Dressage Lesson Notes

Butterball and I got back in with JV on Friday. It was TOUGH. I think that might be part of where his conditioning and fitness (and mine!) went. I've added the notes from that lesson to the notes from a few summer lessons that we had without media. 

7/2/25: To do a turn on the haunches you half halt with both hands to slow down. You have bend to the inside so if you're tracking right, you're bent right and then you turn your hands right. Your left leg does whatever it needs to do. If the shoulders aren't moving over enough, you may use it forward to move the shoulders. If the haunches are swinging out as you go to turn then you may use it further back to keep the haunches in the same spot only. Do only do a few of these at the walk. Do not walk for too long in the beginning, once the walk stops getting better then move to the trot and canter to supple and then work on the walk again. Leg yields help with connection and suppleness. And he must be responsive to light aids even when he is already nice and supple and forward. If you ask and do not get a response then correct. But if you ask and he gets cranky and responds in some way then he may be trying as hard as he possibly can be.

I'm longing for his summer coat, so we're filling this in with throw back pics from last spring/summer of the golden pony

7/10/25: When working on slowing down the canter: You have to decide what is the most important thing that you're working on right now. If he breaks to the trot and the trot is running, then it's not slower than what you were asking for in the canter, so you need to slow down more in the trot. If he breaks to the trot but it's like a nice downward transition, then go ahead and pick the canter right back up. Use your voice simultaneous with the down transition to trot so that he can tell the difference between asking for a trot and slowing down the canter. 

Don't spend too long on any one piece of the puzzle. Similar to not walking too long at the beginning of the ride, can move from the trot to the canter relatively soon. Then back to the trot and back and forth. Always asking what is the most important thing here. Number one is reaction, number two is forward energy. Number three is connection. 

2/20/26: Don't trot from a bad walk, it will carry over to the trot. Get the energy and connection right in the walk and then trot. Hold onto your reins. His heaviness isn't forever, it's him protesting. But if you give and let him get longer every time he finally softens, he's learning the wrong thing. It's okay to ask for inside flexion to fix the counter bend when tracking left. But you have to have energy and connection first. Soft touch to ask for the canter. Follow it up with kick and then tap if needed. But then trot and ask again from the soft touch. 

Tracking left at the canter, sharp turn left for two strides then release the inside rein/ask. KEEP your damned right rein during this process (Expletive mine, not JV's). While he is inconsistent you stay the same. Don't change, don't pull, just be steady there. Imagine trotting over raised cavaletti. Early on when you use leg to ask for more it may just be poles on the ground. But as he gets warmed up ask for raised cavaletti feeling. 

Tracking left I was told to shorten my reins. I moved to the next rein stop. He said of course you don't immediately put your hands back in their normal position, you gradually being your elbows back over a few strides. Of course you don't (literally never knew this/acknowledged this). Then followed multiple laps where Butterball and I both thought this was shit. We persisted though to get a degree of lightness and lift we've never had before. Cool.