Feeling good.

October 30, 2011 1 Comment

A nice moment with Oliver

My farrier looked at Derby on Friday, and assured me that he wasn’t re-abscessing in his left hind.  He had some minor remaining bruising but said that he was fine to ride.  So, after a few days off due to my dithering and uncertainty, we tacked up and had an easy ride.  Saturday I asked him for a bit more,  getting a little resistance that I was able to overcome. And today, we did even more, and Derby was lovely.

I’m starting each ride with good walk work, concentrating on getting Derby into the bridle.  However, I’ve decided that the warm up routine that works best for him is this: forward walk (no real lateral work) followed by a lap or two of trotting on a loopy rein to during which he sneezes and clears his pipes, then on to good solid forward trot – and then the work can begin.  Lateral work at the walk is best done during walk breaks – which really aren’t “breaks” at all.

Anyway.  Today Derby was clearly feeling pretty good and we got some fantastic work done – he was really round, his back was up, and he was really moving.  Liz was hanging out, waiting for Cloud to dry after a bath, and she watched us, offering some feedback here and there and some nice compliments.  🙂

What was so nice about today is that I was really able to get Derby into the bridle, and once he was there, he felt so solid and responsive.  I was able to regulate his stride easily, and I didn’t have the issues bending him when I had that good connection that I do when the contact is tenuous.  He was also very forward, moving out very well and really covering the ground.  It felt simply marvelous.   We did shoulder-in both ways, and some decent leg yields too.  I was especially pleased because I hadn’t been feeling great prior to the ride – but needless to say my mood was elevated and I felt pretty good when I dismounted.

I wish I’d had a reservoir of energy today, because I just didn’t have it in me to ride Oliver, with whom I’ve been entrusted this weekend while Steph is away.  For fun, I took a lesson on him yesterday, and got a real workout in riding the horse forward into contact.  With Oliver, I’m trying to give him a longer rein, and then invite him to move forward into that contact, filling up the slack.  This is tough, because he doesn’t move forward readily, and he likes to go around with his head up.  Really up!  I was hoping to do some canter work with him, but my agenda quickly refocused –  first and foremost I wanted to get him to relax, and reach for the contact.

As you can see from the video clip below, we got there, but I literally had to manage almost every stride, putting leg on, on more, softening immediately to reward the correct behavior, and continually sending him forward and inviting him to fill up the the reins.  I want him to be the one pulling on the reins, not me.

It was fun to ride Oliver again – he’s got better gaits than Derby and someday is going to be a very fancy fellow indeed.  I’m going to bed early tonight, and hope to get another ride on him in tomorrow night, before my lesson on Derb.  My ride on Oliver yesterday gave me some ideas, and my ride on Derby today reinforced the feelings of gait quality and contact. I’d love to be able to replicate that feel on Oliver.

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Happy Trails (kind of)

October 23, 2011 1 Comment

Derby and I tagged along with Liz and Cloud today for a trail ride.  It was a beautiful day and Liz’s hard work with Cloud has really paid off – he was a relaxed lead horse and she was able to give him a loopy rein.  Derby was really good too, navigating the little ditch behind the paddocks, narrow alleys between trees, a swale with tall grass and the rocky edge of a cornfield with no problem.  However, as we approached the road – a small country highway that we need to walk along for about a quarter mile to reach the trailhead – things started to fall apart.  The dual culverts we have to face drew a look, a sidestep and a snort.  A fleet of motorcycles passing didn’t help matters.  Derby became very tense. Up until that moment he had been perfect, but now I felt like I was sitting on a powder keg.

Sheepishly I asked Liz if we might turn back.  I will admit to having a bit of a phobia about the road and between Derby’s tenseness and my own trepidation, I didn’t want to push it.  Even though Cloud was being totally perfect, Liz indulged me and back we went. Completely uneventfully.

We went into the indoor for some real work – the trail excursion had really been just a warm up – but when I asked Derby to trot, he felt significantly off and was very unwilling – swishing his tail and humping his back , neither of which are normal for him.  I hopped off, felt his legs, and picked his feet.  I didn’t find any real heat, nor did I find a stone.

I waffled back and forth between the vet’s assurances that the horse was fine and just needed to be worked through the muscle stiffness and lingering effects of the abscess (and the lameness that caused)  and the fact that the horse had been nice and forward for the most part, but not so on Thursday, fine on Saturday, and not great today.  I decided to listen to the horse.    We’ll see what we have tomorrow.

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The end of the week

October 22, 2011 Leave a comment

After three great rides, I was hoping to keep the momentum going but Derby was feeling the effects of the stepped up work ( at least that’s what I’ve concluded, and I had overdone things in a workout earlier that day and had almost zero in the tank.  Our work was OK, and we got the canter both ways, but Derby was resistant and registered his discontent with a little buck.   Friday the horses were back outside (the icky weather kept them inside for a couple days earlier in the week) and he had the day off.

We started today with a set of new shoes, but Derby was still a bit uncomfortable for the farrier, and I had to free longe him to loosen up his back end so he’d tolerate getting his hind feet trimmed.

Our ride – my first on my own since the clinic – was pretty good.  I worked on lateral work, especially leg yielding the trot, and did some canter work both ways, and his attitude was much improved compared to Thursday’s as well.  Overall the contact was pretty good, as were the quality of the gaits.

After we rode, I put him on the longe, for the prescribed longe work.  He was swapping leads pretty badly earlier in the week, but today I got good quality work both ways.  I do hope we’re well along the road to recovery and loosening (and strengthening) those big muscles.

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Channeling Robert Dover (or trying to, at least)

October 17, 2011 1 Comment

I have nine pages of notes and hours of video from the weekend’s clinic with Robert Dover, hosted by Wyngate Equestrian, and I really will try to synthesize all that info and share it with you.  For now, I’ll stick to just a couple key things I took away from the experience.

First and foremost,  Dover focuses on the basics.  He tested almost every rider’s connection with their horse, and proceeded with the lesson based upon what he observed during the exercise, no matter what level the horse and rider were at.  One rider, who was mounted on one of the most fabulous horses in for the clinic (and that is really saying something, folks, there were truly some world-class animals there, including one that had been shortlisted for the Pan Am Games) that was purportedly schooling all the FEI work wound up working on getting the horse through and into the bridle honestly!  It was an astounding lesson, from the standpoint that someone at that level could have such fundamental weaknesses.  And this rider wasn’t alone.  Another GP rider had similar issues with connection, and a third rider who was competing at fourth spent most of her lesson working on bend.

It was fascinating watching Dover work with these three in particular, because I really wasn’t expecting to see people with issues to which I can really relate.  The difference in the riders from the beginning to the end of their lessons was amazing, and one rider must have done extra homework, because her ride the following day was truly extraordinary, drawing applause from the auditors, myself included.

In addition to his emphasis on the basics, Dover also emphasized perfection. “Walk perfectly,” he said dozens of times, going on to say that if your horse wasn’t through and on the aids at the walk, it wouldn’t be through and on the aids anywhere else.    He required riders to follow his instructions precisely, and had them repeat the movement when it wasn’t up to his standards.    As Christy noted in her first recap of the clinic, every rider rose to his challenge.  In our chat about the clinic afterwards, Christy and I both noted that the charge to expect more of you, and your horse, was one that we would be taking back to Silver Fern.

Finally, the last big take away for me was around forwardness and responsiveness.  I *know* that you need your horse to be forward and attentive, willing to respond instantly to the subtle aids that make well-ridden dressage so beautiful. Dover emphasized the fact that how we ride trains our horses, and essentially, we have to ride them like we want to ride, and require them to respond.

As I said, I have a lot more to share about the clinic, but now I need to talk about today.

Derby’s abscess seems to have healed nicely, but he’s been short on his right hind (the abscess was in the left.) I had the vet out, and while she did support putting him on Adequan and said he would need to have his hocks done at some point, the issues I’m seeing are more about weakness and tightness in his SI region. She prescribed a course of forward, correct work.  Which means that between what I learned from Robert Dover and what my vet says the horse needs, I need to make some changes.

It’s been two weeks since I really rode, so I did a short lesson to get back into the swing of things.  I told Christy to take no prisoners, and my formerly sweet trainer turned into a demanding taskmaster.  But that’s what we needed, and we had a good ride  – despite his reluctance to use his back end and step under himself, I was able to get him to do both, with constant coaching from Christy.

Because the correct work is now an absolute imperative, I’m taking lessons each night this week, and on Saturday, and will probably repeat the same next week.  I need to channel Robert Dover and get the perfect work Derby and I badly need.

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Ask and you’ll receive

September 29, 2011 1 Comment

Nice contact, going right, in a bigger gait.

We’ve been working on establishing a better quality “default” working trot – specifically, tracking up and staying in front of my leg.  And overall, we’re doing much better work, and I’m able to generate good quality gaits  pretty much from the get-go.  There are two keys to our improvements – my staying balanced on the horse, and insisting upon a good forward response when I ask nicely.  Tonight a few other things happened – as the quality of the trot improved, I could feel Derby’s back come up nicely, and the contact really improved.  And watching the video after the ride, I can see that his mouth is a bit quieter and he’s a lot steadier in the bridle too. Best of all, however, I could feel Derby really engaging his hind and pushing forward.  That feeling of power is amazing.

Speaking of the video, here it is.  We were working on a few things – maintaining the quality of the gait, while also keeping Derby (and me) balanced and not falling inward – at one point you’ll hear Christy say “shift out” which means she wants me to get some weight into my outside stirrup and push the horse outward.  And late in the video you hear me say “Boosters!” – it’s at that point I felt Derby finally start to push.

We drilled big trot / little trot and then did some canter work that wasn’t fabulous.   I need to work on staying balanced in the transitions, and also reinforcing immediacy with Derby.  This will come.

LIttle trot. His back is up and he's holding the contact nicely.

Now I have something else to confess.  Last night I rode Tucker, the very fancy, very small (15 h) Quarter Horse.  Tuck has a ton of training and is light and responsive to his rider’s shifts in weight, balance and posture, and aids.  He was the perfect mirror for me last night, and the reflection wasn’t pretty.  It took me a while to figure out how to ride him – his short legs move a lot faster than Derby’s, and the tempo of his trot is a lot faster.  At first it made me laugh but within a few minutes, I apologized to Tuck for laughing at him, and asked him to please stop humbling me.  I want to do a few more rides on him because he forces me to stay very quiet – and makes it clear when I’m not.

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Crisp evening

September 21, 2011 Leave a comment

Gazing (thankfully not riding) into the sunset

The weather is getting crisp.  So were my canter transitions tonight.  Derby was much more responsive, and I rode them a bit better too. I didn’t do as many canter-trot-canter transitions as I wanted to – it was a busy night, but after a couple canters we had a pretty decent trot going.  The connection is still lacking.  I’m not sweating this at the moment.  Right now, installing “forward” is key.   Staying balanced and executing the transition with grace is still a challenge but it will become even easier as Derby becomes more responsive and steps into the canter when I ask him.  Reducing the wishy-washiness of my aids will help greatly in this endeavor.

Lesson tomorrow night.  It’s going to be a little chiller, even.  Here’s hoping for a report of even more crisp work tomorrow.

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The seatbone is connected to everything

September 8, 2011 1 Comment

Empric evidence of my imbalance.

A few weeks ago, had you asked me to find my seatbones, I probably wouldn’t have been able to find them with both hands.  Due to some new exercises, however, I’m now very much in touch with the aforementioned bony structures.

As part of the work on my postition, Christy is taking square aim at an old problem of mine.   I tend to sit crookedly in the saddle, and weight the left side – especially my left seatbone and the left rein – a lot more heavily. We know this because I got an Equisense analysis last fall, which was revealing to say the least.

One thing has become evident to me throughout this tedious process of fixing my position – and building the requisite muscle memorty to hold it.  If you’re in balance with the horse, and are sitting correctly, the hose will move correclty.  But if you find yourself in a situation  where you’re desperately trying to muscle the horse into doing what you want it to do , chances are good the problem rests with you, not with the exquisitely sensitive and responsive creature on whose back you’re siting.  At least, this is the case with me.  As soon as I am inclined to use force, that’s a red flag that something is wrong with my position.

In order to encourage me to be more balanced in the saddle, Christy first had me get acquainted with my seatbones.  Atanding at the halt, with my feet out of the stirrups, she had me raise my knees.  Voila.  I could feel my seatbones, and clearly.

Next, she had me loosen my hips by gently scissoring my legs back and forth, from the hip, not the knee.  Doing this encouraged me to lengthen my legs,  and also caused my seatbones to move forward and backwards.  Next, I repeated the cissoring at the walk, holding my lower leg off the horse.  Turning to the right, I pushed my left leg back.  Then I straightened, and as we started a right turn, I pushed the left back.  This wasn’t a drastic move.  But I could definitely feel the pressure shifting from seatbone to seatbone.

On a loopy rein, Derby serpentined down the long side, guided by the subtle pressure just from my hip bones.   Cool!

We moved into a trot, and the first time I tried this , it was a struggle, as I got stuck in my left hip and wasn’t able to rebalance to the other side quickly.  Tonight, however, was better.  My body control was better, and serpentined smoothly.  Best of all, I started making these shifts instinctively, without thinking.

This is nit-picky stuff.  It’s basic.  But let’s face it – I have a lot of bad habits, and unless I conquer them, I’m doomed to mediocre scores at the lowest levels. I’m glad I have a trainer who espouses a deliberate – and very correct approach!

 

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One week, redux.

September 7, 2011 4 Comments

My improved poster lets Derby move more freely

I’m continuing to pick at my position and posture with Christy, but the quality of our rides continues to improve. On Monday, Derby and I unveiled the “new us” to Christy, and she was very happy with the significant progress she saw.  The improvement in forward and energy is evident when compared to my work prior to the show last month (“One Week.)

I still have a ton of work to do, but I’m struck by how my position influences the horse.  Really, it’s probably no surprise.  These animals can feel flies land on their hides.  The shifts in weight and balance that we riders think are subtle probably aren’t, in reality.

Now that I’m better balanced, Derby is moving forward much more freely.  And without a lot of help from me, he’s also moving uphill.  I tell you, once I get my act together, I’m going to have some fun with this sweet, lovely horse.

Christy shot some video so I could see how we’re doing, and one thing really jumped out at me.  While I sit fairly nicely circling left, the same cannot be said going right.  I am reverting back to the tendencies I exhibited earlier on Maddie – weighting one rein more heavily (the left one) and sitting crookedly (and unevenly) in the saddle.  This video doesn’t lie.  You can see me start to lean forward and close my hip when I change directions.

This unfortunate shot sums up what we started to tackle in tonight’s lesson, in which we worked on overall balance and took aim specifically on correcting my crookedness.  I have my homework for the weekend, and I hope to report good progress within a few days.

I'm starting to collapse.

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Puzzle pieces

September 4, 2011 1 Comment

He *can* stretch down and out.

Finally.  Finally finally finally.  We had a really decent ride today, following a nice effort yesterday.   Things are starting to come back together, and I’m relieved.

When we started picking at my position a couple weeks ago, one of the things I was struggling with was getting Derby to move forward beyond a sluggish trot.  Christy theorized that my closed hip angle was actually sending Derby “whoa” signals, even as I was asking for “go.”   As we worked on my position, Derby started moving out when the situation up on his back improved.  That was great but those moments were fleeting.

The good news is that things are definitely better.  Yesterday we had a very nice ride.  Derby was a lot more forward and I worked hard on staying balanced, especially as I circle to the right, since I’ve noticed that I tend to collapse to the right, causing Derby to lean inward.  I rode lots of patterns. paying attention to my balance, position and aids going left, and then maintaining those going to the right.   The quality of Derby’s trot and our balance through the turns improved.

Losgelassenheit

This long German dressage term doesn’t have an exact English translation.  It means looseness, but with suppleness, energy and throughness.  It’s hard to describe in words, but I see it now when I watch Christy ride Remy, or when she lets Liam stretch after they’ve been working.  The horses go forward with enthusiasm, but with balance.  They are on Christy’s aids, and work beautifully over their backs.  I want to do that.  And today, we came close.

With images of Christy’s recent beautiful rides on Remy fixed in my mind, I mounted up today, determined to build on my good ride yesterday.  Right off the bat, I had a really nice, swingy walk.  Derby was marching along with purpose and energy.  After walking around on the buckle, I  gathered up the reins and started to work on suppling.  We flexed left, flexed right and did some shallow serpentines. The contact improved, at least it felt like it did, so I decided to check.  Turning onto a long diagonal, I fed Derby some additional rein, and he stretched nicely.  I sponged the outside rein, and pushed with my inside seatbone.  He stretched a bit more.  This was a real improvement.

Circling right, I asked Derby to trot, and got a prompt response, and a decent trot. I repeated some of the suppling exercises we did at the walk.  The contact improved even more,  as did Derby’s trot.   Taking advantage of the much-improved and steady contact, I decided to work on adjustablity within the trot.  Heading into a turn on the short side, I half halted, and asked Derby to hold a smaller trot, and he did.  Turning onto the long side, I kept the contact, and increased my my post. Derby responded hugely, stepping out into a really solid, forward, ground-covering trot, pushing from behind.  I half halted into the next corner, and felt his back really come up.  Down the next long side, his trot increased in power.    For fun, we did some nice shoulder in, and Derby responded easily and willingly.

I was thrilled. Around we went, changing directions, getting quality and power both ways.  We repeated the shoulder in.  Derby’s back was up, and it felt great. so I fed him a bit more rein produce a stretch as we trotted.  I did dump him onto his forehand, but I sat up, half-halted, and we recovered.

This was, by far, the best ride I’ve had on Derby to date.  I think Christy really nailed it when she spotted the fact that my old position was blocking Derby’s forward gears.  I’m excited for my lesson tomorrow night to show the boss what we’ve found!

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Love the one you’re with.

August 31, 2011 5 Comments

Derby and I are making it official. The lease is up and I'm completing the purchase this week. We're also renewing our committment to the Albion.

I had a lesson last night, and rode in the old Barnsby that I have out on trial.  It is such a different feel than a dressage saddle. It’s wide, flat and open, and doesn’t restrict any movement.  And it’s slick.  No suede knee rolls.  It’s old school.  And it’s beautiful – I love old, well cared-for leather.  It has a lovely patina.   But it doesn’t work for me.

I do some strange things in that saddle, specifically, I tended to push my feet out forward, to the extent I poked Derby’s elbow with a toe at one point.   In some respects, the balance felt pretty good.  But, as Christy noted, it wasn’t perfect.

So tonight, I rode in the Albion.  And I’ll tell you – after riding for the last week on that slick, hard pancake, I sighed in relief as I settled into the Albion.  It is, as Christy says, “excessively comfortable.”

As we walked and loosened up, I stood in my stirrups to check my balance.  I stood easily, and straight, and we walked halfway around the outdoor like that.  This was a bit of a surprise.  Last time I tried standing in the Albion, I teetered, I listed, I leaned.  I could not stand.  Clearly, the lessons are paying off – I felt pretty good in my saddle tonight.  And Derby was nicely forward,  no miserable, shuffle-y cow pony trot, and he had a nice swingy walk.    We trotted around, over poles, did a little canter, then really covered some ground at the trot, and then called it a night on account of bugs.  It was a nice ride, best I’ve had in a while.

I’m glad I can give the Albion another chance.  I do like that saddle, and so does Derby.

In other news, my lease on Derby ends today.  Tomorrow I”m handing over a check, and he’ll be mine, all mine. 🙂

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