Cantering for days

At some point in the last year, most of my rides transitioned from walk/trot with some canter thrown in, to mostly canter with a little trot and a lot of walk breaks. I’m not entirely sure when that happened, but all of the sudden canter became something I was confident about - and of course, all the tough stuff we’re working on right now is at the canter. 

Our trot warm-up is pretty quick these days. Some walk-trot-halt-trot transitions to get him quick off my leg and a little more up in front, then some shallow leg yields to get him moving his body and stepping up. I’ve found that cantering earlier in the warmup is better for loosening his back, so we do a few 20 meter canter circles each direction. After a little walk break, we might do some shoulder in and haunches in at the trot, a couple of 8-10 meter voltes, and maybe a few trot half-passes, mostly so I can work on setting him up correctly in the corner. If I don’t set it up right, I just end up getting in T’s way, but if I’m correct with bend and balanced, he can almost do the Grand Prix trot half-pass. And then… the rest of our ride is canter work. 

Sometimes my horse only has three legs, which explains a lot.

And there is SO MUCH to work on. I am endlessly trying to polish our walk-canter transitions, because while T is great at them, I inevitably forget some body part of mine and then it takes me two strides to reorganize. I do a lot of canter-walk-canter-walk-canter transitions on the quarter line, focusing on straightness and prompt transitions (spoiler alert, this shit is hard and we look drunk, I hate mirrors because they don’t lie). We spend a lot of time trying to improve the jump and quality of the canter, doing things like renvers, leg yield, spiral in and out, to help his strength and ability to sit. 

And there is definitely more sit!

Then there’s stuff like canter squares, where I turn his shoulders for two strides in each corner. When I get it right, I can really feel him balance back and his shoulders get super light and it's so easy for him... and when I don't, I'm basically hauling him around the turn.

Our problems have a lot to do with me still not actually keeping my butt in the saddle for all three beats of the canter, but I'm getting better.

We work on cantering on the spot (ish, very ish), lots of forward-and-back… there are an endless number of exercises to use. I find it mentally challenging to process what’s happing under me and choosing the right exercise to improve it when I’m on my own – in lessons I can be more of a puppet and rely on my trainer to help me figure it out. 

Like here I have lost his shoulders to the outside and I'm bending him too much with the inside rein. I need a more solid outside rein and a titch of outside thigh to ask his shoulders to stand up under his body. 

And of course, working on the changes. That’s another post in of itself, because we’re both working on the change and working on NOT changing… which seems to be just as challenging! But we’re making progress, and for a sixteen year old horse that just started learning changes in January, it's pretty awesome.

Not a change, but you can see that his inside hind is on the ground and the outside front is still in motion... a year ago he was landing outside front first. The canter CAN be improved, but it takes time! 

Oddly enough, I don’t spend a lot of time working on medium or extended gaits any more. When I do, it’s more of a check to make sure he remembers how to do them. It seems that because we’ve been working so much on carrying and pushing power, when I actually ask for a medium gait, he’s up in his shoulders and absolutely pushing me out of the saddle from behind. I just have to keep my leg on, help him with balance if he needs it, and otherwise stay out of his way (hahahaohmygodthisissohard). It is incredibly cool to see how much his medium gaits have improved - not because we've been explicitly working on medium gaits, but because he’s gotten so much stronger.

How much of your ride do you spend at each gait?

Back to square one. Again.

When you start something new (like, say, coming back into work after being a pasture puff for a couple of years), your horse is in disbelief. He doesn't want necessarily want to work ("I could spook instead!") and it takes the better part of an hour lesson to convince him of what his job is and that he has to do it. And then, maybe the last 10-15 minutes of your lesson, he starts to really put in some quality work - like a nice, connected trot. And just when it's starting to feel awesome, your time is up. You've been through the wringer (how much inside leg can you possibly NEED???!?!), and your horse looks like he's just run the Derby. You despair at how hard that was and how you'll never be any good and how COULD HE PLEASE JUST TROT LIKE A NORMAL HORSE and jeez. Why do you do dressage again?

Spooking is the best way to get out of work. 

But each ride, it gets a little better. That connected trot comes sooner and with less effort. He starts understanding his job, and you start understanding how to use your aids with less conscious effort. You're both figuring it out, working a little more smoothly, more like a team.

You know, kind of like this.

Then you add something new and difficult, like asking for bend in the corners AND a nice connected trot, and you go back to square one. Because once again, how much inside leg can you possibly need for bend (more, always more), and oh now you have to actually prepare for the corners and you can't just ride halfway through the corners and use the far wall for the second half (I've tried, it doesn't work) and and and. You're back to despairing about the damn corners because there are four of them (whyyyy so many?) and why can't your horse just keep stepping up with his inside hind and just DO them and not lose his balance and...

Forget corners, just riding in a straight line is hard.

... then you realize, after approximately 123897587123 corners, that you CAN do them and your horse DOES stay balanced and forward and stepping through and in the outside rein and since you're feeling awesome why not add something like a canter transition because hey you need to do those too...

It's a canter transition. Really.

... and you're back to square one again. Only this time, you've lost that connected trot because now he's anticipating the canter ALL THE TIME and trying to fling himself into it and WHERE DID MY NICE TROT GO OMG I'VE RUINED MY HORSE.

Totally, completely ruined. 

So you go back to trot. You try not to get frustrated when really you want to stomp around and pout because JEEZ we could totally do this yesterday but now we can't and how could he have possibly gone and forgotten how to trot in the space of two canter transitions? You remind yourself how to put his trot together, and he relaxes because this is a job he knows how to do and he knows he's right and he's good at it and you tell him he's a good boy when he does it. And you spend the rest of your ride reminding both of you that you CAN do a nice trot and you still love your horse and he's still the best horse ever and he's awesome and he gets all the cookies. And you try the canter again. And maybe it's better and maybe it's worse, but that doesn't matter, because he's still awesome and amazing.

And you try again. And again. And again. You take all the lessons you can get your hands on because you really need eyes on the ground and someone to remind you what to do with your body parts and not to pull and add more leg (you'd think I would have that by now) and talk you off the cliff when you are frustrated. Some days the canter is great, and some days it's terrible, and some days the trot sucks too. But every day is a little better, a little more, until the pieces start coming together...

Having someone yell at you in a heavy Spanish accent also helps.

... and then you add something new. But this is how it goes. You're doing great until you add something new. Sometimes the "something new" makes other things better (like shoulder in is improving his right rein connection) and sometimes the something new causes the wheels to fall off (like w/c transitions have caused our t/c transitions to fall apart. And for heaven's sakes let's not discuss our c/w transitions, because sliding stops don't get you extra points in dressage.)

I'd give this a 10 for the WTF factor.

Progress is filled with lots of steps backwards (speaking of, it would be super if Taran learned how to step backward. As in rein back. Why is this so hard?). That doesn't make it any easier or less frustrating, because I often feel like I'm starting over again from square one. But I'm not, not really, because things that were really hard 6 months ago are (mostly) easy today*. I just keep making the square bigger and more complicated, and asking more and more of both myself and Taran. It's definitely not always pretty, but that little bit better every day? That's what keeps me coming back.

This was a long time in the making. 

*I've probably just jinxed today's ride horribly. Your mileage may vary.

You're never really ready, but we're doing it anyway!

My first rated show with Taran is this weekend. We're doing Training 2 and 3 on Saturday, and Training 3 and First 1 on Sunday.

That's right, we're moving up to First.

I'm actually SUPER excited about this. I'm SO OVER training level... sure, we're not going to go out and score an 80% and there's tons of room for improvement, but let's be real, I've been at Training for basically my entire life. I'm over it and ready to move on.

He's still throwing himself up into the transition, but at least they are coming more from behind and we're able to recover within a few strides. 

Our version of a lengthen trot. It'll do.

Our version of lengthen canter. I'm really trying to ride it UP in front instead of burying him on the forehand.

Dragging your horse around a 10 meter half-circle via the inside rein is probably not the best idea.

Instead, use inside leg to engage that hind leg and push his shoulders around with your outside thigh.

Perhaps I should consider getting my shoulders back some?

And here's a little video of some of our canter work from last night.

I'll be thrilled if I can reproduce that level of work in the show ring. Oh, and I promise not to wear that particularly non-matchy shirt and saddle pad again. Whoops.

How not to do a canter depart

Transitions are, by far, the thing Taran struggles most with. I'm not sure if it's his conformation (downhill), his training (good but inconsistent), or lack of strength, but any upward transition of his starts with his head and ends with his hind legs. In other words, he tosses his head in the air, lifts his front feet off the ground into the new gait, and then eventually his hind legs catch up. 

The good news is that even in just a month, he's getting soooo much better. Walk-trot transitions are now usually come from behind and are fairly steady, and the right lead trot-canter transition is pretty good too. However, he still struggles a lot with the left lead trot-canter transition, and here's why:

Last trot stride...

Still sort of trotting.

To ensure a bad transition, stick your leg way forward and throw away the reins. Works every time (for what, I'm not sure).

See how the transition has started with his head coming up? It's like he uses his head and neck to lift his front feet off the ground.

Now that his head is out of the way, his front feet can start cantering. Hind feet are still trotting.

Starting to bring the fronts through for a canter stride. 

I have no idea.

Like a baby canter stride in front but the footfall pattern behind does not match the canter.

WTF

Ok, wait, it's starting to look canter-ish. Maybe?

Oh the hind end might be doing something canter-like.

There's the outside hind landing first!

Yay! Hind legs match front!

But because I can't only do one crappy canter depart per lesson, I had to try again...

Last full trot stride before the canter

Front end has started doing something but back end is still trotting (and I'm pulling on my inside rein like a PRO. Don't try this at home, folks.)

Maybe we're cantering? Maybe not? I can't tell and I don't think Taran can either.

Oh wait, the LF looks like it might be cantering.

Yep, the front end has just taken an abbreviated canter stride... but I think the back end is STILL trotting.

Front end cantering, back end trotting.

Wait! I think the back end might be catching up! 

Maybe we'll do a canter pirouette?

It's starting to look like... could it be???

Finally got legs untangled enough to canter!

To address this issue, we're working on REALLY engaging the left hind before transitions. Leg yields are helping lots, not just with engaging the hind leg but actually getting him straight into both reins and have him carrying his weight evenly. He likes to lean a bit on his left shoulder, which sometimes means he pops into the RIGHT lead when I'm asking for left, and keeping him even prevents that. When I am coordinated enough to have all the pieces together, he really steps up into the canter from behind, and it feels pretty awesome. When he's not, I feel like I'm riding two horses for those moments when he's getting it straightened out. 

What do you struggle the most with in your transitions?

Why Paddy struggles so much with the canter (gait analysis)

Shortly after the pro pics came out for the Region 9 Championship show, I was combing through them trying to decide which one(s) I wanted to order. I liked this one (sorry guys, these pics are copyrighted so you'll have to click) because it made us look sort of like we can canter even though we all know what a mess his canter was at that show.

And then I started looking at them a little more closely, because there's something really, REALLY wrong with Paddy in that pic. Can you see it?

It's even more obvious here.

At the moment those pics were taken, Paddy's footfall pattern isn't even recognizable as a canter.

But that's not the only problem. Looking at the pics, it's pretty clear that I've completely given up actually riding him during the canter work. Look at my position in that last one - I've been pulled completely out of the saddle, and I'm standing in my irons.  Here's another one where you can see how much I've lost my position. In this one I pretty much look like I'm hanging on for dear life and praying it will be over soon - which honestly, was not far from the truth.

And just in case you don't want to click through to the show pics, here's what I'm talking about (stills taken from video shot at home the week after the Championships):

See how he's about to land with his LF first instead of the the LF and RH at the same time? 

Here it is again, and here's me being pulled out of the saddle instead of sitting down and back and actually RIDING.

Still uneven, but better - and I'm actually sitting in the saddle trying to help him balance.

After doing some reading up on this (great article from Horse and Hound, Jan 2014, it's a must-read!), a four-beat canter of this type is not terribly uncommon. Apparently horses that land outside front first are doing so to get more support on the shoulder. The opposite of this is a horse who lands inside hind first, which happens when the horse has an extremely uphill canter and is these days considered a desirable trait.  

So, where to go from here? Paddy's displacement is pretty extreme, and it's caused by lack of strength  for him and lack of riding on my part - or too much riding, in the form of me pulling on his face and giving him some place to lean. The good news is that Paddy has a decent walk, so there's hope to fix it - or at least, improve it. For starters, I've got to learn to SIT the canter and not give in to despair! Transitions are always good - I couldn't get screen shots of the video, but usually the first few strides after a transition are very even and uphill. Also, and cantering in more of a "hunter" frame with his head a bit up and very light rein contact seems to encourage him to balance himself more. And my trainer has had us work on getting more "jump" in his hind end in the past, since he seems to get a bit sticky. Other suggestions are welcome!

Oh, and it would help if my horse were sound enough to canter! :) 

Magic trainer dust

Before Paddy's two-week all-expense-paid (directly to the vet) vacation, we took a lesson with a new dressage trainer who is quite a bit closer to us than the eventing trainer that we often ride with. The lesson with the new trainer was a huge eye-opener for me - she teaches VERY differently, even though her end goals are the same. The number on take-away for me was:

DO NOT. PULL BACK. ON THE REINS.

No really. Don't do it. Don't even THINK about doing it. Because apparently I do this constantly - try to "take" the contact instead of following what he gives me. I needed a recording of someone saying "Don't pull back!" approximately every 10 seconds, that's how bad it is. But... BUT... when I follow and am soft, don't half-halt, don't move my hands, don't pull, stay steady and even in BOTH reins, and allow him to come to me, he will. Eventually. After 35 minutes or so. And then he's abso-fucking-lutely amazing - which makes it totally worth it.

And how did we accomplish this miracle? Quarter and half-turns on the haunches. Constantly moving his shoulders around, at the walk. At first, he mostly ignored my leg. Then he moved better off my leg, but threw his shoulders around (this is where not being even in both reins became glaringly evident). Then he ignored me some more. And then... THEN... miracle of miracles, he started moving his shoulders STRAIGHT, and evenly, and I held on to both reins (but didn't pull), and he moved off my leg, and came up over his back, and I felt like a fucking centaur because it was all about my leg and body and had nothing to do with the reins, except to keep him straight.

And then we picked up a trot and worked on making sure he was listening to my seat half-halts so I DID NOT PULL ON THE REINS. That took some doing, and she had me move my hands up instead of back - I didn't worry about his head or his back or anything else, just that he responded promptly. And then I had a horse that I could trot on a light rein, in 10 meter circles, both directions, and at the slightest change of pace or loss of balance I could sit up and tighten my core and NOT PULL BACK, and he would respond. And our leg yields? Fucking amazing. He felt like a Grand Prix horse.

And that inside leg to outside hand? Nope. Both reins equal, at all times. Don't drop the inside rein, DON'T YOU DARE.

So yeah. COMPLETELY different way of riding. I SO want to take, to half-halt with the inside rein (or drop it completely, 'cause I'm really good at that! As a reward, you know.) But instead I am to give, to soften, constantly, and to wait for him. I need a Costco-sized dose of patience that I am struggling to find, so thank goodness trainer reminds me constantly to just wait and soften. I need to take some of this magic trainer dust home so I can replicate the amazeballs work on my own.

This weekend, we were able to take a second lesson with her. This time we worked on moving his haunches, because he was a leeetle too eager to throw his shoulders around. He moves his haunches off my left leg really well, right leg, not so much. Again, we made sure he was off my seat and leg at the walk before moving on to the trot. Interestingly, the walk was not as good this time, but the trot was so much better earlier on in the ride. Yay progress! We really worked hard on not falling in, on having a supporting leg and hand in every change of direction, and on owning one rein (he kept looking around so I found it hard not to pull on the reins but keep his nose straight). We also worked a lot on transitions, especially on me following the transitions with my hands and not blocking him, either up or down (i.e. DON'T PULL ON THE REINS), but instead using the concept of "hip to hand" to get the transitions (i.e. roll my hips up by tightening my core to get the downward tx.) In the trot work, every time he would get heavy, I'd half-halt with my seat and put on inside leg. If he went behind the bridle, or above the bridle, more leg. Basically, every problem was solved with more leg and less hand.

This is a strange concept for a horse that tends to run around like a lunatic. It's like reverse rider psychology.

Toward the very end, he felt so light and balanced that I asked for a right lead canter and... whoa. Magic. Balanced, uphill, light, totally maneuverable. What's interesting about the new and improved canter is that we did not achieve this by doing tons of canter. Instead, we made sure that he was straight, balanced, and on the aids in the walk, then the trot, before moving to the canter. It's like we needed the building blocks before he could actually hold a good canter. Super interesting. Hubby manage to get the left lead canter on video, which wasn't as nice, but still... soooo much better than it's ever been before.

Look! Haffie is making progress! Now I just need to bottle the magic trainer dust and sprinkle it on before every ride.