Lessons with a Grand Prix trainer

Last weekend, I was invited to bring Taran up to a clinic with a local-to-Texas Grand Prix dressage trainer. Since the weather was nasty and I wasn't going to be able to ride at home, I figured I might as well go somewhere with an indoor and take lessons from someone new. And I'm really glad I did!

There are a million couple problems that are keeping us from progressing with 2nd level. We're working hard on these at home, so I was up front about things with GP trainer. Might as well air all your dirty laundry right off, you know?

• I love to pull with my left hand (this is a theme)
• Taran tends not to be even on his right shoulder, and as a result, he's not really in my right rein and therefore not really straight. I'm constantly trying to manage this and not doing a very good job of it, but it's our biggest problem right now because not being straight and even makes everything else 2x harder. 

After watching me WTC, GP trainer asked to hop up on T to see how he rode. I'm all for this, because sometimes what you feel from the saddle is very different from what you see on the ground. She was super complimentary of T, said he was trained very correctly and that she could feel what I was talking about. However, she felt that the issue with his right shoulder was more that he carries BOTH shoulders to the outside when tracking right. I could easily see what she meant in the videos, and when we addressed that issue, suddenly he filled up my right rein and everything felt more even. She also stressed how important it is to ride T with his poll at the highest point, so that his shoulders free up and he doesn't dig himself into a trench. 

First up, trot work. She wanted him to go with his shoulders to the inside and a little leg yield on the circle, but my problem with this is often that he tends to throw his haunches out and that's not correct. She wanted me to manage his steps so that he didn't have the chance to throw his body around, and we did a LOT of asking him to slow the trot from my seat. You can see in the video how he gets a little quick and on his forehand and then I sit and he comes back, back and forth, because I'm not so great at managing that slower, more collected trot yet (why hello, abs, it's so nice to meet you owwww).

Slow that waaaaay downnnnnn...

You'll also hear her talking about "moving the bit", and by that she means just a tiny flex of my ring finger. I get really stuck and stiff with my left arm (pulling, anyone?) and Taran responds by setting his jaw and poll on the left side. Simply flexing that one finger reminded me to stay loose in my left arm and as a result, he stayed much more supple. At 1:00 you can see me try to do a 10 m circle right, but it took me forever to get him off the track to do it because he was so stuck on the left rein. In my next 10 m circle at 1:45, my left rein/arm is softer and we're able to execute the circle much more easily.

She also refers to "fluffing up his shoulders," which is kind of like fluffing sheets when you make the bed. I bring him back with my seat, keep my hands up and light (NO PULLING), and add inside leg to encourage him to step under (explanation is at 2:10).  

For the canter, I uh, learned that I've been asking for the canter wrong for my entire life. Did anyone else not know that you cue with your inside leg when the inside hind is reaching forward? Bueller? Right. So uh, need to fix this so that my canter transitions don't suck. 

Note angry ears and mane shake, because cueing correctly means he has to sit down and do the transition correctly too. And that's HARRRRD.

His canter, y'all. It was SO NICE at times. He felt so balanced and steady. Annnnd then he would get tired and/or I wouldn't "refresh" the canter enough and we'd lose it. Or I'd forget to turn his shoulders, or he'd get quick, or something. He's really trying with this new canter, but it's super hard for both of us. Basically I need to constantly ask him for a baby leg yield to keep the inside hind working, but then wait with my seat (AND DON'T PULL) so I don't let the canter get bigger.

If you want to see a great example of shoulders falling to the outside, check out the canter depart at 1:03. Or here's the handy still sequence, where you can see juuuuust how much his shoulders aren't in line with his haunches:

Finally, we did a little work on medium trot (well, we also worked on shoulder in, haunches in, and half pass, but that that's not on video). To set up, we did a lot of forward/back with "small steps" - again, no pulling, but all off my seat and keeping his poll up. 

Although our mediums mostly sucked, there were a few steps here and there, at the very beginning of some of the lines, where you could see his shoulders really lift up and out (1:26, 1:58). That's totally new for him - normally his mediums feel like he's plowing a trench. But the combination of keeping his poll UP and having him take shorter steps off my seat made for some sort of magic where he could actually use his shoulders. GP trainer made the comment that he's not quite sure what to do with himself, but if we keep asking for a few steps here and there, he'll get stronger and understand that he can use his body better.

I really enjoyed my lessons and got a TON out of them, and I'm hoping to attend clinics with her regularly in the new year. She's about 2.5 hours from me but sometimes teaches closer. Her methods are very complimentary to my current trainer, and I think that learning from both of them would really allow us to progress even more quickly. Plus, she's hilarious (sadly not caught on film), which adds an extra element of awesome to any ride. 

Poor Taran. Life as a pasture ornament was so much easier than that of an aspiring 2nd level horse!

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.

From stiff to bendy in under an hour!

I don't usually write much about my lessons, because I find it hard to write about minutiae in an interesting way. However, I do enjoy reading about others' lessons, because I always learn something. So here goes - with loads of pics and some video.

We've been warming up at the walk with tons of bend and changes of direction. I've mentioned that Taran likes to tilt his head instead of actually bending, so getting true bend through the entire body - including from the base of the neck to his nose - is a focus of the whole ride. He also will be great going one way, but if I work too long one direction, he gets stuck and finds it very hard to change his body to bend in the other direction. So I ask for a lot of changes of direction to start with. 

Right head tilt instead of bend. This apparently creates giant weird neck muscles.

Better.

Here's a video of our super awkward walk warmup. The interesting take-away for me is that it's OK to hold onto the right rein until he does what I'm asking for (with appropriate ask of inside leg, of course), but when I give, I need to follow him and keep the contact, instead of just throwing it all away as a "reward". In other words, keep the tension in the rein, but allow his neck to straighten.

As we moved on to trot, I'm looking for more of the same bending, but *I* have to be steadier with the connection. If you listen to my trainer's comments, there are some notes about better contact - and of course, more inside leg. Always more leg. 

Falling out on right shoulder works great (for him)

Better into the contact.

Haha, just kidding.

OMG WTF WAS THAT!!?!?! (I have no idea, because there is literally nothing there and we'd been past that spot like 50 times already. Weirdo.)

I need to be quicker with the corrections. I can't let him flop around with his head tilted for half a circle - I need to ask for the bend with my inside leg, back it up with fingers, and then relax when he responds. Oh and FFS don't pull back on the stupid reins. Here's the video of our trot warmup...

If you pull the horse into the new direction of bend, you lose the connection and he gets hollow. Duh.

If you push him into the new bend by using your new inside leg to ask for the change of direction, you get to keep the connection and all the other nice pieces too. Also Duh.

3 loop shallow serpentine - note nice connection and left leg asking for the change of bend (at least, I'm going to pretend that's what my left leg is doing, because otherwise it might be doing some strange yoga move on me)

Wait, maybe not...

SCREW YOU LADY I HATE DRESSAGE

If you want to see the epic objection, it's near the end of the video. But to get to that, you have to enjoy some actual pleasant changes of bend and nice trotwork (for us).

I had issue with the canter videos (mostly watching myself flop around was painful) and we just did a smidge of canter at the end, so you get a few stills. The upward transitions are still sticky and a bit of a toss-up (literally, he tosses his front end up), but the canter itself is getting stronger and more balanced. 

Horse looks decent, wtf left leg?

Focus on the horse and not whatever my leg is doing.

So there you have it. From walk warm-up, through iffy trot to nice trot, to iffy canter. This lesson was really all about the connection and getting bend by owning one rein or the other (in a nice way), and that's my main takeaway and what I will continue to work on. We have some really nice moments in the trot, and we're definitely getting to be more consistent. Canter and walk... eh, I'm sure those aren't scored much so I really don't need to care for the schooling show this weekend, right?

ALL THE LESSONS

Since the beginning of the year, I've been cramming in lessons every chance I get. I had been doing the once weekly thing, but with the weather, we started missing weeks, and that was no good. So I've basically been taking lessons whenever our schedules match and the arena is dry enough to ride.

And damn, has it ever paid off.

For many reasons, the dressage trainer we started riding with in November is exactly what Paddy and I need right now. She's got the patience and the attention to the exact right details, and as a result we've just been making breakthrough after breakthrough. Every ride has been exponentially better than the last. I really wish I'd had time to blog about each and every lesson, because each one has been like gold. My riding has really progressed, and with it, Paddy's rideability.

It's a big personal journey for me. I'm learning the feel of things like never before, and I'm so much more body-aware. The more I learn, the more I realize just how far I have to go, and how we've been coasting along on what I thought was correct. Honestly, it leaves me wondering how we ever got the scores we got last year, considering how wrong we were doing things! But the feeling of doing it right, of feeling the flow and harmony... it's really awesome.

We're no longer spending 45 minutes trying to get Paddy focused on his job. It doesn't take 10 minutes to get his attention back after a walk break. I'm (mostly) not pulling on the reins, my core is stronger, and Paddy is so light off my seat sometimes I have to remember not to ask so "loudly". Don't get me wrong, we still have so much to work on - but things that were a huge source of frustration only a month or so ago are not even a blip on the radar now. We've moved on to tackling the next problem, and the next, and the next... and as I get better and better, he goes better and better.

Unfortunately I only have a bit of video of our last lesson (in the dark), and maybe it's because it's dark that it looks so good... but damn, y'all, I feel like we've come a long way in a short time.

This is why I ride. It's the journey, it's the learning, it's the progress. It's the feeling of being one with your horse - of making it look effortless because it really is just a shift of weight or the tightening of a muscle, instead of pulling and pushing and kicking. I'm not just riding my horse anymore - we're actually doing dressage. :)

I got my butt kicked in a dressage lesson. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

I've managed to get back into regular dressage lessons, and we're just progressing in leaps and bounds. Our new dressage trainer is really working on my position, and of course, when I ride better, Paddy goes better. Amazing, isn't it?

Our warmup currently consists of a lot of walk work, getting him moving both his shoulders and haunches away from my leg, and getting him to halt off my seat. We often spend 20-30 minutes just walking, trying to get him to listen to my leg and seat to a point where trot work can be productive. We're working on ways to make our warmup more productive, but Trainer keeps telling me that some horses require 2 hours to warm up and not to be impatient. Eeek!

Eventually we start with the trot. We stay on a 20 meter circle, and work on a few steps of trot, transition to walk. Over and over again. If he stays balanced and not rushy, he can trot a few more steps. The moment I feel him try to speed up, take the bit, etc, that's the moment I ask for the downward transition. The goal is to get him balanced and listening to my seat, so that I can just THINK downward transition and he'll balance back. This is the critical part - I CANNOT pull on him. He's got to be listening to my seat, and the hands/reins are just there for steering. If I start pulling at this stage, he'll just get heavier and heavier as the ride goes on, and ignores my seat more and more.

Usually during this stage, he decides to get with the program and really go to work. For the next 10-15 minutes, we work on keeping him on my seat aids, not pulling on the reins, keeping him on my leg aids (or rather, off my right leg lol!), and not pulling on the reins. If I've done it all right, we end up with him being really up into the bridle, balanced, and suuuuper flexy-bendy. This is where we do our best work - we can work on leg yields, shoulder in, and baby lengthenings. Of course, if I start pulling, I can undo all the work we've done to this point in a matter of minutes. It's a good incentive to keep my hands still!

If we haven't fallen apart yet, we move on to canter. In our last lesson, we did a TON of trot-canter-trot-canter transitions on a circle. It's easy for him to get flat and rushy at the canter, so this really helped us both work on staying balanced because everything came up so quickly. It felt awful and I was exhausted by the end, but looking at the video, it's not as bad as it felt.

I was really happy we had schooled all the canter transitions in the lesson (despite my legs feeling like Jello after), because at the show, Paddy broke to trot in the middle of a canter circle. No biggie, we quickly reorganized and got back to it.

I'm starting to collect so many little nuggets of riding wisdom in these lessons that I've started a new page, "Dressage Wisdom," to track them all. What are the best dressage tips you've gotten?

Quick first ride and lesson recap

I had my first ride in Texas on Echo last night. It was short and sweet, and he was really good! It was also his first time out of an arena, to my knowledge.

Shiny Giant Pony.

We have access to a couple of arenas, but we do not currently have one at Wyvern Oaks (it’s on the list). Unfortunately, since we had to unpack from hubby’s week-long medieval reenactment event Sunday, and re-pack for the jousting show at Pin Oak Charity Horse Show last night, we didn’t have time to haul anywhere. Since Echo has proven to have a great brain, we decided that a very short trail ride – with his new BFF and security blanket, Cash – would be OK.

Bad Pawing Pony.

And it was great! Hubby held Echo while I got on using a stepstool, and Echo was totally fine with that. He even stood quietly for a few moments after I got on! Hubby took Cash out with us, but almost immediately, Echo passed him and took the lead (Cash is a bit slow these days, and Echo also has loooong legs). Echo clearly doesn’t understand about following the trail – a wide grass track – but was happy to go where directed. He looked left and right but didn’t spook at the fallen log, rock pile, or trail sign that we went by. He had one moment where he sort of flinched in place at some monster only seen by a certain dark bay horse, but he didn’t actually go anywhere. Good boy!

After a few minutes of walking, we came to the fenceline and turned to head for home. We had to walk into the tall grass at the side of the trail to do this, and he wasn’t quite sure that this was a good idea, but he stepped off the path and let the grass brush his legs after a miniscule hesitation. The walk back was equally uneventful, and he even stopped and stood for a few moments while we waited for Cash to catch up with us. Hooray! This bodes well for future trail rides, which are just the precursor to cross-country and foxhunting rides. Next time I’m hoping to take Reddums as a buddy instead, since he’s faster and even more Feerless than Cash.

So back to my lesson on Saturday. The working student who has been riding him has installed a lovely walk-trot and trot-canter transition. I, however, wasn’t as demanding and allowed him to sort of flop into his transitions. He’s a bit on the low-energy side, so I need to be clear in my demands and really mean it, or I’m going to have a lot to fix later. I also have to NOT be afraid to go to my bat if he doesn’t respond or I feel him about to break – I really swatted him once and he didn’t bat an eye, so I need to be confident that he’s not going to blast away from me if I go for the whip.

When I’m turning him, I need to make extra sure I’m turning him with my whole body – hips, shoulders, BOTH legs (esp the outside), head, and reins. He’s not a made horse where I can be subtle and expect him to follow my weight shifts and stay upright underneath me – not that I have to steer hard, but I have to be really obvious and clear in my aids. This will be good practice for me in keeping myself correct!

There are a number of position things I need to work on too. I have a tendency to chicken-wing over fences, and I also carry my elbows away from my body on the flat, instead of just letting my arms hang relaxed from my shoulders. I realized yesterday at work that I tend to rest my forearms on my desk as I type, which pulls my elbows out. I’ve changed my position at work so hopefully that will help me re-train my body to behave better. I also need to sit softer when I post. This is something that Paige was working on me with for H/J stuff, so I need to focus on this more. Finally, I am riding backwards when the horse falls in. What I mean is that I’m opening the outside rein and shifting my weight and hips to the outside. Of course this just makes them fall in more! Instead I need a steady outside rein, weight to my INSIDE stirrup, and hips/thighs supporting on the inside. I have been given explicit instructions to find a good dressage trainer, STAT. ;)

And finally, the biggest take-away from the lesson is that I must always, ALWAYS think FORWARD. I need to ride the transitions very forward, I need to ask for a big, free, swinging, FORWARD walk at all times, especially in the corners.  We did a small X a few times and he was very good, if a bit wiggly due to pilot error (that whole turning thing again). However, I am riding up to the fence and not after it, so I need to think FORWARD after the fence. Planning to land in the canter and canter away from every fence, then partway down the long side of the arena, is a Good Thing. Echo (and I) need to believe that the answer to every problem is to go forward, and then most of our problems will solve themselves.

 

Cute Pony!

Unfortunately we are gone for the next two days to Pin Oak, so no Echo rides. But I’ll report from the jousting tournament and horse show, so stay tuned!

New trainer

Finding a dressage trainer - a REAL dressage trainer, who nitpicks every stride, doesn't ride in draw reins, and says something more helpful than, "mooooore bennnnnnd.... goooood... annnnnd twenty metre cirrrrrclllll" - has been something of a challenge. Years ago, I boarded Cash at a barn nearly an hour south of my house, and got completely spoiled by the Grand Prix trainer there. These days, high-class board and $100/session private lessons aren't in the budget - and finding time for an hour one-way trailer ride has been a challenge - so we've been trying to find someone closer to home.

I ended up using good ol' Google to find dressage trainers near me, and found a barn not 20 minutes away - with a COVERED arena. The instructor rides Grand Prix, but was going to be in Florida for the next 2 months or so. However, she had an Irish gentleman named Brian who would be riding her horses while she was gone, and she suggested I take some lessons from him in the meantime. His background was in eventing and foxhunting, so we decided to give him a try.

Unfortunately, my rides with him thusfar have been less than stellar. I've been riding Reddums, who tries hard but at the end of the day is not a dressage horse. Brian's first words to me were, "You've been riding a while, have you?" to which I replied that I had, but for the last 10 years it had been rather sporadic. I rode for him for about 10 minutes, and he stopped me and said, "You have a lovely seat, nice leg, and very soft hands... and you need a real horse." Poor Reddums. I mean, I get it - he's small, he's gaited, but sheesh, I'm riding what I have and doing the best we can! I don't think Red lets such comments affect his ego though, and I'm sure to tell him he's my star Reddums pony often. :)

Fortunately, the second ride went much better - Brian kept commenting about how nice his walk and trot were. Of course his canter continues to be lateral and unbalanced, but it's been getting steadily better (for him) over the last several rides. We've been working on keeping the contact in the outside rein - especially the right one - and not hanging on the inside rein when Red sets his poll and jaw and starts to gait (because hanging on the inside rein makes it worse. Who knew?). I've also been working on laterals quite a lot, and they're getting much better at the walk. The arena has mirrors, so I can see when I'm getting enough crossover and when I've let his hind end start to trail. Hooray! Trot laterals still take a lot of delicate riding on my part so that Red doesn't get his legs tangled up, but are starting to exist. I have also learned that I point my toes out when I apply my leg, and it's SUPER obvious in the mirror! Doh! AND I have figured out why my right calf cramps up on me sometimes - apparently when I'm asking for more forward, I tend to pretend to step on the gas (like when I'm driving) with my right foot. Do it hard enough and long enough and volia! Calf cramps. Sooo many bad habits to fix.

The good news is that hubby's lessons with Brian have been nothing short of a miracle. In just three rides, he's got his leg under him, is posting 1000x better, is getting control over his hands in the canter, and has Oberon making transitions immediately on request. Maybe it's because Brain is male, and this is the first male instructor that hubby's been able to ride with, but things are really clicking for him. So even if my progress hasn't been all that great, at least it's working out super well for hubby. I'm riding Oberon in our lesson Monday (hubby is out of town) so I'm hoping that perhaps the change of horse will challenge me and I'll be able to get some more work (laterals, medium trot) done. Fingers crossed!

I have tried to take some pics and vid of our lessons, but the covered arena is dark so none of them have turned out. Just imagine both Reddums and Oberon looking awesome!

88

Today's high was 88F, which is 31C for everyone else in the world. It's February. WTF?

The boys were HOT - they've still got most of their winter fuzzies on, although shedding has commenced with a vengeance. I actually came home from work a tad bit early with plans to bathe Cash (I swear there's a white horse under the mud, or at least I think there is) but decided that he'd probably rather be out grazing with the other boys. So the boys did their best impersonation of riding lawnmowers while I raked spent hay and gave it to the chickens, spread composted manure, and generally tidied up. After the boys ate dinner, I gave Cash a good grooming, trimmed some of the more impressive shag off his legs and from under his chin, and fed him a dozen extra cookies 'cause he's so cute.

We didn't joust last weekend since my in-laws were in town and we went camping with them, which was lovely. Last night we did our regular jumping lesson.  I am getting much better at trusting Red to find a spot (it's always the short spot, which I have a hard time waiting for) and staying with him no matter where he jumps from. I'm still popping up over the top of the fence more often than not, but occasionally I manage to stay down and not have my saddle hit me in the butt. I'm able to keep the heels down and shoulders back in front of the fence, and I'm getting better at riding OVER the fence instead of just letting Red dive over it. I've still got a long way to go, but I can feel it getting better week by week.

This weekend there's a dressage clinic that I'll be going to. I seriously need to dust off my dressage saddle for this - I haven't ridden in it in faar too long! Fortunately I know the instructor very well so she'll be kind to me. I plan to do a longe lesson one day, 'cause I need all the help I can get on position. Hopefully the second day I can ride Saga and work on some things (like why he's not through the bridle, and why our canter transitions suck) that have been challenging me for a while.