This Week in Horseville

I continue to feel super burnt out and discouraged.

But, I am leaving for a week of sunshine and R&R this weekend and after that I think I only work 3 days in the next 30. So...I am also feeling grateful.

I had a lesson on Audrey last night, and it went decently. We shared again with Ginger and her new owner (see, again I am so lucky...I get to pet that cute Ginny nose still whenever I like).

She's adorable, as always. Just as fuzzy IRL ;)

Audrey actually walked up to me and said hi when I got there...which NEVER happens because she's not really the friendly type. So, I felt quite flattered. Knowing her, though, she wasn't saying hi, more like "C'mon lady, you're late, it's lesson time, we have a job to do, hop to it!"

I was later sure it was the latter thought, because Shark Bite Audrey struck again. I learned it runs in the family, because when I called her Shark Bite within hearing of EC she laughed and said her full sister is nicknamed Snapping Turtle. LOL, they must be quite the family! You'll just have to trust me that Audrey is actually very sweet and kind underneath it all.

It's so dark so early. Here's an attempt at a post ride pic of Ms Audrey :)

Anyway, it was very cold out last night and Audrey was feeling quite tense, so a good part of my ride was just on a looser rein, pushing her into a contact, flexing her and encouraging her to lift her back and use her body.

All the same things I do with Bridget, but Audrey is great because I always know we will get there, where with B sometimes she never really lets go and I can get in my head a little about it and think that it was a 'bad' ride.

Look at this cute Bridget pic...it's from years ago now, but I like it and it's much better quality than the crappy cell phone ones I provide you.

So, while we didn't do anything super interesting, it was a good reminder that even the Audreys of the world sometimes need a long and low sort of day or a longer warmup to get in the groove. (also, that I am not completely inept... as mentioned, I think it is just a fact of life that A's default is to feel fantastically free, where B's default is to be stuck....just how it is and some days I am simply not going to get B feeling as loose as Audrey, doesn't mean it was a wasted or 'bad' ride, it just is what it is)

Crappy cellphone pic, redux. B and I doing the circle of death pole exercise last weekend.

Anyway, back to the lesson. The canter work was not as good as it has been, because the tension kept creeping back in, also she was super annoyed with my legs. I swear I wasn't nagging her, but I do think perhaps her being tense in her back was contributing in that I needed to be that much looser and giving to help her come round and I probably was not and she was reacting to that. I'd like to find a time to watch EC ride her again to get a visual of how she rides her.

The sun came out! B got to go out and eat grass this week.

We did, however, find some fantastic trot work...she's quite talented, but maybe(?) greener than you'd expect for the level, so she's only just properly carrying herself without the rider doing so much. I love that once you help her find that balance, she wants to go back to it and stay there...so cool. So, we practiced having 'gears' (no definition for them, just my imaginary feel of what they are) in the trot, and in my mind I think we made nice transitions between 1-3rd (so, a collected 'imagine she's on the spot' trot to a good medium trot), 4th gear I had to be careful not to let her speed up and lose balance, and so I didn't attempt the imaginary 5th gear giant extension I'm sure she has.

Because no weekly update is complete without a Sophie mention. I don't think Sophie will have the Audrey talent, but she's a pretty cool girl in her own right and I'm very excited to start riding her a little next summer. Sophie as a foal. Not sure I shared this one, the breeder sent it after she arrived and I think it got lost in all my new pony media :)

So, with that, I am leaving tomorrow for that much needed R&R. Fingers crossed this more laid back month (and some margaritas!) refresh my mindset and gives me some inspiration for the upcoming new year.

Bridget will be on vacation also, doing what she always does...eat and sleep...sometimes simultaneously. If someone wanted a picture that symbolizes everything Bridget, this is it.

Dressage Nerd

I think I've mentioned my goal of making time to study outside of lessons, so that I can optimize my lesson time by hopefully spending more time actually Doing The Things rather than having the concepts explained to me for excess amounts of precious lesson minutes.

It's not that my coach isn't genius at explaining things, because she is. I'm just sometimes a bit slow on the uptake when I'm trying to ride and listen at the same time :)

Luckily, it's very easy to watch videos and read articles from the comfort of my couch, lol

Last weekend's study time involved delving back into the Robert Dover Clinic, reading some excellent notes from a couple of different Carl Hester clinics, watching a few classes from the US Dressage Finals, and finally, watching some YouTube videos of riders I admire, trying to see what aids they're using and how they're using their horses and their own bodies to make it all look so easy. I watched a couple of vlogs from Olivia Towers too, which were super neat because they involved some clips of schooling, test riding, lessons, and what she works on at the gym and in her mindset to help what she perceives her weaknesses to be.

And so, in my lesson this week when my coach asked me to go from walk pirouette to canter pirouette my first instinct was "Oh haha, you're so funny!" Then, a couple of seconds later, I was like "Why not? She wouldn't ask if she didn't think I could." Followed by some further confidence because I had just watched video of Carl and Charlotte introducing pirouettes, as well as multiple US Dressage Final tests with the helpful commentary explaining the good and not so good scores for the movement.

You probably wouldn't expect me to have mastered pirouettes in my first attempt from watching video. And, I didn't. There were some nice steps, some trial and error where I lost the shoulder and they got too big or  where I used too much outside aids and they got too small and hopping. But you know what? It wasn't all terrible either. I had a good visual in my head of what I wanted, and how to set it up, and for that, the video watching proved really, really helpful for me.

Taking the feel and tempo I've been learning to seek in collected canter, and combining it with the bend and aids from a walk pirouette, also very cool. EC is great at giving you seemingly non related exercises for months, and then boom you're putting them together and you're accomplishing a thing.

(And, WHOA, did I mention I did my first canter pirouettes!!!I don't know why, but of all the horsey things one could do, canter pirouettes and tempi changes are both serious Goals for me. So, bear with me, because I'm pretty excited.)

Final words of wisdom from EC (paraphrasing):

"As a rider, you get to a certain point where I am not teaching you anything truly new. Now it is just a matter of taking the basics I've taught you, and refining it all."

In other words, her nice way of saying don't over think it. Those canter pirouettes at their simplest are taking the canter I know how to create, adding haunches in, and placing it on a circle.

Once I got the feel, I practiced riding in and out of them as you would in a test. Again, certainly not perfect, or even complete 360s, but oh so fun to play with.

My aids need refining. My timing needs improvement. There are also millions of other little things I will be fixing or working on. But for now, just knowing I CAN Do The Thing is pretty darn cool.

Not sure this mare will ever have a collected enough canter to pull it off, but I'd like to try

I think another excellent goal to carry on indefinitely would be to continue to take advantage of available educational opportunities as much as possible. Kind of a no brainer, really, but it's easy to get lazy and be happy just knowing what you know. I'm finding online resources invaluable in helping me figure out some of the finer points of what I'd like to accomplish as a rider, and I'm finding a lot of the material is really inspiring me with new goals and ideas to try.

A Tale Of Two Schoolmasters

Training Cupid left a lovely comment on my previous lesson recap post, calling Audrey a schoolmaster. My gut reaction was "I've been far too kind describing Audrey, she's anything but!", but then I reconsidered, and started thinking about what a schoolmaster is, to me at least. (Forgive me, I commute for about 7 hours a week in an area with sketchy radio and cell reception, so I have a lot of time to ponder such things :)

Ohh, sounds good! ;)

Horse and Hound has a good article, leading with "A schoolmaster is a horse with the experience and the ability to help a rider learn and perfect certain skills". 

By that definition, the door is pretty wide open. All my horses have helped me perfect a skill or two, although in some cases they're skills I'd rather not have had to learn :) Remind me if I ever sell Bridget "Schoolmaster event pony. Will teach you everything about nutrition and fitness for competition (you can spend hours a week monitoring her diet and getting her fit just for Starter level!)."

Sorry B, it's true. We love you, but your strengths lie more in the "will happily shelter in place and easily survive extreme climates by eating lichen and snow" category.

In all seriousness, I imagine an older, been there done that, saintly type of horse, probably trained to a moderate competition level. Confidence boosting, forgiving, patient and kind.

EC has a wonderful example of just such a beast. He's not overly old, but he's quiet and steady, very patient, and happily goes about his job without much fuss, whatever your riding level.

Just a pretty pic of B's field last week. I feel weird sharing pictures of other people's horses, so you're stuck with mine.

He took one of my barn mates up to 1* eventing, and currently is the dressage ride of an absolutely inspirational (and very elderly) European gentleman. My coach EC has been competing him a level or two above Audrey for a couple of years now. He got decent scores at Intermediare this year!) She's transitioning from a lifetime of eventing to a more dressage focus and he's forgiving enough for her to train up the levels and possibly make a mistake or two, before bringing Audrey along as her "big" horse.

The best part is he's decidedly not fancy with some very untraditional dressage breeding. Oh, and he's done FEI vaulting, and is a surprisingly decent barrel racer.

So, I guess the bar's been set pretty high.

As far as this blog is concerned, Audrey is perfect in every single way, so we won't go down the path of how she may or may not differ from the Original Mr Perfect the next paddock over ;)

What I have been pondering, though, is that some of the things that make me hesitate to put her in the same category as ECs other horse are actually qualities that make an excellent upper level prospect, and ones I've really grown to like.

Talking about her, I often use descriptors like : powerful, reactive, opinionated, big moving, super intense, serious, needs a job.

She's not your friendly, cuddly backyard pony you ride a few times a week, and that's OK.

It's not my story to tell, but she arrived at the barn right around the same time Bridget and I did, and was the same age and green bean level as Bridget. And, I used to dread having to deal with her. I think we all did, lol. Helping with Audrey was not a task you volunteered for lightly. But, after watching her talent and work ethic under saddle, I remember saying to EC that I got why she liked her so much, and that my new life goal was to learn to ride a horse like Audrey (and after some further thought, to have the tools to train one as well.) Thus began my not so secret obsession with A :)

Spent 3 years working hard trying to make Bridget more like A under saddle. The good news is, we kind of succeeded. Despite their obvious differences in build and talent, they have a very similar feel, and while Audrey is very much 'extra' in all the ways Bridget isn't, I feel equally at home on each. The miracle of sticking with a consistent training program, who knew.

Audrey has changed hugely in the last 4 years. No one expected it, but she's become a pretty reliable lesson horse. I take dressage lessons, and another lady events her at Pre-Training. She's learning to be patient and forgiving. She's starting to have an "off" switch. Her ground manners are passable. I make mistakes all day long, and dramatics in response are very few and far between.

So, after some thought, I'm changing my mind.  She's a schoolmaster, at least to me. She's taught me much more than my traditional picture of a schoolmaster. It's been really neat being a small part of her journey from silly green thing to reliable PSG mare.  As a rider wanting to move up the levels, I think EC's other horse might have been a better bet for learning. Maybe I'd be out there riding and competing at higher levels by now, who knows. Probably I'd still just be me, plugging away.

But, when we consider that it's more important to me to have a solid training toolkit (and now having a Sophie pony to bring along) I think Audrey is invaluable, and a most excellent schoolmaster. It's partly how EC operates, anyway, but take for example this whole flying change thing - the smallest part of the lesson is learning to ride them. The main part is schooling and going through all the useful exercises to set them up - teaching, balancing, and improving them - tools I will hopefully be able to carry home to my two.

Final thought: In the tale of the two schoolmasters, I have no regrets. I love Audrey more for her quirky, dramatic self than I would appreciate boring old Mr Perfect next door :)

Sophie the golden pony was looking quite golden this day! Fingers crossed she can do this dressage thing too! Please, please, grow up to be a mini Audrey :)

Some Learning

EC returned from vacation yesterday and texted me asking if I wanted a lesson after work. Hell yes! I was in desperate need of some progress, after feeling a lot like I just tread water when left to my own devices with Audrey. We have perfectly pleasant solo rides, which is nice, but it's fun to push the boundaries a little more in a lesson.

Bridget, of course, has been maybe (but maybe not?) a little broken, so it was nice to just hop on A and have some positive thoughts rather than all the sad feelings I have about Bridget being not quite right. We're giving B a little more R&R before we xray, and the waiting and not knowing is hard for me.

B is the best pony. Playing moving couch last weekend.

Cute side track: G called tonight to let me know he gave B her Bute today, for which I was very grateful. Just as he was about to hang up, he was like " She's the only brown one there with a white back leg, right?" I confirmed he fed the right horse without any hesitation, simply because he fed the meds without issue. No other horse on the property would have come up to the gate in hopes of eating Bute straight up out of a bucket, lol.

Hungry hippo

Anyway...a lesson recap.

In keeping with my forth quarter goals of bring a better student, I reviewed a few of the videos from last year's USEF Robert Dover Horsemastership Clinic while EC was away. Specifically, the tips of lead changes and half pass since those are pretty relevant to my current lessons. Every time I watch those videos I get inspired, so in addition to all the excellent tips of those topics, I also went into my ride being very conscious of having A quite sharp off my aids and keeping that energy circulating through her body.

I'm always in a rush since my lesson is right after work then I have an appointment following, so my media of Audrey is always lacking!

Sure enough, we had a lesson in lead changes :) After playing with collected walk to remind me of how active I want her hind end in canter, we moved up to trot. EC wanted me to place her in renvers 4-5 strides, straight for 1, then travers for 4-5, then straight 1, then back to renvers...repeat all the way around the arena, staying on an inside track. This was actually super helpful for me as far as understanding where my body should be in the changes...the aids are quite similar. The awareness and accuracy of striding, also helpful. Finally, the idea that her shoulders and mine align and stay straight and square to wherever we are headed, her ribcage bends around my inside leg, her hind end comes in off my outside leg.

 Keeping the shoulders on an unwavering track makes the changes of bend way smoother. You know how you think you get something, but suddenly the lightbulb goes off and you realize you still weren't quite there? That was me last night, finally setting my line up well in advance  and being very accurate with that shoulder placement. Changing the bend isn't so much the question for A, it's the shoulders holding the track that is crucial.  Both A and B evade through the outside shoulder in exactly the same way, so it's actually slightly rewarding to already have the tools to fix A's wiggliness in my toolbox. Thanks Bridget!

Enjoy some random pictures of Bridget to break the text

Lastly, but not least(ly?), onwards to practicing changes!
For my own sake, we exaggerated them slightly, both to help with collection, and to drill into me setting up and keeping the slight changes in bend. There are a lot of moving parts to consider on a horse like A! So, Robert Dover would have been disappointed by A's slightly swinging hindquarters at times through the change. On the short side, I had Audrey almost in travers but not quite, held it until a stride from the centerline, and then switched the bend to straight, then almost renvers.  And so, in place of the stride of straightness we were practicing in trot, we had me asking for lead changes in that moment of straightness. Carry through to the corner and my slight bend becomes travers again with the change of direction :) Obviously, this is me, and it wasn't all quite so smooth. There were some mistimed cues resulting in cooked changes, and a rather interesting display of hopping up and down on the spot before changing, due to me forgetting the memo about being vigilant about holding her shoulders on the line.

We did a bit of work on the quarter line, and I can see where that is leading - tempi changes! EEK, so exciting. First, though, I need to nail the timing on single changes better.

After years of riding younger horses and Bridgets, it's really really fun to sit on a more established horse and just get to play. Audrey is the quirkiest mare I've ever met, but she's very talented and loves to work, which are all good things for me. Nothing comes super easy due to her often dramatic opinions, but she's willing to work for you and doesn't hold many grudges.  As always, I very much appreciate the opportunity to ride and lesson on her.

Not As Good

You knew eventually it had to happen! A not so great lesson on the lovely Audrey...

I could rationalize it a million different ways - she just ran XC yesterday (in line with my book review last week re: the horse with basic training - yes, she's competing PSG dressage, but she also jumps regularly and events a couple of times a year too). I've missed two weeks worth of lessons, which also doesn't help, when you're me.

I was really feeling this as my morning inspiration.

But honestly? I think we were just sort of due. I didn't bring my A game, which I find frustrating given how much I look forward to these rides and how much I can potentially learn. Mentally, it was a very long day and my mindset wasnt the most focused or positive it's ever been. I hate knowing what I want to do, and yet being unable to put the pieces together. My body and mind just didn't want to cooperate as well as they might have. Ah well.

Audrey had a little of her own thing going on, I think just kind of frustrated with my ineptness and also the fact she was missing dinner time, lol.

Sophie has similar opinions of me at times. Here she's mad I didnt scratch her butt just right, so she had to do it herself while giving me a mare glare side eye , lol

Low spots included my inability to keep her in a counter canter without some serious crab imitations, plus some very impressive kicking at my leg, one of which only narrowly missed the arena mirrors, but of course hit the wall hard enough to scare everyone, including herself :o Because if everyone didn't know it wasn't going great before, they sure knew now.

I was perusing Facebook yesterday and was like "I know those adorable ears!" Hi Ginger! 

On the plus side: I wasn't at all intimidated. I learned a lot. The bad things were mostly just moments in time that we worked through. We got some fantastic canter transitions between medium and collected, and I really feel like I'm sitting and influencing her canter a million times better than at the beginning of the summer. Trot work ended on a fantastic note, with some very fancy feeling movement!

And, a little something to look forward to - my coach is away for a few weeks, and I get to exercise Ms Audrey. Free rides to practice on one of my favorite horses are a gift I plan to enjoy fully!

Rainy Day Reading - Dressage Edition

I unearthed not one, but two boxes of riding related books while I was in the basement looking for my extra bottle of saddle soap. I thought they were in storage, so thanks, previous me, for putting those boxes in the basement instead!

With Sophie in mind I did a quick re-read of one of my favorites - Basic Training of The Young Horse with Ingrid and Reiner Klimke. I've reviewed it before, I still love it. If you've got a young horse, you might find it useful. Lots of great common sense insights and lots of tips to help you from handling a foal all the way to riding at their first show.

Next up, one I don't remember reading previously: Elements of Dressage by Kurd Albrecht Van Ziegner. This book ties in really nicely with the Klimke books, and is equally jam packed with useful tidbits.

The book is organized with an introduction, and a description of his training process, which differs a little from the training pyramid you usually see used as an example. There is a chapter dedicated to each of the 10 elements of his training tree:

Similar to the standard pyramid you're probably seen before, but with the order a little different and some of the components broken down into 2 distinct elements to emphasize them more. 

The ten elements make the base or trunk of the tree, and all horses, regardless of discipline, should have a good base. The crown of the tree is the special, discipline specific training.

Notes:

- Start under saddle around 4, first two years under lunge and saddle are basic training. Which, yes, isn't surprising. But, just like the Klimke books, the author goes on to say he'd expect the horse to be going Second level, and confident over all sorts of jumps and terrain (ditches, water), hacking on the trails and in traffic. This is a horse with basic training and at this point should be enjoyable to ride. I'm pretty sure the European definition of basic training differs hugely from what we expect locally :)

- Basic training is basic training...It's not new school, old school, there are no shortcuts. The basics haven't changed since Xenophon.

"Keep your horse happy. Happy horses don't get tense."

"Take your time. Relaxation does not equal fatigue."

-Advocates caveletti and free jumping to help horses learn to use their bodies (emphasis on using their backs to promote relaxation, regularity of gaits, and strength)

-Short rides, forward seat for the first few months. Again, looking to build strong, correct back muscles and relaxation before sitting in classical position.

-Purity of rhythm depends a great deal on riders seat, aids, feel. Riders who cannot follow or feel the motion or deviation in rhythm or tempo best spend time improving their seat on a well trained horse.

-People who are not musical may not hear the difference in footfalls, but they should see it/feel it. Canter beat sounds like "It is fun"

-A lot of discussion throughout the book about 'leg movers' vs 'back movers'. Makes a point quite often that back movers are the correctly trained ones, leg movers should be penalized and have been trained incorrectly.

-Talks a lot about Prix St James test, proposed to be first part of a PSG test (essentially, you would ride them both back to back and get one score.) "Here, the goal is to show that no "tricks" lead to FEI, only solid basic training, whose fundamental elements of submission, throughness and impulsion are highly valued."

Overall, this was an interesting book and well worth reading. I'm glad I picked it up!

Just Dressage

Another Monday night, another Best Lesson Ever.


We continued on with the travers to shoulder in to travers exercise of last week. Having done a little studying in the meantime, I felt a lot more confident and less confused about where to put Audrey's feet. It's really not complicated at all...to recap, the horse maintains the same slight "C" shape bend in both, you just move the front end or back end to the inside track depending on which you're doing. My brain does not do well with left/right directions somehow, so lateral work tends to happen by feel rather than step by step thought processes, which makes for poorly written blog recaps!

- Tip I found useful for both: ask for the same amount of bend and energy and hind leg activity you'd ask for on a good 10m circle.

An added complication: EC told me to grab "bigger" spurs before I got on. "Longer and pointier but not TOO long and pointy" I think were her exact words, lol. I grabbed the "TOO long and pointy" ones, obviously, because they all seemed long and pointy to me, so I was feeling pretty aware of my leg. As was Audrey, lol.

On a related note, she went from sleepy when I got on to pretty darn lively as the ride progressed :)

Bridget being lively this summer, and now helping break my wall of text.

But it was really, really good. Audrey was happy to show off her moves and add some extra flair to a pretty boring exercise (for her, lol) The trot was getting pretty darn passage-y feeling, and that added stepping under and elevation makes it pretty easy to move her body around. So fun!

The canter got a little "western" when I accidentally goosed her with my outside leg when she started to drift. It's frustrating, I know better, and yet at least once a ride I fail to use my inside seatbone and outside rein effectively, panic when I lose her, and go straight to yelling with outside leg. One day I'll learn for real!

We finished up with nice canter work in both directions, alternating having her move out a little, then bringing it back to shoulder in or travers and putting it on the same 10m circle exercise as the trot work. The canter was rougher for me geometry wise, and I had so much horse it was a bit of a novelty for me, but I felt like we got there and ended at a good place.

Given my concerns with the spurs and Audrey being so ramped up, I was glad we didn't push me by experimenting more with flying changes tonight. Surviving one mini rodeo and fixing it was probably a wise place to leave things for me, lol.

So, even with some challenges, it was Best Lesson Ever because the energy and amount of forward she brought to the table was incredible - a feel like nothing I've ever experienced. There were a couple of times I rewarded her by asking her to move out of lateral work to a straight line and the power on tap there was pretty exhilarating! Like an airplane taking off.

Which brings me to yet more pondering. People at our barn are often like "Oh, I don't jump/event/barrel race/whatever. I just do dressage." Like it's the lesser, safer thing to do.

I'm just going to put it out there: If the amount of athleticism, energy, forward and power required to do upper level dressage well is anything like what I've been experiencing on Audrey - holy crap, "just dressage" riders have some serious guts. There's a fine line between brilliance and crazy in some of those horses, I bet.  It's incomparable to anything else I've ever done, and at least for me, a bigger adrenaline rush. I wish I was a better writer so I could give you some sort of apt comparison to sports cars, coiled springs, airplanes, bounce grids, whatever. But I've got nothing. Just some advice:

If you ever get the opportunity to ride an upper level horse, try it.

I'm pretty sure I'm now well and truly addicted to dressage. Not exactly where I thought my life's equestrian adventures would take me way back when, but here we are :)

Actual picture of us post lesson ;)

Musings

AKA Things I Ponder As I Pick Poo

- I've been having some really fun rides on Bridget lately. She's forward, sharp off my leg, and she feels good mentally and physically. She feels like she wants to be my dressage pony. Except no, we've been down that road where I get all excited and I think our struggles are solved and B wants to do dressage for real. I'm promising us both to continue to keep it fun and light. I can still learn a lot on her without pushing things.

-Audrey has been teaching me a lot about riding. I wonder if Bridget is going so much better because I'm more effective and blocking her less with my body.

- On the topic of blocking: I'm not sure coaches emphasize enough how important it is to be "loose" in the saddle. I know my brain is always translating "shoulder back" to holding it there, or "use your core" as being solid/strong. I'm lucky in that my coach is more concerned with effectiveness and what works for your body and horse rather than her students looking like the traditional equitation picture, but I still was holding my body where I thought it should be. Audrey is teaching me that if I can't be perfect, being slightly too loose is better than holding tension anywhere in your body.

Bridget is getting a slight winter fuzz already!

- You really can make a better trail horse thru dressage. B mechanically has a good walk, so we never wanted to change that. What did drive me nuts was that if left to her own devices, her walk was more of a slow meandering path that was not getting us efficiently from point A to B. We worked hard on getting her moving out in the ring. I've been noticing since we moved home that if I let her move out at that same free moving, steady pace on the trail we're usually ending up way out in front of everyone rather than the meandering along behind that used to be the norm prior to EC's help. Riding with the same group of people again has made the difference super obvious. I like this confident pony who now goes places happily and with a purpose. It is such an improvement!

From last weekend. Nothing in front of us except a few wasp nests, lol

- B's dressage saddle...I really like it. I was kind of "meh" about it at first, but a few weeks ago my hip was bugging me so I lowered the stirrups a couple of holes. Total game changer...I feel like my leg can just hang and I'm not fighting anything. I'm finding myself getting on and kind of sinking in to the saddle and feeling pretty comfy! The seat is still a bit big for me and the flap too long, but I can live with that when the balance of the saddle puts me in the right spot and it feels so close to the horse. That being said, I'm not sure I'd like this saddle on the Audreys of the world - I do enjoy the security of the thigh blocks on hers!

Nothing fancy - it's a 10 year old Jeffries Elite in a wide tree. I'd highly recommend trying if you've got a cob shaped horse and are shopping on a budget- they're British made and IMO equivalent quality to County of the same vintage for about a quarter the price I think due to not bring repped or trendy here.

Learning Is Fun

My fun weekend group trail ride was not fun. We ran into 4 separate ground wasp nests in a 2.5 hour ride. Remind me this time next year to give the forest trails a pass. Those wasps are grumpy and looking for a fight, because why else would they build their nests in the middle of a very busy trail? Our poor horses all got stung multiple times :(

Here's a not-so-kind piece of trailcraft/learning opportunity - the first horse passing over the nest rarely gets stung. If you're last you're more likely to get the worst of it. So, my suggestion to you: in desperate times, race your "friends" home ;)

Your firearms are useless against them. In all seriousness, we were all fine and no one was too traumatized. We're all still friends. Bridget won the race though  ;)

On the plus side, there were no wasps in the arena tonight, so my lesson was an instant win over the previous day's ride.

I don't know why I do this, but prior to every lesson I get a little weird about running through possible excuses in my mind to skip it. Everything from being tired (Mondays are super long days for me) to Negative T whispering I'm wasting time or money because I'll never get better.

And then every week, I suck it up, go ride, then come here and am all "OMG best lesson ever! I love Audrey! I love my coach! I'm learning so much! This is the best use of my time/money!" Every. Time. Its never not been fun. I have never sucked so bad my coach has fired me. I'm never so tired that I'm sleepy or unable to learn. There haven't even ever been wasps or other angry wildlife there ;)

Basically, my brain's before lesson arguments are invalid, and yet I continue to give them air time. Dumb brain.

Bridget, probably : "why even ride at all? Horses make excellent house pets"

Anyway, in the interest of keeping this entry a reasonable length, I'll finish up with a quick recap of what we did in our lesson:

-Worked on unlocking the base of Audrey's neck to start. Lots of walk and trot moving her neck inside, outside, up, down, while keeping a consistent forward tempo and a soft bend through her body around my inside leg. Shoulders stay straight on the circle, neck flexes independently of her body. Same as what I do with Bridget in warm up.

-Moving forward to shoulder in alternating with travers in trot, around the arena with intermittent 10m circles to help establish angle if needed. This was an excellent mental exercise for me as the bend stays the same, just the angle of where I'm placing her on the circle changes (travers the haunches are inside track on the circle, shoulder in places the front end on the inside track.)

-Putting those pieces together in the canter. Lots of shoulder in and travers alternating, figure eight pattern using full arena. Straighten across center, flying change, back to shoulder in and travers on circle.

Fun. Fun. FUN. I appreciate that EC and Audrey are both of the opinion that my mistakes are really not a big deal. EC commented a few weeks ago that I'm balanced enough and don't interfere/get uptight so that Audrey just does whatever it is she thinks I asked for. Shes not stressed because as far as shes concerned she's doing a good job. So basically, sometimes I fail in communicating what I want so badly that Audrey can't even tell, lol. Goals :)

In seriousness, I do feel like EC's giving me a bit of a license to just play with Audrey and have fun. She's offering me tips and hints and correcting me when I go wrong,  but also letting me figure out and think things through independently a bit, rather than really trying to coach play by play style and talk me through each detail. Even if that means I get it wrong and mess it up sometimes. Super cool, because I feel like I'm learning almost more from the mistakes than from the times I get it right.

Bridget cares not how I ride, only that I bring treats.

Lesson Recap

You're probably all sick of me saying I had another fantastic lesson, but there it is. I did. Again.

Don't worry, it's not all perfect - my life/luck is ridiculous sometimes! Someone, somewhere, stole some personal info of mine and this week made a bunch of very large charges to my credit card, all in a 24 hour span. Very annoying thing to happen in normal circumstances, but you will recall we are currently shopping around for the best mortgage rate for the dream farm, and so having my account frozen for a fraud investigation for the next two weeks isn't exactly making me feel warm and fuzzy. So, let's just say these fun weekly lessons are extra appreciated right now.

I haven't watched this movie, but when I got a call confirming the super expensive vacation tour I had apparently booked for someone, my coworkers suggested we try to intercept and meet the person a la this movie. I might actually find this funny...sometime later.

Moving onwards... to a happy lesson recap :)

Audrey had a bit more pep than normal since it's summer camp week and EC's been busy. Her new saddle is also helping - I would have said she was fantastic before, but now there is a whole extra level of softness and roundness on offer right off the bat.

We did all the normal things we do: Walk/trot/canter, collect and extend in each gait. Shoulder in, haunches in on the quarterline and on a 15m circle. 

The big breakthrough for me was that I'm really starting to be able to sit and collect the canter by degrees where before, the forward and back was a bit too dramatic and often I'd lose the quality of the canter (or even lose the canter altogether). Still a work in progress, but I'm starting to get a feel.

 Also, in general I'm getting much quicker about getting back to where I was before I made a mistake, and far better about correcting myself before the mistake actually happens. Haunches in on the circle was cause for me to ask for yet more inadvertent flying changes (I think I may never learn to fully contain that outside shoulder on the left lead), but I'm getting better about just adding a walk or trot step and getting back on track immediately.

Audrey is totally happy toodling along with me on board right now, and came walking up to meet me in the field, looking for a job to do. No visible anger when I brushed her too, which is somewhat new - she is a princess and doesn't have time for such things.  I'm also not sure there is a brush in existence she doesn't find either too hard or too soft. A happy, content Audrey feels nice since A has many opinions about a lot things. Most of the time I think her opinions regarding me are probably not flattering!

Changes (Of The Fun, Flying Variety)

This might have been my favorite lesson ever.

I know I've mentioned a few times how good Audrey has been for reminding me to stay centered and to keep my upper body strong but not resistant. If I shift my weight or tense any part of my body, you'd better believe she's going to offer up SOMETHING because she is a good girl and gives me a lot more credit than she should.

Bridget prefers sleep to offering solutions to my requests, but I love her for it.

You've probably also gathered by now that often, in the canter, her SOMETHING offered in reaction to my above rider challenges often involves inadvertant flying changes :)

I'd like to think I'm improving, because it's been a few rides since I've had rider issues resulting in pony drama and the surprise changes have been minimal of late. Full disclaimer: It could be the magic saddle, though, too.

Today, as I was cantering  and shortening through the center of the arena, I could feel her really thinking and hoping I'd ask for a change. I laughed and mentioned it to EC, who suggested I just go ahead and surprise her and ask.

Random pics of my girls, sorry once again for the lack of Audrey lesson pictures. Especially in summer,the barn is empty of barn rats when I have my lessons in the evenings.

That's when I had to fess up. I've never really had a horse with solid changes, so I could probably count the times I've ridden them in a dressage context (intentionally at least, lol)  on one hand. My question: do I ask the same as on a western horse? Or jumping? Answer: Don't over think it! Get your good canter, keep her straight, feel where her legs are at like you would as you ask for a good walk to canter transition. Simply weight your new inside stirrup slightly and slide your new outside leg back a little. Catch her with your new outside rein. Ask her to stay round and stepping up. Do not pull on her nose....she needs to be straight! Basically, most of the things I'm doing when I inadvertently get a change on her when I'm just trying to change the bend :)

Sophie is still really bum high. Grow pony, grow! Become a mini Audrey, please :)

EC remained convinced changes are no big thing and we didn't need to discuss it to death. I just needed to go play around and ask for them. And so I did. It took a couple of tries to get the feel (after all my talk about Audrey being uber sensitive, I still wanted to override them the first couple of times and ended up with some very crooked and...expressive! changes and cross cantering, even a couple of inadvertent one tempi changes down the long side as I over-corrected my body, lol, it's incredible that she puts up with my shenanigans :), and then after a couple of tries each way it was like the light bulb went on and it really was no big thing. She's fairly tricky to keep straight enough on her tougher side, and almost too easy (anticipating) on the other, but we did it! On purpose! Nicely! Easily!

And, oh my goodness, was that fun. I know for a lot of you changes are no big deal. For me, it's pretty exciting to start to get the feel and timing nailed down and have that tool available to me. One day I want to do tempis (on purpose), after all!

G has about a million pics of my ponies on his phone! Who knew?!

I'm very lucky that EC will let me ride her up and coming "big" horse and play around with new to me things and never worry I'll set her training back. I'm also aware of how lucky I am that Audrey is that perfect mix of very expressive and opinionated without being dangerous if you mess it all up. She's giving me a lot of confidence in using my rider toolkit and problem solving when it doesn't go to plan.  Quite often I have been far too passive because I lack confidence in myself to do the right thing, but that's changing a little because she is so responsive to what I ask...I'm communicating a lot more clearly and confidently. I'm very hopeful that what I'm learning now will translate over to Sophie and even Bridget.

Trying for a nice picture of us, 20 pictures taken and not one has all of us looking "normal" lol. Just keeping it real over here :)

Although, to keep me humble...Audrey did pull a very dirty move and nipped me hard on the arm as I was leading her into the barn prior to the lesson. Very, very quick and stealthy about it too, then the whole instant "OMG I DIDN"T ACTUALLY MEAN TO TOUCH YOU! PLEASE DON"T HURT ME" shocked face and so much sadness when I got after her a little for it. All the mare feelings, lol. So, yeah, don't worry. she's not a complete perfect angel! (But pretty close, IMO ;)

More Effective

Recap of Audrey lesson number...6? I've lost track.

It felt really hot out last night. We actually left a couple of the sprinklers running in the arena while I was warming up, which felt pretty nice! The great thing with the horses living at such a busy barn is that the things you might normally worry about them spooking at...are not much of an issue. So, Audrey calmly walk/trot/cantered through the noisy, heavy duty sprinklers that water the arena.

As a result of the heat, A felt a lot less energetic than normal. Still, she'll meet you halfway if you ask nicely (and let her express her feelings just a little :). Last night, although getting the energy level I wanted was a little more labour intensive than normal, we got there without much of a fuss and the remainder of the ride was good.

There's not much too exciting to recap as far as the nitty gritty details - we worked on walk pirouettes and did a lot of square corners in trot and canter before moving on to riding a lot of transitions within canter. The breakthrough for me was that I'm getting a lot better at collecting the canter and then opening it up again without collapsing my core too much or losing A's balance. I struggle with the really fine adjustments to my body, but things are getting better and I was able to bring the canter back and forth reliably and got a good feel for the amount of energy I need in her hind legs to get her 'bouncing on the spot'. So, that was pretty cool. Also, there was zero kicking at my outside leg in the canter, or inadvertent lead changes even as we played with changing the bend, so that's a win for me.

I'm getting fairly reliable at not pressing the passenger eject button

EC happily exclaimed "this is the most effective riding I've ever seen from you!" and my first instinct was to be a little embarrassed, because I feel really weak and ineffective still on the huge moving Ms Audrey...like if this is 'better' imagine how bad it is normally! But I'll silence that inner mean girl, take the compliment as it was intended, and look forward to getting better yet.

A, post cooling bath, enjoying some small snacks in the shade. I feel like the new title of this blog should be: "Project Gingersnap: Taking Bad Pictures of Good Horses Since 2011"

I have to say yet again what a fantastic horse Audrey is. She's got all sorts of opinions and makes me work, but when it comes down to it she's extremely generous. I'm not kidding myself that I've magically improved this much in 6 lessons and that my riding is making her go better, a lot of it is her adjusting to me and being quite forgiving with what I ask.

I love Bridget dearly, but I have to say the novelty of riding a mare that happily gets to work without multiple reminders and encouragement is pretty sweet. A also lets me know when I'm not up to her standards, but moves on and forgives me, unlike a certain little pony mare we all know and love. 

Good thing I actually find B's thought processes and her resulting actions to avoid work intriguing and funny a lot of the time. She's that total slacker we've all worked with that spends more time and energy thinking up creative shortcuts to avoid work, than the effort it would take to just do the job. In this picture, I'm 99% sure that she's wondering if there is a chance I've just tacked her up for a photo op or some hand grazing :)