The Outside Rein

October 30, 2012 Leave a comment

I commented to Christy last night that over the last few weeks, I’ve added a lot more blocks to my foundation, but as I’ve done so, I’m aware of even more gaps in my fundamentals.

“Welcome to dressage!” Christy replied.  She went on to note that the changes we’ve made in my leg (un-pinching my knee, among other things) and seat (more awareness/use of seatbones) has improved my posture in the saddle and Derby’s gait quality. In particular, she said, I’ve got more throughness, better connection and more hind end engagement.  This was music to my ears.  It often feels better – I’m glad that the improvements are visible, too.

Last night we worked on my feel for getting the horse into the outside rein.  I noticed that I ride fairly correctly, with good “feel” and response, going to the right. However, going left – the direction in which I fight my physical crookedness and a stiff hip – is another story.

We repeated an exercise I’ve done before – turning the shoulders with the outside rein, while giving the inside rein.  Christy diagnosed one of my problems – an “eh” response from the horse, and reminded me that I can’t accept that from him.  He *can* step under himself with his left hind.  He can leg-yield nicely to that direction.   And I can’t let him get away with saying “eh, don’t really wanna.”   So my take away was that I need to think as much about what I’m training Derby to do in every ride, as well as my own riding.

“Bad habits are compensation for no response,” Christy noted.  I am paying attention to correct response. The horse is not allowed to ignore the rider.

So, back to the outside rein.  Getting the horse into the outside rein also requires two things that I need to work on – using my inside leg, and giving my inside rein.  While we worked on giving the inside rein, I also paid attention to what I was (or often, wasn’t) doing with my inside leg.  When I put it together, the cause and effect is pretty stark:

A braced neck. We’re hanging on each other.

 

A stride later. I give with the inside, hold the outside, and apply my inside leg.

Voila. Round. Rinse and repeat. Continually, for the rest of my life.

So, in addition to honing Derby’s response, I need to be aware of and hone my own, whether it’s giving the inside rein, or issuing a swift correction when necessary.

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Real sitting trot!

October 19, 2012 3 Comments

In my defense, he’s hard to put together. Derby doesn’t have ideal conformation for dressage. He’s a thoroughbred, and is built downhill. (Nice badonkadonk, though!)

Today I had a real breakthrough , and it was totally unexpected. We achieved real sitting trot. By “real” I mean connected, round and working back to front. And it was amazing. More specifically, it was an epiphany!

But first, let me tell you what we’ve been up to lately. Ofter the debacle at the last show, I told Christy that 2013 starts now. She upped the ante on me, and started to require work in two-point and without stirrups.  The last few weeks have been difficult, but interesting.  As I work new muscles, really getting into my hip flexors and abs in particular, I’m starting to see the effect my biomechanics have on Derby’s way of going.

The work in two-point is a case in point. Contrary to popular belief (or at least how I learned a zillion years ago) two-point isn’t simply a matter of standing up in the stirrups and resting your knuckles against the horse’s neck.

“Which muscles are you using?” Christy said as Derby and I tootled around in what would commonly pass as a two-point.

“Ermm. None?” I ventured.

“Right. None. And your horse is shuffling along on his forehand,” she said. “Now try this …”

With constant coaching, Christy put us together, and taught me that you can influence the horse while in two-point. But it has to be an effective two point, I’ve learned.  At first, I thought Christy was crazy when she got after me to put Derby on the bit, get him round and bend him – in two point.  But as she put us together, guiding me into a balanced version of the two point, Derby miraculously began to round and carry himself.

“See?” she said.  “It’s not about training the horse.  It’s training the rider.”

Unfortunately for my muscles, she’s right.  The work in two-point moved into a variety of no-stirrup exercises, and then we started to put things back together, applying the new lessons, as I posted.   I had a couple moments where I generated real throughness with the new position – and I wasn’t demanding it from the horse, as much as I was putting myself into the position that encouraged the horse to go there.  Experiencing this was a real revelation in and of itself, especially when Christy had me practice going back and forth between  “doing it wrong” and trying to maintain a correct position.

Again, the effect on the horse was immediate and noticeable.  As soon as I’d arch my back and stick my butt out (whether posting or in two-point), Derby’s gait would immediately slow.  Re-positioning myself into my more correct and balanced position fixed the problem just as quickly.  At first I resisted Christy’s suggestion of going back and forth between bad and good.  However, now I realize that she was teaching me to feel my point of balance, and what happens when I deviate from that point.

So fast forward to today.  I had done quite a bit of work and was taking a walk break.  Derby started to fuss, resisting contact by flipping his head.  When he does this, Christy has had me working on getting him forward, holding the reins, and letting his pulling anchor me even more deeply into the saddle.  Today, as we worked things out, something different happened.  When I kicked Derby forward when he was resistant, I closed my legs and deepened my seat, holding the reins steady and anchoring myself with my core.  I’ve learned from Christy that when I do this,  any pulling Derby was going to do was only going to make my seat deeper – and it’s now one of my most important tools.  He softened and rounded, and I got a nice walk for a stride or two. Then he popped into a trot.  Because “forward” was absolutely the right answer, I didn’t want to ask him to downshift immediately.  So we trotted, and I chose to sit a few beats.  In that brief moment, I applied some of the learning imparted from Christy and actually rode it with some purpose, drawing on and our work on effective two-point and without stirrups, and made a point of finding my balance and keeping my hip angles open.

Lo and behold, we wound up doing a nice sitting trot.  Derby was on the bit, round and his hind legs were engaged.  And it felt great!
“Christy.   CHRISTY.  Look.  Sitting trot.  His back is up. I’m doing it!!!”  I shrieked to Christy, who was also riding at the time.

“Wow, that looks great!” she replied, stopping to watch.  We went all the way around the arena, and then did it again.  Was this a fluke?  I tried it again.  And got the same good result  I switched directions,and had to work to put Derby together, but we got it done.  We did a couple laps that direction.  I experimented a bit, asking for a big bigger trot with my seat and legs.  It worked.  Derby stepped forward into a bigger gait. I think I’m going to be more effective once I master the sitting trot.

Needless to say, I was thrilled and Christy was happy too.  I was particularly pleased to have put the sitting trot together by myself, by paying attention to what the horse was doing under me, minding my position and using the tools Christy has given me.  I feel like I’m developing some independent competence as a rider. It was a thrilling ride, and I can’t wait to try it again!

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Fair weather friend?

October 8, 2012 2 Comments

This picture taken by Caitlin pretty much sums up my day. We were at the show, but missing from action.

Well, the show season is a wrap, and for me, it ended with disappointment.  Yesterday’s IDCTA championship show was a complete bust for Derby and me.  He loaded and unloaded beautifully, an settled in nicely.  But once we got tacked up, left the warm barn and out into the crisp, breezy morning and prepared to warm up, Derby became unglued.

The problem began with a tippy mounting block, which tipped as I stepped up into the iron. I got a bit hung up and am so glad my friend Brittany was holding Derby, limiting how far he could go with me clinging like a monkey to his side.

That incident upset him, and he developed horror of the mounting block. Great.  I walked him around for a while as the clock ticked down on our ride for the championship, and then – with Christy feeding sugar cubes and Brittany holding him, managed to mount.

The warm up ring was busy, but we’ve handled that before. However, yesterday Derby just wasn’t with me. He wasn’t going to relax and walk, so I started to trot him.  We changed directions a couple time, and I put him on a circle to get some control over his hind legs.   But it quickly felt like it was going to go south as Derby started to feel uncharacteristically light on his front end.  His neck was like aboard and there was no softening.    It felt like it was escalating to me, not improving. We didn’t last long.  I dismounted, because I felt like we were going to become a menace (and risk) to the others in the warm up, and ourselves.

I was bitterly, bitterly disappointed.  The show venue was beautiful, and I was so happy that we hand managed to qualify.  Our work has improved daily.  I really felt read to put in a great ride. But, as they say, man plans and God (and your horse) laughs.

I walked Derby around a bit, and he got worse and worse.  So we went inside, and I put him on the longe.  He got a good workout in the quiet indoor longe arena.  I took him back outside.  Any better?  No.  He was right back to his bad behavior, refusing to even walk nicely out of the barn. We walked all over the show grounds, and while he did settle enough to grab a few bites of grass when we were out of the center of the action, when we got near the warm up, he became unhinged again.

Once we got back home, I saddled up and rode my clean, shiny horse in my clean, shiny tack, in my white britches and sparkling boots.  We had some really nice work,  though Derby was pretty tired after his excursion and various inappropriate expenditures of energy.   He started to fuss and I put my leg on and gave him a swat with my new (longer) whip.  He came to, and we ended on a really good note, with some lovely trot work into a very good, on-the-bit halt.

I’ve concluded that (for now) he’s a fair-weather show pony.   Our three earlier outings in the spring and summer weren’t as bad as our two fall trips.  And past experience strongly suggests that Derby does get squirrely when the temperatures initially dip.  So I’ll focus my efforts on the earlier shows next year.  We’ll save cold-weather outings until our partnership (and my skills) are truly solid.

The 2013 season begins tonight at 6:30 sharp.

 

 

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Ups and downs in front of the judge

October 3, 2012 2 Comments

After attending several shows at the beautiful Sunflower Farms in Bristol, WI as a spectator, I was really excited about showing there last weekend.   We were fortunate to have a gorgeous day, and there were some bright spots for Derbs and me.

However, there were a bunch of challenges too, which started right off the bat when my sloppy horsemanship resulted in Derby taking a high-speed, unaccompanied tour of Silver Fern before I could even get his braids in.  I had left his door ajar when I went in to curry him as he ate his hay.  The other horses were being turned out, and Derby decided that he’d rather be outside with his pals thaninside eating hay.  He was all wound up, and proved to be the very devil to catch. I finally got him back inside, and braided, but he was still fizzing with energy, so I put him on the longe before loading up.   I was so unhappy.  This was not our routine!

Thankfully, Derby loaded easily, and the trip to Sunflower was uneventful.  He settled right in and resumed his breakfast, and was as cool as a cucumber.  Things were looking up.

Cool in front of the judge …for the moment.

Because I had the first ride of the day for our team, I didn’t have time to linger.  I tacked Derbs up, and we went for a walk around the grounds, giving him a look at the rings and in gate before strolling over to the warm up.   Derby was extremely composed and was being a very good boy.
The warm up went pretty well, but we kept it short, because our second test was soon after the first.  Fairly satisfied, we walked over to the in gate for our first test, Intro A.

Our 8 halt.

Derbs went straight in and went around the outside of the ring, greeting the judge with no problem.   Entering the ring, I could feel a little tension but he wasn’t bad at all.  In fact, I had to give him a bit of a crack with the whip as we started the first circle because he was a bit behind my leg.
However, he was leaning on my inside leg a lot, and I struggled to get him to move out throughout the test.

All in all, I wasn’t terribly happy with my ride, because (as is so often the case) we’re doing much better work at home.  But there were a couple bright spots.  We got a 7 on one sticky transition from trot to medium walk that has been a problem for us all season. That 7 represents a huge improvement.  I also got my highest rider score, with a 6.5, up from the 6’s I’ve been getting this year.  But the real surprise was the score for our last centerline and halt.  We got an 8!  My first 8! Yes, I was pretty thrilled by that.  We wound up with a 64.5%, which is our best score of the year.

We went back to the barn to chill for about 30 minutes, before heading back to the warm up.  This time, Derbs felt awesome.  We had some very nice work, and between that fact and his steady performance in the first test, I was feeling really confident about the second test.  I was looking forward to getting into the ring and really riding for a score.

Derbs, it turns out, had other plans.  He melted down on me, spooking at everything he saw, whirling and scampering around willy-nilly.  I got him past the judge’s stand, with the help of some enthusiastic coaching from judge Caryn Vesperman.  We went back and forth in front of the stand, and I thought things were under control as we headed for A.   He started the shenanigans again, and after hemming and hawing for a second I withdrew.  There were a lot of people and some other horses in close proximity, and I elected to stay safe rather than upset and possibly injure others.

Back in the warm up, after the melt down.

I dismounted, and stomped off to the warm up ring like a petulant 8 year old to go back to work.  I mounted up, and put him to work. And once again, he was great.

I won’t kind you, I was (and frankly remain) very annoyed with Derby and disappointed with myself.  I wish I could have ridden him through that naughtiness, because he wasn’t legitimately scared. He was evading.

Back in the barn, Derbs was pooped.  I untacked groomed him, and left him in peace with a pile of hay.  But no cookies.  He didn’t earn extra cookies this time around.  The extra cookie bag remains in my tack trunk.  I’m saving them for the show when Derby is a good boy from start to finish.  And then, there will be cookies.  An obscene amount of cookies!

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