Teaching "flying" lead changes

We are mostly ready for third level, except that we are missing flying changes. (OK, we also need better SI, and a real extended trot and canter, a legit TOH instead of a reining spin, and Taran STILL doesn't back, but whatever. Focus on the important stuff here.)

Fun fact - I've been riding almost 30 years, and I've never learned how to do a change. I mean, I know how to do them *in theory*, but I've never actually done one. I can ask for leads over fences, but the closest I've gotten to doing a change on the ground was last summer on a friend's horse, and then I only got the front. Taran doesn't have a clue how to do them either, so together we are obviously going to be awesome at this and get everything the first time. Har har har.

It never ceases to amaze me how many hunters have such amazingly easy, clean, smooth changes even as very young horses. In the dressage world, the thought seems to be that you need to have a really solid counter-canter (it's ALL OVER second level) before you teach a change - in part because horses who know how to change will sometimes flip when asked for counter-canter, because changing is easier. However, I've also heard of folks (ahemCharlotteahem) putting changes on a 5 or 6 year old and then leaving them alone for several years. Regardless, both T and I are way behind the curve here.

There seems to be lots of ways to teach changes. Figure 8 with canter/walk/canter is popular. I watched Alfredo teach them by doing canter/counter canter/canter on a 20 m circle. You can leg yield down centerline and ask for the change right when you make your turn. You can use a pole on the ground. I'm sure there are plenty more, too.

The thing is, Taran has gotten VERY GOOD at counter-canter. Like he can do a 10 m half-circle in cc. To him, a more balanced cc is always the right answer. That made my amateur attempts to try changes rather comical - he had no idea what I was doing flailing around up there, and simply tried his best to do what he thought I wanted. So we did a lot of very very collected counter-canter, and I lamented my lack of knowledge and thought that maybe I'd trained CC a leeetle too much.

Enter the pole. I had tried using it at home, and we'd gotten 3 nice changes over it, but I wanted to wait for my trainer before I did any more. So at our clinic last weekend, on the first day we worked a ton on getting more jump in the canter, and then we got out a pole.

It's probably important to mention that Taran is not much of a jumper. I can count on one hand the number of times he's been over a jump in his 15 years, and none of them were more than logs or crossrails. He's skeptical about jumping at best, and at worst will refuse to cross a downed fence pole that's 6 inches off the ground, despite there being a pasture full of green grass on the other side.

So. As we cantered down (shoulder UP!) to the pole for the first time, I focused on keeping my aids super clear with a tiny bit of shoulder fore, then straightening him and switching my aids, like I was asking for a walk-canter transitions the moment I was over the pole.

I should have known that a pole on the ground apparently needs A Great Deal Of Respect. 

Definitely got the "flying" part of the change. My trainer nearly fell out of her chair laughing, because she's helpful like that.

We got the change despite Taran's overachieving leap, so we made a huge fuss of him and quit for the day on that.

For some reason, day 2 Taran warmed up super spicy. This meant he spooked at EVERYTHING.

HOLY SHIT THERE'S A FLAT SPOT IN THE ARENA. Not even joking, this was where someone had left a few footprints while they were mucking.

He shook his head when I asked him for some leg yield (omg!), and even pretended to buck when I tapped him with the whip to ask for a bigger medium trot.

You should be impressed with how naughty he was.

BUT, his shorter steps (think precursor to half steps) work was SUPER good. He's really getting the hang of sitting down a bit, and I'm getting better at asking for it with my seat/body while keeping my hands light and forward-thinking. Actually feeling collection is kind of an amazing thing, y'all.

We also put in some killer shoulder in to trot half-pass. Ok, our SI on the center line still looks drunk - there are a lot of body parts to keep track of and you can't use the rail for support (not that I would ever do that, of course). But our half pass felt legit! It's so easy to get the haunches leading and/or let him fall over his shoulder, so I'm slowly coming to understand that half pass requires a ton of inside leg. More stuff to work on, but a good start!

Annd then we went on to do changes. Once again, the pole required a healthy dose of respect because it's actually an alligator or something.

The commentary from the peanut gallery (aka my trainer and my dearest darling husband) is amusing and worth the 18 seconds to hear. But if you don't want to watch the video, here's the important still:

Probably you shouldn't see knees and feet flailing when practicing lead changes.

He was late behind on that change and uh, expressive up front, but you can see how he really gets lighter on his forehand two strides out. Good boy! The next pass through he offered a change (front only) about 3 strides out from the pole, which we gave him a lot of pats for because it's the first time he's tried to change in his entire life. We came over the pole a few more times, and he got the change every time, so we ended on a really good one:

My trainer assures me they won't be so... expressive... without the pole. But still! It's a solid start, and using a pole lets me work on timing my aids, and practicing my two-point. And here I thought my jumping days were a thing of the past!

That time I rode third level

Last weekend was our local dressage group's "ugly sweater" schooling show. At the last minute, I decided to sign Taran up for 3-1. I really wanted to get out and just try it this year,  since we can do everything in that test except the lead changes. So I figured we'd take the 4's for no change, and start getting used to the rest of the test.

T warmed up a little sticky, but it was cold out. We did a lot of small steps/forward/small steps/forward in the trot to get his hind end engaged, and we did a couple of "yee-haws" (as Charlotte likes to call them) at the canter to get him moving. He felt super balanced in the collected canter especially, although a little behind my leg. Still, he felt good to go and I was feeling like we could lay down a good trip.

Unfortunately, the moment we picked up the trot in the sandbox, I knew we were going to have problems. The footing at this facility is a little shallow in the competition arena, and he simply did not feel comfortable in it. When I asked for a medium trot, he did about 3 really good steps and then was just like "nope I can't," and I didn't push it. However, his trot half-passes (new at 3rd) got a 7.5 and 7.0, so I was quite happy with those.

Good crossover, but leading with haunches and needs more bend

We got stuck AGAIN in the stupid walk TOH movement, both ways. Either we're too big or we get stuck for one step - either way, it's a 4, and that's a coefficient movement. We have done super good ones in practice, but for some reason I get in the sandbox and it just falls apart. ARGH! I seriously need to fix this because it's a lot of points.

That's a lot of 4's

Our walk-canter depart got an 8 (ok I know it's a schooling show but who would have guessed that THIS HORSE would get AN EIGHT on a canter movement???) and our right lead canter work was pretty good. Of course we missed the change, and but then I let his shoulders get down and he cross-fired in the extended canter on the left lead. That killed the canter, the transition from extended to collected, and the 10m left canter circle. Whoops. We ended up with a 59.242%, and I've never gotten so many 4's on a test in my life. Good thing it was a schooling show?

At least he was obedient

Overall, the judge was very complimentary of him - she actually made it a point to mention how good our connection was when I was scribing for her later. She mentioned that we need more suspension for this level, and she's right. That's something I just couldn't manufacture in that arena, and I'm pretty sure it was the shallow footing.

When we finished, I went back out to the warmup area and he was 100% fine - gave me a blazing extended trot and had plenty of lift. We also did a little more canter, and MC got this great moment of collection on camera:

We were actually doing a baby canter pirouette step here. He's a little behind my leg, but he's so light in front and you can see how soft he is in the connection. <3 p="">

I'd say it was a good ending to 2017. Flying changes are gonna be the project this winter, so hopefully we can come out at 3rd in the spring, for real. I can't wait!

Wyvern Oaks Winter Wonderland

It's all over social media, but we actually got pretty significant (for us) snow last night! Nothing is prettier than a fresh covering of snow, so I snapped a few pictures this morning as the sun came up.

Back pasture

Kitty tracks!

My attempt at artsy photography lol

 Malamute in his native habitat

Perfect Pyr weather!

Update 3 of 5: All the rest of the critters

Look, a post that's not about Taran!

When I left this blog to its fate, the last post was about finding a name for our new Haffie. I'd like to thank everyone who left suggestions, y'all were really helpful in figuring out what to call him!

Turns out, he's a Gryphon, which works great since he's at Wyvern Oaks. He's a fun little guy - a nice mover and he tries really hard, but he doesn't have that same sense of owning the world that Paddy does. He's a bit timid, and really looks to his rider for confidence and guidance. Whether he'll make a jousting horse is still up in the air. But if not, I might steal him as my next dressage horse because he's super adorable and I still want to do a freestyle to Suicide Blonde by INXS.

He does have the Haffie trait of getting into everything

In a rather amusing turn of events, Paddy hates Gryphon - unless, of course, we haul the two of them somewhere together, in which case they are BFFs. In fact, and it's only been in the last month that we've been able to put them out together. Taran takes turns hanging with his Haffies, but you definitely will never catch the Haffies hanging together.

Always keep at least 2 horse widths between your Haflingers

Literally the only picture I have of them not trying to kill each other

Personally, I think Paddy's jealous of Griffy's hair.

Next up, the Padster. He's continued with his on/off RF lameness and fortunately right now he's sound. Our best guess is DDFT - we've rehabbed him three times now per the vet's instructions, and while he always comes back sound, he keeps re-injuring himself, usually while acting like an eediot out in the pasture. We now make sure to only work on even footing, and try to keep the running around to a minimum, but you know how that goes with horses.  His competitive dressage career is over, but he's still adorable and a jousting savant.

Adorable

Jousting savant

Reddums continues to be the rock of our little herd. The others look to him for guidance and security, and he's king in his role of benevolent dictator - although these days you can sort of tell they're humoring him a bit when he pins his ears and threatens to bite.  He reminds me of someone's crotchety grandfather, waving his cane and yelling "GET OFF MY LAWN" from his rocking chair on the front porch.  Still, he sets a strict schedule and makes sure everyone is where they should be when they should be there. He has a special relationship with Taran - whenever T comes home from a clinic or show, he goes and stands next to Red and you can see T visibly relax. Maybe they tell stories, or he's getting advice? I don't know. Reddums is also Griffy's security blanket - Griffy will slowly sidle up to him, careful not to make direct eye contact, and humbly ask if he can share Red's haynet. Usually Reddums studiously ignores the request until they're sharing the haynet - the herd leader can't be seen as being too lenient, you know.

Sadly, our mutant dog Elias is starting to show his age - he's 15, which is pretty much an antique for a dog his size. The vet found a nodule on his spleen about a month ago, and we've opted not to do any further testing or treatment because of his past history. We're spoiling him rotten (as if he wasn't already) and will for as long as he has. He still helps Gus with guard duties although mostly in a supervisory role.

Supervising

Excuse me but is that a kolache you're eating?

Suckerrrrrrrrr

Only a small difference in size

We also adopted three new barn kitties this summer, since Moo and Artemis have mostly retired to a life as pampered indoor kitties and the neighborhood rodent population was getting a bit out of control. Moo is keeping her hunting skills sharp though, and has learned how to kill scorpions (why she couldn't have discovered this talent years ago, I don't know).

Very majestic. Much huntress.

Anyway let me introduce:

Nikita

Sprocket

Charlie (because what else do you name a kitteh with a 'stache like that???)

The girls seems to be doing their job well, because although we haven't had any rodents left as presents, we also haven't seen or heard any rats or mice since shortly after we got them. Charlie also alerted us to a smol snek in our back shed, who we relocated to a safer spot where he wouldn't get stuck.

Don't panic, he's a non-venomous rat snek and I was very careful. Hopefully he's off eating lots of rats!

And that's the news from Wyvern Oaks!