first one of those she said "There, he actually let go and lifted his shoulders and gave". 

She's got a slightly different teaching style than I have historically loved - there is less riding each movement with you, giving in the second aids. Instead she watches, thinks, directs an exercise, and then discusses. My beloved dressage trainer rode every stride with you, correcting, rewarding, essentially guiding each part of your body to shape the horse in the best way possible. But I often had a difficult time replicating that beautiful response on my own without his constant direction. I think NDT (New Dressage Trainer - I'm so original) will create results that are easier to replicate on my own, which is awesome. 

A rarely seen sulky Ben face - I dewormed him and he was SO offended and hurt 

We then moved this idea into leg yields. She said each part of his body needs to be accessible to me. We started leg yielding off the rail and then played a bit with a change of bend in the leg yield, essentially turning it slightly into half pass for a few strides. Then we would leg yield back towards the rail. This was helpful at the trot, but even more so at the canter. I had done canter leg yields with him before, but quarter line to rail, not rail to quarter line. She made me hold both of us accountable and the leg yield back to the rail had to be deliberate, NOT a falling through his outside shoulder. This exercise made a HUGE difference to his canter. He softened and suppled and didn't get any of the nasty lateral movement he can sometimes slip into. This is certainly an exercise I'm going to keep using. 

Finally we played with shoulder-in. Here again she held me accountable. MORE angle so his sternum (and mine) are actually angled in, especially tracking right. Then a deliberate return to straight before the corner. No just falling into the corner. I KNOW this. BUT I still treat him like I did over the summer - he's new at learning these movements, and I can do just a "baby" shoulder-in. NO. He's better than that if I hold him and myself accountable. 

She discussed that all the movements we did this lesson are with the bend, she distinguished them from movements in the opposite direction of bend (which are haunches in, true half pass, turn on the haunches). She said mostly these movements with the bend are tricks that are taught. She said they are helpful but don't give you the same suppling and push from behind that the movements opposite the bend do. She said that next time we will play with some of those. She did say that the opposite the bend movements can be very challenging so if I play with things and he starts to shut down or say no, we have done way too much and need to back off. He's definitely got a good work ethic, so I hope to never get to the point where he is saying NO.