Notting Hill with a Side of Dressage

Follow up to my Independence and Assistance post, Butterball and I headed out to a jumper show at Notting Hill Stables last Wednesday. My friend met us there and provided invaluable assistance. I knew when I put this on the calendar that I would be trainerless, but since I was also expecting to be trainerless at Chatt on the 23rd, it seemed important to be able to go jump a couple of rounds at novice height without too much  hand holding. 

We loaded up and then wound our way the hour drive to Notting Hill. I'd never been there before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but they had a nice big grass field for parking and a large grass warm up arena and even larger grass jump arena. I paid my $50 and was told I could do multiple rounds at multiple heights for that price. The only downside compared to Majestic Oaks jumper show that was going on at the same time was the lack of Lisa Madren for fun jump pics. 

Butterball is SUCH a good dude. I never want to take for granted the fact that he self loads, travels quietly, and then unloads with zero drama. He typically tries to grab some grass before his feet have even left the ramp when he is unloading, he is THAT unconcerned about where he has ended up. So he hung out on the trailer under the fan while I walked part of the course and decided on all outside turns that made for a nice loopy course. Then another rider wanted to head in, so my friend and I watched her go, planned the last few fences, and then tacked up the pony. We nailed our first few warm up jumps and then my friend popped up the oxer. And I let him lengthen his stride out of the corner to a deep spot at the base. He went the first two times and then had enough of my crap and stopped the third time. My friend pointed out what was happening and also that maybe, just maybe, when I know it's going to be deep, I should add leg and support him instead of leaning and praying. So I half-halted out of the corner the next go round, and we got it done. Repeat off both leads and then we headed over.

We went in our for our first round, had a tight spot to one, and did some fuckery in the combination. The combination had not been there for the 0.80 and instead of just asking at the in-gate what it was, I guessed. As I rode up to it. Which led to two in a one. If it had been an oxer out he would've stopped. We recovered from that and rode the next several well. We had a bit of a gappy spot in the 7 stride line down the long side. I figured we would sit chilly for the 8. Which meant I made a decision and actually used my legs and had a powerful, but maybe not compact enough, canter, so when we got to the 7 on a longer spot, he went just fine. 

The second round we definitely smoothed out the combination to make for a prettier round overall, but did have a tight distance to fence 5 right after the combination. And I let him be for the 7 which led to actually a kind of tight 7. His canter is SOOOO different now that I'm having to re-sort out how to ride things! I'm not sure what happened with the last fence in both rounds, usually he is such a clean jumper. 

Getting the one stride right 

OUT! 

End of the 7 strides, apparently my release went out the window. I'm sorry my dude! 

Then Friday we loaded up for a dressage lesson. Ms. GY and her guy went with us and he was just the best behaved "baby" thoroughbred that there has ever been. 

Butterball and I did A LOT of work in the canter. Initially he didn't have impulsion (if I took my leg off he broke/died in whatever gait we were in), so we did a lot of cantering quite quickly to generate that. Leg off, let him slow down, light leg, he should go forward, rinse, repeat. After that we worked on some walk-trot transitions, keeping the same connection through the whole transition. It is incorrect to dive forward, heavier, but it is also incorrect to lighten and stiffen. The SAME amount of pressure should be present through the whole transition. We repeated the walk-trot transition until he was maintaining a steady contact through the whole transition. 

Then we moved on to the canter again. But every attempt to slow down the canter led to trotting, so we started with some walk-canter transitions. The first few strides he was actually lovely and light and slow. Then I would start to do weird things with my body and shove at him and he'd speed up. Our homework was to work on the walk-canter transitions and then just sitting and doing nothing if he was in the light, slow canter. If he sped up, ask to slow down. If needed can come in with a light leg to support. Eventually we'll want him to maintain with the leg off, but for the time being, light leg is okay. Then walk. Then repeat. I got scolded for not walking right away in our canter-walk. I asked what I should be doing and, because my tendency is to tense my whole body and not move as I try to walk, I was told to pull back. If he didn't walk, pull back more firmly. Well that just sounds really simple, now doesn't it sir. Shockingly it did decrease the number of trot steps we were taking. 

Some other random notes: Every aid causes tension. This came up when I told JV that I felt like in the right lead canter I had to keep my right spur in or he would dive his shoulders right. He said "let him make the mistake, then fix it." But he also shared that every aid increases tension. If it is a constant nagging aid like my right spur was, then the horse stiffens to brace against it to ignore it. If it is an aid to do something else, it causes a reaction, which causes tension. So the less you have to do to keep them straight and swinging, the less tension there will be. So let him fall in with his shoulders, quietly aid to get them back out, then take that aid off. Eventually it will be like the energy and he will maintain on his own. 

During Ms. GY's lesson, she and I both learned the aids for the canter. Her response was exactly what mine would have been "outside leg back, inside leg at the girth". She also added looking at his inside ear which prompted one of JV's hilarious "don't do that" lines that had me giggling for a minute. So looking aside, he said that inside leg should always be at the girth asking for inside bend unless you're doing something different intentionally. Outside leg moves back to be there to indicate the lead you're asking for, then the inside leg lightly touches. Touch and go. The first aid is the touch, the touch and go. If he doesn't do it, it's the kick, the kick and go. If he still doesn't do it, it is the kick and come in with the whip. 

We're probably not getting back down for a dressage lesson this week, given that we're shipping to Chatt on Friday, but I certainly have homework to practice until the next lesson!