Begin responsive is vital

­­­The ride I had yesterday was wonderful. My mother came to the barn with me and gave me a lesson since I really want to work on my flatwork/dressage. Smokey is a lot more experienced with dressage than me because his owner, Crystal, comes from a dressage background and is doing first level with him. I may know my letters off the back of my hands, but some things really need work. For example, apparently a twenty meter circle at E or B means you have to make X your center, not a point on the circle (silly me).

Anyway, we began our warm up with a marching walk around the arena with extremely light contact (almost loose). I really had to remind myself not to thrust with my pelvis to get Smokey moving, which seems to be my “go-to” when he’s not moving forward enough. During that time I really worked on pushing him into the corners, almost leg-yielding into them to supple him up.

Once we picked up trot, we kept up a shoulder-fore all the way around the arena, cut up with many circles. An exercise we did was almost a figure eight, but not quite. We would do a 20 meter circle in the corner of the arena and then come down the short diagonal (example: H to B) and creating another 20 meter in the opposite diagonal right before hitting the rail. I always have to keep Smokey’s brain in mind – if I get too repetitive, he doesn’t necessarily get bored, but does try to complete the movement/action before I ask him too.

The last movement we did before we tried a “mock” dressage test was trotting on a twenty meter circle and coming down to a walk, leg-yielding inward, and picking up the trot again, slowly decreasing the size of the circle but maintaining the rhythm. When it got to the point where his movement would get stuck, I would leg-yield Smokey back out and pick up the canter. We really got this exercise well, and he always moved away from my leg at the lightest touch.

 Unfortunately, I had trouble grasping this idea, so my mother set up four buckets around a circle and we tried a similar exercise. I would trot around the buckets, leg-yield in so I would then be on the inside of the buckets, and then leg-yield out. I understood this a lot better (I’m a visual person), but still had a little trouble leg-yielding in on the circle. In fact, we ended up doing a little bit of half pass!

As I said a little earlier we ended the lesson with a mock test. Smokey seemed a little tired, but he still went along with everything without getting upset. I won’t go into details about the test (it followed Training Level Test 1 and 2 closely), but the only complaints my mother had to make (she isn’t a judge, but she scribes every year at the different shows) were that I had to push Smokey into the corners more, and sometimes needed to be a bit more forward. I was very happy with the outcome of my ride. While his ground manners may be atrocious, Smokey is always perfectly behaved when I ride him!

Knowing Smokey's moods

I thought it would be cute to think about how well we know our horses. It's very easy to see what Smokey is thinking at all times. For example (you will see in the photo), the little triangle that forms above his eye means he is a little worried about something (I think they were doing construction work on the indoor at the time). Even though he doesn't spook at these things, you can still see that he;s a little anxious about it.

January 25th, Dressage Lesson

This is mainly for me, but for dressage riders working at the same level with a semi-green horse, I thought this could be helpful. Here are my notes:

First, work on shoulders-in and haunches-in on a circle at a walk in both directions. On a circle, it’s okay to allow a little haunches-out to “aid” the shoulder-in. But, you still have to be careful not to over-bend, and make sure to focus on half-halting with the outside rein, giving with the inside rein, and keeping the cadence up, making sure to keep pushing his inside leg up.

Next, it’s good to work on 3-loop serpentines at a posting trot. Though relatively basic, you may not realize how much you have to focus on straightening up in the middle of each loop, and preparing for the new bend with an active (new) outside leg. Then change direction across the diagonal and repeat the exercise.

After that, take a little walk break, then pick up a posting trot down center line, sometimes going down the line and sometimes leg-yielding over. You have to be especially conscious of straightening him on the center line before initiating a yield, and then, again, before asking for each step sideways, always releasing after every step to make it active, not passive.

Take another walk break, then sitting trot to shoulder-in on the long side on both reins, shoulder-fore on both reins, and back to shoulder-in, asking for the canter from the should-in at the corner (at the canter, I had to work hard to get him to bend to the right and not bulge his shoulder to the right. I had to keep him active with an asking and releasing outside leg). Remember to stay tall, half-halt from the shoulder, not the elbow, and give and release with your upper thigh (the canter work is always hardest for me. It is a real chore to get him to soften the jaw, bend to the right, not over-bend to the leg, and move up from behind).

Remember: at the canter, ask and give big!

Smokey always loves to cool off by walking around outside. The snow was so bright in contrast to his coat, it almost made his eyes look blue!

A Lovely Lesson . . .

This is more of a rant I guess. I took my second official lesson on Smokey today (well, since it’s technically Monday, yesterday) and he was so good we got our own little audience. Since everyone at the barn has some form of Thoroughbred-cross, watching a Percheron/Halflinger jump is VERY entertaining for them all.

I had some trouble bending him today - he kept bulging out and trying to cut his corners (such a little brat) - but I was more worried about jumping because that was what my lesson was based around. We started with a cross rail down the diagonal and eventually moved on to a line of two cross rails that took up five strides since we trotted in (and cantered through).

This eventually became a canter-in line (four strides). I’ve never cantered him up to a fence before, and he was lovely! He tended to pull a “launcher” which practically knocked me out of the saddle, but he slowed himself down before the second fence instead of charging forward. When I half-halted him right before the fence, he quickly learned to adjust his stride.. He took such good care of me, and seemed to be really happy about what he was doing. Did I mention I ended up adding in the diagonal cross-rail? I think that counts as a mini course!

  

I’m so excited to show him this summer! He and I are going to have so much fun together. I feel so confident on him. Some snow fell off the roof RIGHT as we were passing that part of the arena and he barely budged.

For the New Year . . .

I really have been meaning to start this blog. I've had everything set up for the past month or so, but never did anything with it. A blog with a single post looks so . . . empty! However, I really have been meaning to come up with my official goals for the New Year. My horse, Smokey, deserves it. The plans for tomorrow are to ride and then meet up with Smokey’s owner, Crystal, and discuss our individual goals for the season.

Before I continue, let me make it clear that Crystal is the most amazing woman alive. She knew nothing about me, and still trusted me with her horse, who happens to be doing first level dressage. I know for a fact that most dressage people won’t let anyone within ten feet of their horses. The fact that he’s a Percheron Haflinger may have a little to do with it though. Not only can I ride him whenever I want, I am allowed to do whatever I like with him.

So, back to my goals for the 2013 season:

·         I would really like to start taking lessons at least twice a month. I know it’s going to end up more like once a month because I’m broke and a full-time student, but it’s a good plan

·         I will always ride with a purpose. Whether I’m training, conditioning, or just hacking out, there will always be a goal in mind

·         I will build up my own fitness so that I can keep up with Smokey. Believe it or not, he’s got a lot of get up and go, once you get him motivated, of course.

·         I will participate in my first event this summer. I am aiming for the Old Chatham Horse Trials, which I believe is in July.

I think those are pretty sufficient starter-ups for the year. Now that I have at least one post, hopefully I will be more inclined to keep writing. I did half a semester at SUNY Purchase studying Creative Writing for crying out loud! I think half a page or so every couple of days can be done.

Oh, and just so the millions of people who will read this know who my amazing little horse is, here are a couple pictures. He’s quite fluffy now that it’s about 15 degrees out on a good day.