Our last session with Alfredo focused on getting Taran to be more mobile with his shoulders and haunches, and hotter off my leg. As Alfredo pointed out after I'd switched my whip for the 20975th time, Taran doesn't respect my leg unless I have a whip to back it up. That's all fine and good until you ride a test where you don't get to carry a whip, and then you're screwed (ahemGAIGchampionshipsahem).
We worked on the new, slower warmup, which seems to do good things for Taran:
Hellooooo, gorgeous stretchy trot. Where have you been all my life?
And then we transitioned to doing shoulder in to renvers on a circle. The difference is bending, which sounds easy, but it's challenging for me to rearrange all my body parts quickly so that Taran can make the transition from one to the other smoothly and without losing the trot. We've done this exercise with Alfredo before, but I admit that I don't practice it much at home. When I do, I'm not asking for the level of bend and obedience that he expects... because this kind of smooth, obedient movement is a whole new thing for us:
I really liked the feel that I could put Taran's body anywhere I wanted and I would get an immediate and BIG response - that goes with being more demanding of both myself and him. Plus, it's much harder to do shoulder in/haunches in on a circle than it is on a straight line (which is what's required in all the 2nd level tests), so if we can can do these movements well on a circle, we shouldn't have any problem when we have to do it down the rail. Plus it's easy to see in the video how a half pass could come out of these movements, if I just placed it slightly different, so that's exciting. Who knew Taran had so much crossover in those short little legs of his?
Finally, we did an exercise down the long side where we stared in shoulder in, switched bend to renders, then flipped to face the rail in leg yield, then changed bend to travers. Sound confusing? Try riding it! I messed it up the first few times, but eventually we kinda got it right:
Whew, I felt like I needed a translator! These movements (except SI) aren't really automatic in my head yet, so it takes me a moment to figure out what each one needs and then ask Taran for it.
We've definitely got our work cut out for us, but I got a lot out of the clinic. My biggest takeaway is that I really have to be more demanding of us both... Taran can do the movements, and do them big, and I need to push for that. We don't have fancy gaits to help us out with our scores, so it's important to ride every step for 110%. I'm excited with all that we accomplished in just a few short days, and am really looking forward to working on everything at home. After all, our first show of the year is just 2 months away!
The second day of the Alfredo clinic, we worked primarily on more shoulder in and renvers. But what stuck most in my mind about this lesson was what Alfredo had to say about warm-up.
At home, we usually take a short trail ride to the field where we do most of our work, so we have a 10+ minute walk warm-up. Then I do some trot and canter on a long rein, take a bit of a breather, and then consider us ready to get down to business.
Alfredo's suggestion was much different. Instead of doing long stretches at any one gait, he had us do perhaps a circle or a half circle of one thing, then a circle of walk, then pick the reins back up, do something else, walk, etc. Essentially it was a lot of very sort bits of bending and flexing, working lower and then asking for a few steps of collection, working lower, back to walk - just lots of gentle transitions, gentle flexing, and gentle laterals. I posted the trot the whole time to let his back warm up (I normally do a lot of posting so that wasn't new).
Longer rein at the beginning of the ride
Asking for him to come a bit more together
As the session went on, we asked for more sustained stretches of collection, more angle in the laterals, more bend, and a faster response off the leg. Again, Alfredo's method is very short stretches of good work, followed immediately by a walk/reward break when the horse does the exercise well the rider does the exercise correctly.
Flexion left with a bit more collection
Really asking that hind leg to come through
The trot near the end of the ride
I can certainly see the benefits of shorter chunks of work, especially with an older horse, but I do worry a little about building more fitness and also the horse expecting that he only has to work for short periods of time (ahem).
We did have one fantastically excellent spook when a pitchfork that was leaning against the side of the arena slid down the wall and onto the ground...
Thank goodness for saddles with ginormous thigh blocks!
Another super interesting thing Alfredo said was about getting better scores on a movement. If your movement starts well, then the judge is likely to have in their heads a 6.5 or a 7. If you ride half of it well and then it falls apart, you might end up with a 6.5 or a 6, depending on where you started. BUT, if your movement starts off really badly, the judge might have in their heads a 5, and even if the second half of the movement is great, you're unlikely to score more than a 5.5 or a 6. So it's really important to set up the movement well and make that good first impression, even if it falls apart later. Easier said than done, of course!
Meh
Better
THAT's what you want to come out of the gate with!
Hubby and I are attending another clinic with Alfredo this week. As usual, Alfredo insists on good work, and in our first session, about halfway through he said something that really stuck with me.
"You need to be more demanding."
He's right. At second, judges want to see a sharp, workman like test. The halt needs to be trot-halt-trot, not trot... walk a step... halt... stutter back to a trot, like was acceptable at first. When I work on my own, I try to make my movements correct and precise, but there's a whole 'nother level of accuracy when someone is yelling at your in a lesson. Everything needs more bend, more expression, more obedience, more precision.
Take our walk-canter transitions, for instance. I thought they were decent (I mean, we didn't have one like 3 months ago), but decent - with a step of trot - is not enough. THIS is what he wants:
Ignore the part where I push his haunches to the inside the step before the depart and look at how awesome my horse is.
We also worked on improving his gaits, especially the trot. We did a lot of renvers on the circle (ok, I tried to do renvers on a circle, but it's hard and I'm struggling with timing and body position).
I really need to step in the direction I'm going and get my hands right. But Taran is trying hard and the sky is so pretty!
But when we go straight after a few steps of renvers, this magic happens:
All the time like this please.
But riding that uphill, balanced, expressive wave is hard, and it's all too easy to get a little quick and on the forehand:
Half-halt needed.
So, I gotta be more demanding, of both myself and my horse. Maybe that's my mantra for 2017?
What about you? What's your biggest struggle right now?
Day 3 of the clinic started off with a brief in-hand session, and then we got right in to haunches out on the circle, followed by renvers on the circle. Alfredo really wanted me to push Taran for even more than he had done the previous two days, but Taran was feeling tired and a little stiff. Taran gave it all he had, but when Alfredo asked for more, things started to spiral downward.
Don't laugh, but this is Taran having an epic meltdown, complete with mini-rears.
Stiffness became stopping and mini-rears. I got after him, and he tried again for me, but we just couldn't seem to get it right despite repeated requests for "more". I could feel that Taran was doing all he could but that in that moment, he simply couldn't give me any more (and I wasn't helping him any either). Finally, I told Alfredo I needed a minute and asked Taran to walk. I got yelled at for quitting before we had gotten it right, which made me kind of mad, but I took a deep breath and let it roll off me. I knew my horse needed a short walk break to reset, and I knew I needed one too. Yelling at us wasn't helping, and I needed to advocate for my horse. So we walked.
This is a fine line that we riders have to navigate. I like being pushed to perform - it's how I get better and how my horse gets better. I try really, really hard to do what I'm being asked to do. I'm lucky that Taran also tries really, really hard, even when I'm not sitting right or I've gotten handsy and am not making it easy for him. However, as riders we have to determine just how far past our comfort zones we are OK with being pushed - and we have to be able to say that we (or our horse) has had enough.
Fortunately, a short walk break got Taran and I back on the same page, and we were able to continue on with renvers on a circle and perform it correctly. Which turned out to be super important because it got him all engaged and bendy and then we did this crazy thing and rode a TROT HALF PASS.
No really, we did.
I mean, the half-pass right isn't great, but that side is always a struggle because he's not always solidly into the right rein. But it looks kind of legit!
We did lose some of the bend but CROSSOVER!
And then we went left, which was kind of amazing:
Also, lest you think that Alfredo does nothing but push, you will hear him get on my case for not rewarding Taran IMMEDIATELY with a walk break after he performs the first half pass. He's really just looking for those one or two correct strides and then the horse is rewarded. You just need to be able to produce one or two correct strides!
Like this
Also like this (do you SEE his abs and butt muscles working?)
We ended the session with a little canter. You can see in places where he's really engaged and the canter is slower and more collected (and I'm like, sitting up and riding it?) and places where he's not. We need more of that slower, collected canter for second level work. It's in there though!
Major take-aways for day 3 include:
More bend
More bend
A little more bend would be good
MOAR BEND
FFS BEND ZEE HORSE!!!
We probably learned something else, but that's really all that comes to mind right now. Oh and slow down.
So there you have it: the good and the not so good and the really effing amazeballs. Alfredo is a tough guy to ride for, and he's definitely focused on having the horse perform correctly rather than on rider biomechanics. I will absolutely ride with him again next time he's in town, but I'm also looking forward to going back and working with my regular trainer on the things I have learned in the clinic. The good thing is that I've walked away with a new appreciation of Taran's capabilities and how to unlock them, and a better understanding of what I really need to move up to the next level (hellooooo more bend). Such a great experience!
After watching the videos from Day 1 of the clinic and reading (and re-reading) my notes, I knew that for myself, I really wanted to focus more on keeping my hands down and using more inside leg for Day 2. For T, I wanted to remind him that he MUST move away from my leg when asked. Kicking and refusing is not an option.
I started T off on the ground, doing turns on the forehand and leg yields. Alfredo stepped in and showed me a better way to hold the reins if I'm working without side reins, and also pointed out that I need to be more demanding. I can't accept a half-hearted response from T... I don't need to be mean, but if I ask, he has to respond RIGHT NOW. He's not a hot horse, but he still needs to get his butt moving when it's time to move his butt.
Day 2 of the clinic saw a lot more work on shoulder in and renvers, first on the circle and then on the straight line. Taran was much more off my leg from the beginning after his little bit of ground work, so that helped. When I struggled with the positioning of renvers on the circle, Alfredo pointed out how much easier it would be on a straight line, and of course he was right.
This shit is hard BUT LOOK AT THAT CROSSOVER
Also, activating the hind end makes for a hella fancy trot.
Eventually we were allowed off the circle and got to do travers/renvers/travers on the quarterline. Taran was SO soft and responsive off my leg, even though I didn't always do a great job riding him through (that whole bend thing). It was amazing to be able to move his body back and forth with so little effort.
Renvers
Shoulder in
We didn't do a lot of canter - he was pretty tired and a little flat. Alfredo had us try some shoulder in/haunches out at the canter which is pretty much impossible but DAMN it gets the horse engaged and collected, for like those two steps you can both hold it together.
The biggest takeaways from this ride include:
Warm up with haunches out on the circle, then move on to renvers once the horse has warmed up, because that's what helps with the collection.
When you've done renvers on the circle and gotten really good sideways steps with bend, switch to regular bend and ask for a bigger trot (but not faster). That's when you get the real engagement.
If you think you have enough bend, you need twice as much.
I tend to lose the throughness (the "round and deep") because I'm pulling and getting handsy. Long time problem, but keeping my hands together and down, with my elbows bent, helps lots.
When you ask for a downward transition, ALWAYS keep the bend through the transition. If you're doing shoulder fore/renvers/shoulder in/half pass/leg yield/whatever, KEEP THE BEND. That way the horse steps through with the inside hind into the next gait.
Taran is no longer allowed to grab the reins and drag them out of my hands for free walk. He must "take them like a gentleman".
Sorry, just one more pic of the awesome uphill trot. I NEED this in my life!
Back in March, I attended my first ever clinic with Alfredo Hernandez. I learned a TON - apparently being yelled at in a heavy Spanish accent does wonders - and Taran had some amazingly fancy moments. We also struggled with basic things, like I couldn't sit the trot for more than a circle because Taran just couldn't carry me. We've come a long way since then, and I've been eager to ride with Alfredo again.
Don't get me wrong, I love my regular trainer. She's got the attention to detail and is absolutely unwilling to cut corners, which is what makes her so good. However, attending a clinic with the right person can result in a really great leap forward in your riding. The clinician doesn't know (or really care) about your baggage and how your dear little grey pony doesn't like to carry his weight on his right shoulder and falls in with his haunches right and sometimes the canter transitions suck and blah blah blah, they just see the problem and want you to fix it NOW. For whatever reason, that kind of no-nonsense attitude really works for me and pushes me to the next level.
This time, I told Alfredo that we'd finished out the season strongly at first level and were looking to move up. I wanted to work on better engagement, connection, collection, and all those things. We got right to work and he got on my case about Taran being too much on the muscle under his neck. As he puts it, he wants the horse "deep and round". Watching the videos, this has Taran somewhat BTV at times, which I don't like, but I see his point because at that moment he's actually relaxed and giving on the underside of his neck.
Like so.
Oh and I got nailed on keeping my hands together and down and my elbows at my sides. At one point Alfredo actually took a hair tie from a lady who was watching and stuck my thumbs together with it. Suddenly Taran started going great and Alfredo was like "Look, see, I fixed your horse for you!" So uh, yeah. Hands are a problem.
We worked a lot on haunches out on the circle, especially to the right. T likes to not take weight on his right shoulder and he sort of tends to curl around it sometimes, and the right hind doesn't work very hard either. Pushing his haunches out a little made that RH actually come in line with the RF (instead of falling to the inside), and as a result T was straighter and more even in the reins. Note to self. Oh and also when we canter to the right I need more inside leg (I mean duh, I know this, but no really, MORE INSIDE LEG).
This is not enough inside leg.
Annnd then we tried this crazy exercise where we did renvers on the circle at a trot, then transition to walk (in renvers), then a turn on the forehand (in renvers), then walk (in renvers), then transition to trot (in renvers). It's funny going into an exercise where you have no idea how to do it... we were in renvers and he asked for a turn on the forehand and my brain took about 5 seconds to figure out how to do it. We did OK tracking right, but tracking left was just a huge nope that involved head flinging, throwing his haunches left despite me pony-club kicking with my left leg, and running backwards (side note: maybe he'll be able to rein back after this weekend?).
Renvers on a circle. Sort of.
Turn on the forehand in renvers (ignore the lack of bend, this is haaaard)
Alfredo ended up asking him to move from the ground, and we got this absolutely amazing trot as a result:
This horse is so fancy and uphill, where did he come from? And more importantly, how do we get more of this?
At the end of the session, Alfredo had us work on piaffe for a little bit (and by "us" I mean that I sat there like a lump while Alfredo did all the cueing). We were tracking left and T was still in his throwing-haunches-left mode, but Alfredo is a patient guy with an excellent sense of timing and we managed to have some nice moments.
The magic step
Not that Taran is ever going to be a piaffeing machine or anything, but at least it felt really cool and got his haunches super activated. I am SO looking forward to my next two rides!
During the clinic with Alfredo, I got to watch one lady with a 2nd level horse do her first ever flying changes. Her other horse is going either PSG or I1, so she knows how to ride changes, but this horse hadn't done them before.
Alfredo had her start on a 20 m circle at the walk, then had her pick up a counter-canter. After about half a circle, he had her walk, then pick up a true canter for another half a circle. Then walk, counter-canter, walk, true canter.
After perhaps half a dozen repetitions of this, he added a haunches in/haunches out element. So, walk with haunches out, transition to counter-canter. Counter-canter with haunches out. Walk, haunches in, transition to true canter with haunches in. Walk, haunches out, counter-canter...
As she was able to ride the exercise better, he started asking for more precision with the haunches in and out. Walk with haunches out, transition to counter-canter keeping the haunches out through the transition and during the counter-canter. Transition to walk and IMMEDIATELY haunches in at the walk, transition to true canter with haunches in through the transition and the canter. Etc. Again, these movement were repeated again and again.
Eventually the movements were coming very, very quickly, with the horse easily moving his haunches in and out. And then, during one counter-canter-haunches-out, instead of asking for a walk transition, Alfredo yelled "Haunches IN!". And the rider switched her aids for a haunches in, and the horse did a perfect change right on the aids.
I think part of what worked here is that she didn't quite know what was coming, so there was no anticipation on either the part of the horse or the rider. Plus, the horse was so in tune with moving his haunches over that the change was easier than the transition. And of course, he was changing from counter-canter to true canter, so that was easier too.
They did several more changes, and although the horse got a bit leapy in the changes, he DID them, every time. The set up was great and you could see he had no problem with it. The rider was smiling ear to ear too (in between gasping for air... she was working HARD and I was really glad it wasn't me!).
So... do you have any secrets for teaching changes?
No media of other rider, but here's another pic of Taran from the clinic.
The moment you've all been waiting for... piaffe and passage! I mean, that's why we all sign up to ride with Alfredo, right?
It was honestly kind of anti-climactic. It's not like a horse that's never done those movements before is instantly going to be able to do 15 steps of brilliant piaffe with a rider on board. It's also not how you train that sort of thing. I was lucky to be able to watch Alfredo work with a number of horses over the course of the clinic, and his method was simple - you ask until you get the response you're looking for, and then you immediately reward. In some cases, I watched him warm a young horse up in the round pen, then ask once for 2-3 steps of piaffe, and that was it for the whole session. Literally, a 10 minute longe session with perhaps 5-10 seconds of asking for piaffe, getting a few steps, then immediately done.
It's kind of an interesting concept for those of us who ride and think "that circle was great, just ONE MORE and I'll be done..." and things start to fall apart. The take-away for me was, shorter session and more rewards when it's right.
My lesson started out with more in-hand work, this time with turns on the haunches as well as turns on the forehand. The goal was to get Taran stepping under and stepping around, with quick transitions ("No stopping! Why are you stopping!!") between the two. I found it hard to keep Taran's feet moving AND be correct with my aids AND make sure he's correct. More practice is definitely needed on this - Alfredo made it look easy because his timing is so amazing, and I struggled so much.
At the end of our in-hand work, Alfredo took Taran and asked for piaffe along the rail. I didn't get the whole video, but Taran was confused about what he wanted so the first 10 seconds or so weren't very pretty ('Trot but don't move forward, WHAT? You crazy, mister!'). However, Alfredo kept asking and letting him take a few walk steps when he got a bit too tight, and eventually this happened:
Don't blink, you'll miss it.
No really, it happened! Alfredo is already rewarding him.
Next up was ridden work. We kept it to walk and trot as before, and really just focused on him being round and through. We had some sticky bits (being round and through is HARD!), which we addressed by making him move his haunches (which is HARDER!), but we ended on a really good note, as we had on day two. I need to remember to keep the trot slow and round, and if he doesn't bend when asked, think haunches out.
Moving the haunches creates some really spectacular laterals that I didn't know we could do. I don't think Taran knew he could do this either, lol!
A short clip of the end of the ride - this was after about 5 minutes of ridden w/t work
So fancy. Sorry about the ponytail, Aimee. My hair thingy failed halfway through.
As our grande finale, we took a few minutes to work on passage. Taran started off REALLY skeptical about this pole that was in his way, but Alfredo just encouraged him to keep moving forward and gently tapped his shins. You can see him starting to get with the program about halfway down the long side of the arena.
We walked for a bit, and then Alfredo asked me to trot:
Obviously we're not doing this at the FEI levels any time soon, but Taran got the idea and it was SUPER cool to ride! I think as he gets stronger in his back and more able to sit and step under himself, he'll find this easier to do. At this stage, we're just sort of playing with the concept.
How many people does it take to get a horse to passage?
I've got a few more thoughts to share on riding with Alfredo (including a cool way to teach changes), but this post is already long. In short, he's very demanding of the riders but so rewarding to the horses, and we made some really big breakthroughs. I will definitely be signing up to ride with him again when he comes back!
I was really looking forward to our second ride with Alfredo - I felt like we really pushed through some things on the first ride, and couldn't wait to make more progress. So I admit that I was a little disappointed when we started out with groundwork - I mean, we're past that, right? It's not like Taran needs to be longed or anything before I get on.
Only, this was a different kind of ground work. What Alfredo wanted was for the horse to perform a turn on the forehand (more or less), stepping under very actively with the inside hind leg while softening to the bit. Written like that it sounds so easy, but I struggled so much with this. You have to stand just so. You have to stay strong in your core, keep your arm in the right place. Use of the whip must be judicious and perfectly timed. You have to feel the moment when the horse is correct, then push for another step or two, then stop. Alfredo is very, VERY big on rewarding the horse with a walk on a long rein, immediately, when he's done the right thing - and you really have to stay on your toes and pay attention to know when it's right. I should also point out that this kind of groundwork can be pretty athletic for the rider too, because I was definitely puffing at the end of our short session.
Alfredo makes it look easy. Me, not so much.
When I was finally allowed to mount up, I immediately noticed that Taran felt different. He was MUCH more active behind, and more through over his back. He was also very quick off my aids, something that I've been struggling with quite a lot (pony club kicking is generally frowned upon to get your "first-level" horse to trot, did you know?). When I gathered up the reins ("REINS SHORTER!!!!") and asked for inside bend, he was much faster to comply. I was able to get him rounder and he was much steadier into the bend, deeper and rounder, and more solid in the contact than on the first day.
Look at my horse. My horse is so fancy. Do not look at me. I'm leaning back so much.
I don't think Taran knew he could look like this.
One thing that became really clear to me is how fake the left bend can be. My trainer is FOREVER on me about bending him too much to the left, even though I swear from the saddle he doesn't SEEM like he's bent at all (especially compared to the right). What he really does is crank his neck over without bending through his body, and I let go of the outside (right) rein to attempt to get more bend. Alfredo kept yelling at me to use more outside rein and open my inside hand, and I finally got to see what fake bend vs real bend looks and feels like. Lightbulb moment! I'm sure my trainer is doing a facepalm about now.
Not actually bent to the left, despite the fact that his ear is even with my knee.
Our ride actually ended up being quite short with a lot of walk breaks, but it felt really productive because we further solidified what we'd worked on the first day, and the added element of ground work made me feel like I had a really impressive new tool to help me out. SO much winning!
Here's some video from the end of our ride where we're awesome.
How many of you would like to learn how to piaffe and passage? C'mon, fess up. You know you would, and so would I. Which is why I jumped at the chance to ride in a clinic with Alfredo Hernandez last weekend - his specialty is training these movements! Obviously I don't have any horses ready to go at a level where pi/pa are required, but Megan assured me that it didn't matter, and encouraged me to sign up anyway. Hubby decided that he wanted to ride too (taking lessons from another man can be, er, enlightening, as he put it), so we wrote a rather large check and planned for the clinic.
The beginning of my first lesson was quite embarrassing. Alfredo asked what level we were riding, I said Training just moving up to First. He said he'd watch us warm up for a few minutes, so I started walking Taran around on a loose rein. Naturally, he went to full-on giraffe mode while I futilely asked him to pay attention and consider walking long and low. Alfredo called us over, and then proceeded to ask me basic questions like which rein was the inside rein and how did I ask for bend. Talk about feeling like a noob. He had me shorten my reins WAY up, take my inside hand out about a foot from his neck to ask for bend, and off we went.
The main themes of the first day were:
SHORTER REINS. Seriously. I felt like my reins were about 6 inches long but after looking at the video, they were fine. My regular trainer is on me all the time about shorter reins, and I think I get the idea of just how short they really need to be now!
Don't give up the contact. Alfredo had me put the reins where I wanted them and then push Taran up into it. As he put it, imagine you are side reins, the horse has to give to you, not the other way around. I am definitely guilty of throwing the contact away, and it's also something my trainer calls me on a lot. I had a lot more contact than I usually have... not sure how I feel about that, although I was able to lighten up as the weekend went on and Taran got with the program more.
Slow down. I need this tattooed on Taran's ears. Fast is not forward. I KNOW this, but I don't always ride this. Sloooooowwwww dooooooowwwwwwwwnnnnn.
Don't quit too soon. Another thing my trainer says to me all the time. Wait till you have it, then wait a few steps more until you're SURE you have it. Then walk and reward. I have a bad habit of going "hey look we are together!" and then I throw the contact away and/or quit riding. Not terribly effective.
Round and deep. This was a theme all weekend. At times I felt like we were too deep (that is, BTV), but again, looking at the video he's really just deep in his neck. Keeping his neck down is something we've been working on, so maybe this is just the slightly more extreme version of what I've been asking for at home?
More rounder. More deeper. And to the left, too!
After trotting for a short time and following Alfredo's instructions ("More bend! MORE! Inside LEG! Deeper! Yes, beautiful!"), he called for a walk break and mumbled something like, "Oh, you actually CAN ride" before moving on to change directions. I felt like I'd made up a little bit for our awful start, since I was able to put Taran together with his instructions. We actually talked a little bit about that, and I said that I ride much better when I have someone telling me what to do. He said that I need to be more demanding of my horse, and hold myself accountable for every transition, every turn, every step. And he's right.
Taran objects to how hard this was. I objected too, by whining about how out-of-shape I am.
We also discussed rider fitness. He said that I was really quite strong (!?!?!) but that I need to up my cardio if I want to progress. This is something I've been thinking about recently, so I need to figure out a program to improve.
We look fancy and engaged, but maybe a bit stuffed and tense? Thoughts? (Yes, I need to get my shoulders back. Dammit.)
I was super excited about my first lesson - we made some major breakthroughs and although he said exactly the same things my regular trainer says, he was just more demanding and in turn I rode better. I also had a lot to think about in terms of my riding and how Taran goes when I change it up. No pi/pa, but we still had two days to go!
