Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Taran's opinion of my cr@ppy riding

Taran is usually the most reliable of horses (note: this includes reliably spooking at random things). He does what's asked, mostly without protest. Sure, sometime he doesn't put 110% effort in, and you do have to manufacture a lot of energy, but he's generally an amicable fellow.

I mean, this is OK

Until now. Now, at 16, he's learned lead changes. Granted, they are still green, but he understands the concept and he knows the aids for them. He *also* knows that I might ask for a change at any time in the canter, and since he generally tries to please his rider, he's trying to figure out when I'm asking for a change and when I'm not.

T: You're doing something weird with your body so I'll try something weird too

The problem, according to T, is that sometimes it's impossible to tell if I'm asking for a lead change or merely sitting there awkwardly in a way that maaaaybe could be interpreted as asking for a lead change, if you're an overachiever and trying to figure out what your rider wants. Let's be honest - until recently, I've asked for a canter lead and then sort of let my legs do their own thing until further notice. I'm particularly bad about letting my outside leg hang like a dead fish while pulling on the inside rein too much, overbending his neck. But I had to fix that habit when we started doing the 20 m counter-canter serpentine in 2-3, because you really have to make it clear that you want your horse to keep the lead in the cc.

He's sitting so well and looks so fanc...

....errrr, never mind.

Of course, T didn't know about flying changes back then, so at worst I'd pull too much and get him overbent and a bit stuck, and he'd fall behind my leg and trot. But now... now, all those contortions I did or did not do with my body have a whole new meaning, and any one of them might mean I want him to change leads.

For example, I'm a pro at overbending T to the left, and letting his shoulders fall to the outside. What I need to do is use more right rein and push his shoulders a titch left, so that he stands up and is straight. But if I don't commit with my outside rein, it's ever so easy for him to pop his shoulder and toss in a change, or at least try to fake one.

Over bent with the shoulder out. Or maybe I'm doing this on purpose because I want him to change leads, who knows? 

I've also managed to break our left lead canter depart. If I get him straight on the right rein at the walk, and then ask for the canter, my left hip tends to roll forward instead of back... which moves my right hip back and presto, that's a right canter lead. Same problem in the canter... if I allow my left hip to get forward, my left canter aids are no longer clear, and he's suddenly questioning my riding ability and bouncing around in preparation for a change.


Boink boink boink

And heaven help me if I accidentally take my butt out of the saddle. I struggle to sit all three beats of the canter sometimes, and even just one beat out of the saddle and he can drop behind my leg and start bouncing. This is especially bad because I'm still in the stage of over-preparing for the change, so I tend to get him a bit too slow and up-and-down, which makes it hard to stay in the saddle. It's all connected, I tell you.




BADOINKADOINKADOINK

So, moral of the story. If your horse knows how to change, you'd better make DAMN sure you've got your leg, seat bones, reins, and other body parts all in their proper places at all times, because if you don't and your horse judges your riding like mine does, you too could be doing this doinkadoink maneuver pretty much anywhere. It just goes to show that all those "basics" like straightness and connection and rhythm and forward off the leg never, ever leave you. They just keep getting refined to the Nth degree so that you can perform progressively more challenging movements.

If you've done flying changes, what did you find to be the hardest thing about them? If not, what are you struggling most with in the canter right now and what are your tips for improving?


We did eventually get one on the aids, even if I did let my reins get long and him get a little down in front so that it's a half-stride late behind. Work in progress for sure!

26 comments:

  1. Silly, what do you mean we have to be in control of our body parts?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have no idea but there are a hella lot of body parts flopping around up here...

      Delete
  2. Man, this makes my head hurt -- THERE'S SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT ALL THE TIME. I train? my horses to follow my eye, and luckily in hunters, you really only change leads when you change direction. So while sometimes they'll anticipate a lead change, I can school crossing the middle of the ring and staying on the same lead using my eye to show them where I want them to go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Omg, but why are there so many body parts to keep track of? Dressage is so hard!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe we should take up knitting instead?

      Delete
  4. *raises hand* also have a "Oh, she did something I'll just do a change because she LOVES those" horse. LOL. It gets better don't worry! Most difficult and important part of changes: STRAIGHTNESS. I also work a lot on making him straight and NOT changing. That I think is more important than changing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I KNOWWW! I feel like if I breathe wrong he might think I want a change. Which is nice that he's trying but like... breathing is important, you know?

      On the bright side, I think we will both be a whole lot straighter and I'll fix a whole lot of biomechanics issues that have been plaguing me but I've been conveniently ignoring. Time's apparently up for that!

      Delete
  5. There was a mare I used to exercise in college who was so sensitive to changes in seat weight for canter lead. She'd start changing left and right to show me I wasn't not aware of wtf my body was doing. Rude frankly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL she was just like "Let me show you how much your body is wiggling you TEENAGER"! Rude indeed.

      I have only done changes on pretty well trained horses under the careful guidance of their idiot-proof owners so I am no help. But I hope to someday feel your pain with changes I put on myself!

      Delete
    2. Hahaha there's nothing like a good horse to point out all your riding faults.

      *Opens tub of ice cream to console myself*

      Delete
  6. My lessons right now consist of quite a bit of this... I shift a little thinking to control her outside hind from drifting, and boom, change, because I left the door open with my outside rein. I'm totally feeling the bouncing up and down stuff, too, especially in the transitions and when I want to change. She adds in some kicking at my leg and nasty mare faces too just to remind me of how unworthy I am, lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Misery loves company, so I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling unworthy.

      Horses, man. You gotta be right for them to be right.

      Delete
  7. I feel like you just wrote about my future with Grif. He loves canter, always thinks it is the right answer, and is already quite clever as we learn changes. I bet in a year or two he'll be executing changes to seek the "right answer" even when I don't want them lol

    ReplyDelete
  8. Same.

    I also have a feeling that once Crumble learns one-tempis, he's never going to stop doing them and we'll be skipping off into the sunset forever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gee that sounds like a TERRIBLE problem to have...

      Also if Crumbs goes missing, don't look at my house.

      Delete
  9. Sometimes riding is hard, haha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha riding is ALWAYS hard, at least for me!

      Delete
  10. You two are inspiring! (and far better than you give yourself credit for)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol I don't know how inspiring we are, but we try!

      Delete
  11. guess what? once you get the single change, you start with the tempis, then you get the 4s, you get the 3s and then starting the 2s you feel like a complete idiot again :D and then there is a trial of a one tempi and you feel like you have never ever ridden a flying change before :DDD it can get worse believe me ;) keep on trying, all of a sudden it will work out...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard horror stories about the ones... on one hand, I feel for you, on the other hand, YOU'RE DOING ONES AND I'M SUPER JEALOUS!!!

      Delete
  12. Many issues mention about cockfight in philipine, we are from ayam bangkok peru want to explain that. You can read our article. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The boinking has me laughing so hard I can't breathe. I love this post. I rode a horse when I was younger who was much more finely trained than I was. I would shift my weight by accident and he would do things like tempis and half steps. Whoops!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Apparently the better they're trained, the more correct you have to be. It's cool and frustrating all at the same time!

      Delete