Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Another first! Echo's first dressage lesson

After our first XC school on Saturday, we did our first real dressage ride with a new trainer on Sunday. I really enjoyed riding with JD - she's positive but provides excellent critiques, and made sure to reiterate our homework at the end of the ride. We'll see how the rides continue to go, but we certainly got off to a good start. Hooray!

I'd love to say that the ride was a smashing success and we're doing amazing things, but I'd be lying. We're still working on very basic things like steering and not falling in. This is hard with a horse who doesn't quite get leg cues all of the time! The ride was definitely a mixed bag of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good

We went to a dressage barn where Echo's never been. He unloaded nicely from the trailer and stood for grooming and tacking much better than he did on Saturday when we went XC schooling. Pawing was limited to him raising his RF, but a quick growl had him back with four on the floor. We longed briefly (he was very nice in the round pen) and went to the covered arena. He's been in a covered round pen before and was fine with the arena. The mirrors at one end were only mildly interesting (!?!?!!?) - the other horse didn't sniff him back so apparently wasn't worth his time. I was totally blown away by how nonchalant he was - what a good pony!

As the lesson progressed, a horse in the paddock closest to the arena lost his marbles and got the zoomies. He sprinted around for a good 10 minutes like a lunatic. Echo was distracted by him but never tried to do anything other than look - never sped up, never thought about bolting, just kept on keeping on. I swear, this horse has such an amazing brain!

We had some nice leg yield at the walk to the left - he was really starting to cross over and get the hang of things. We had some SUPER nice trot moments at the very end, where I really got to feel him come up over his back. OMG, I could ride that forever. And his canter... big, rolling, sooo amazing. I only got to feel it for a stride or two at a time, but now that I know what we're aiming for, I'm constantly trying for it!

The bad

I have no right leg aid. None. (This was obvious yesterday too with him heading to the right at every jump.) And if I did, Echo ignored it completely. It was to the point that when our (new) trainer, JD, poked him in the right side with the butt end of a whip, he moved TOWARDS her, leaning INTO the pressure instead of away. FAIL. 

The ugly

My riding was the ugliest thing of the day. I have video but I'm too embarrassed to show it. I'm heaving my butt out of the saddle at the trot, my hands are low and wide and I can't keep contact to save my life, and my leg is allll over the place, but mostly too far in front of me. Maybe I can get some longe lessons or something, because I sure am not doing Echo any favors at all riding like this. Ugh.

Echo only had one really ugly moment. At about the 40 minute mark he stopped dead and refused to move, despite me kicking his sides in. That's when I picked up a whip, and we went back to work again for a few more minutes and he was fine. This is the longest ride we've ever done in an arena, so I imagine that his baby racehorse brain was a bit taxed - hence the dead stop. It's understandable, but we worked through it and that was a good bridge to cross.

The very good :)

Our new trainer LOVED Echo. Loved his movement, loved his attitude, loved how hard he tried and how much we progressed in a single ride. She commented that she thought he could take me as far as I wanted to go. Woohoo!

We have another lesson in a week. In the meantime, my homework is to work him in-hand to get him moving away from pressure on both sides, plus lots of leg yields down the long side, and doing squares at the walk. I need to carrying a whip, and JD wants to see how Echo does with very small spurs. I'm also going to start longeing in side reins so that he can think about contact and relaxing into it - right now he just doesn't quite know what to do about it for more than a step or two.

Lots to work on - I'm so excited!

18 comments:

  1. Some ex racehorses do have a habit of moving into the whip/leg on the right. I've forgotten why. I found that I had to work on the ground with a one of my spurs (standard dressage ones) in my hand and jab hard, right between the ribs while telling her to away for my mare to realise that she wasn't meant to lean into it.
    He sounds like a smart horse, and I'm sure you will be able to find a way to make him realise what you want.

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    1. Anon, that's pretty much exactly what I'm doing - getting him to move off pressure when I'm on the ground. So far it's working - he's getting more responsive day-by-day. Hooray!

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  2. Sounds like a good lesson! I'm excited to read about how he progresses with you :) Moving into pressure is a pretty common green horse issue, at least that I've experienced, so I'm sure he'll figure it out soon that he's supposed to move *away* from pressure.

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    1. He moves off my left leg, but not my right. However, the right side is also the side that he was very pissy about having touched when I first got him. I'm not sure if it's just that he wasn't used to having his off side messed with (they do EVERYTHING from the left at the track) or something else. We're working through it, though.

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  3. A brain and a good mover? All things are possible!!! So exciting.

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    1. Terry, I know! I got really lucky with this guy. :)

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  4. I love the feeling of progressing with every ride and I'm happy you and Echo are making a team. :-)

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    1. Lol, "a team" - I don't feel like we're even close. I'm sitting on him, and he's more or less doing things, but we're a long way from that amazing "mind meld" you get with some horses. One step at a time!

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  5. Sounds like a great lesson, can't wait to hear how ye progress. :D
    Shall also be taking notes as from the sounds of things, I make a lot of the same rider errors - shall stay tuned to find out how to fix them! :)

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    1. Aoife, I'm pretty aware of the rider problems, it's just that I need someone to constantly remind me to fix them! Bad habits sure are hard to break.

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  6. Don't be too hard on yourself--riding greenies is hell on your position. Glad Echo was so good!

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    1. It's true that greenies are hard on one's position, but I also feel like if my position were better, HE would be able to be better. Catch-22, isn't it?

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  7. Woohoo! Baby Echo is a star, and can totally take you as far as you want :) All that dressage training is really going to help smooth the ride between the fences for your hunter derby debut :-D

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    1. Har har har. Tell ya what... YOU can ride him in the hunter derbies, and I'll groom for ya!

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  8. Echo sounds like he keeps getting better and better. I'm just amazed at how good he is off property even though he's so recently off the track. I feel like He'll be a dream to handle at shows - you really lucked out!

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    1. Megs, he's actually been off the track and turned out for two years, but he was pretty much ignored for that time. He really is very good off-property and just keeps getting better. And every time I work him he gets better - lots of motivation to keep going!

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  9. Agree with SB, riding greenies does wreck havoc on one's position.

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    1. LOL, I know, I know. Still doesn't stop the embarrassment though!

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