What’s wrong?

April 27, 2012 Leave a comment

So we’re T-minus 7 days until our first show, and my last two rides on Derby have not been good at all.  He’s been very resistant, not wanting to bend, and not wanting to go forward.

Christy has had me work on the response to my leg, both in terms of lateral response to calf pressure, and forward response.  Both are marginally better but still not fantastic, though with a lot of work last night, I was doing trot/canter/trot transitions on a circle pretty easily – meaning that I didn’t have to ask emphatically, and that Derby’s response was swift.

However, the real resistance is to rounding.  He’s going around braced against the reins, with the muscles on the underside of his neck bulging.  He will round and soften momentarily when I really get busy with my inside leg, but then he pops right back into bracing.

Christy and I discussed this resistance at length after my lesson.  I had gone over his back before and after, and there was no soreness either before and after the ride.  So what’s going on? Derby is generally a pretty uncomplicated horse, and is pretty willing. I recalled how we had a terrible ride last weekend when I tried a thicker pad that combined fleece and memory foam.  I had no go button and lots of resistance.  I went back to my usual fleece half pad, and had two nice rides on Monday and Tuesday.  I’m going to remove the fleece pad for my ride on Saturday, and will go with just a saddle pad.

Hopefully this simple equipment change will solve the issue!

 

 

 

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Don’t get through it. Perform it.

April 23, 2012 2 Comments

A nice moment. One of several, for a change.

Day by day, things are getting a bit easier with the new, longer leathers and subsequent position changes.  I’m still a long way from being solid and strong in the saddle but I can feel improvement daily.   In today’s lesson, we made a show-ring quality trot a priority.  Sounds easy, but for me, at the moment, it’s not.   Putting the horse together, while maintaining a decent forward gait in a seat that still feels a bit precarious isn’t easy and the relative lack of stability gives me some heebie jeebies now and then.

Wake up, Derby. We need to work hard on quality next, but my seat is coming along.

The ride started out a little “eh.”  I will freely admit that I’ve not been riding as forwardly as I should, due to the above mentioned issues with the new position.  I have been doing some canter work though, and I needed it tonight, to get my pokey pony into gear.

In reality, though, the pokiness wasn’t entirely Derby’s doing.  When I straighten up, open up my hip angles and drape my calves along his sides, he goes forward nicely,  I’ve been reverting to trying to drive with my foot hovering on the brake.

Once we got warmed up, we ran through Intro A.  The results were uninspiring.   “Don’t just get through it,” Christy insisted.  “Perform it.”

A-ha.  That gave me a new (and badly needed) perspective.  I was just going through the movements, and it showed. I rode it again, this time with some purpose.  It got better, especially as I paid attention to riding from my seat and legs, and staying out of Derby’s mouth, quieting my hands.

Free walk. This is coming along.

We then went through Intro B.  Finally, things were clicking into gear. As I rode Derby more forwardly, Christy observed that he really started to carry himself.  It felt great, and in addition to some nice roundness and contact, I also had his back up and his back end under me.  I love that feeling – when you have the horse packaged up, they feel so together, responsive and maneuverable.

Overall, I’m finally able to produce some decent gait quality and keep it for more than just a fleeting instant.  I hope we keep progressing!

Tomorrow I need to send in my first show entry.  It’s a schooling show up at Silverwood, and I’m going to ride Intro A and B.  I was hoping to ride C but as you can see from the canter picture above, we aren’t ready to take that into the show ring.  First things first – I have to re-establish the basics before I can even think of doing more.  We’re not ready to really perform the canter in public … yet.  For now, I’ll have to content myself with how pretty the late afternoon sun makes everything look, especially our new periwinkle duds.  🙂

A friend complimented me on matching the clouds. Yep. Meant to do that.

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Regaining balance

April 21, 2012 Leave a comment

Over the last few days, I’ve been working assiduously on my position, trying to regain effectiveness after dropping my stirrup a hole. It’s just a hole but as I noted in the previous post, it’s made a dramatic change in my position. It feels almost like I’m working without stirrups, which indicates how much I was relying on my stirrups when they were shorter.

I know that I’m going to be more effective with my aids riding with a slightly longer leg. However, it’s taking me a while to regain my base of support and stability.  My lesson on Thursday was challenging, and for the most part, we went around inverted. The trot was ugly and the canter wasn’t much better.  In my ride on Friday, I really focused on regaining some roundness, and things were a bit better.  Today we rode outside, and the quality of the ride improved again. Despite the distractions of the outdoor (it was cool and breezy, and approaching feeding time,) I was able to keep Derbs fairly round and all the gaits improved.

I’m definitely working some new muscles – my legs have been tired for the last few days which just blows my mind, given the relatively small degree of change.  Just one hole!  Here’s hoping that I get back to being fully effective soon.

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When one hole feels like one mile

April 17, 2012 Leave a comment

We tried a little something different in my lesson last night, and I’m feeling it today.

We started out doing a little sitting trot, which isn’t something I work on much, but as we warmed up walking, I had a really nice walk going from Derby, and I commented to Christy that his active walk (and following it with my seat) was just what my achy, crampy self needed.

She had me essentially “follow” with my seat into a trot, closing my legs and inviting the upward transition with my seat.  Then as we got going, Christy had me feel (and control) my seatbones, un-clamp my knees and relax my lower leg, draping my calves around the horse.   While I’ve sat the trot before, last night was the first time I feel like I really started to get an inkling of how to sit the trot effectively.   And by inkling I do mean fleeting glimpse, but it was still an “ah-ha” moment for me.  With Christy’s coaching,  I was able to follow with my seat and get Derby to round a bit.  And then the burn started.  I knew I was doing it right and engaging my core when suddenly my lower abs started to burn.  It felt like I was doing micro-crunches in time with Derby’s stride.  It was a cool feeling and I can’t wait to work on this a bit more and get to the point where I can actually sit effectively.  In reality, this is stuff I won’t need for, oh years (in terms of competition) but it was still cool to do, and importantly, the exercise got me in touch with my seatbones.  We did some walk-halts, with me just shifting the angle of my seatbones  (really, that was it)  and each time Derby halted nicely – on contact, square and balanced.

As promised, I did drop my stirrups while doing some of the sitting work.   I really need to learn not to do stuff that gives Christy ideas, because she liked the way my leg looked when I dropped the stirrups.

I’ve been riding with them a bit short, because I was having some issues with my hip locking up, which then stilled my seat and caused me to arch my back.  Christy has had me work with a bit shorter leather, and that has done the trick.  She dropped my stirrups a hole, and had me give it a try.

It’s amazing what a difference that hole made.  It may as well have been a mile.  Okay, I’m being a bit dramatic, I know ,but really it did effectively put my leg in a whole new position, moving my knee off my saddle’s knee block and changing my hip angle.  Posting felt very weird at first.  Christy had me focus on posting in a more upright posture, thinking of rising straight from my hips.   She also had me keep my calves wrapped softly around Derby’s sides.  It wasn’t pretty and didn’t feel good, but I’m going to stick with it.  Better now than never! I feel much better with the longer leather – it’s easier on my knees, and, as Christy noted, it puts me in the position the saddle was was designed for.   It’s never fun messing with your position but I know it will feel better soon.  In the meantime, I’m feeling the effects of last night’s ride in my legs today.  More Advil, please!

 

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Do you *really* ride every stride?

April 15, 2012 7 Comments

I had the pleasure of riding two spooks over the last couple days, including a pretty big one on Saturday.  Derby was apparently stunned to see humans walking around the outdoor, and teleported sideways and then thundered across the arena.  During the episode I lost a stirrup, and had enough time to think “Oh, crap” and then “I’m coming off” and then “No, I’m not coming off, I’m okay” and then “Can I get my stirrup back and keep him in this this canter for a good long while?”

I couldn’t regain the stirrup while Derby continued to be silly, but I was able to get him down to a trot pretty quickly, at which point I grabbed my stirrup and put him back to work.  I did the ‘cloverleaf’ pattern I used to ride when I needed to get Maddie’s head back in the game.  I use relatively small circles (about 12m) and change direction and bend constantly.  It’s my default pattern for those “sit up and ride” moments. Once I had his back up and a good connection and was in control of the hind legs, I headed back down the long side. Derby tried to spook again, earning a spur firmly in his side, while I growled and gave him a spank with my whip.  He did veer off course but I was able to block a bigger reaction.   We did another couple turns of the cloverleaf again, crossed the diagonal, went back down the long side with no incident going the other way. I switched direction, went down the long side going the same direction as the original spook, and Derby was fine.  At that point, we were more than finished for the day.

This got me thinking about something Christy and I’ve spoken about several times – riding every stride, meaning that you literally manage every moment of the ride.  I don’t do this. I should.  I do ride every stride when I’m dealing with a situation like the aforementioned spook.  Which drives Christy a bit nuts, I think, because, when I really ride with intent and attention, things get a lot better.

I really need to get more out of myself.  One thing that has helped me is “homework,” meaning I take exercises from my lessons and really practice them, not going through the motions but really working on quality results.  I’ve also noticed that Derby is more likely to spook when I start to get tired, toward the end of the ride. That, I suppose, is more incentive for me to get my act together, and keep it there. Though if anyone out there has any ideas for maintaining focus,

Maintaining position while Maddie takes a close look at the jump standards.

The good news is that I’m regaining my seat and balance, and my confidence is intact despite Derby’s recent antics.  The work I did while riding Maddie on my seat has continued to pay off, and my lower leg is now pretty steady and quiet.

An ugly moment but I'm plugged into the tack. My lower leg hasn't moved and is providing a good base of support.

However, the recent events have recommitted me to improving my seat even more.  I’ve agreed to start dropping my stirrups in lessons (just a bit to start!).

I know from personal experience that (for me at least) confidence stems from building my competence. I’m glad I was able to stick with these recent spooks, which have been good tests of my seat.  But in my mind, I don’t think one can ever have too much stability int he saddle.  This won’t be terribly fun but it will be worth it.

Maintaining position as Maddie takes a really close look at some jump standards.

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Once again, like you mean it

April 12, 2012 1 Comment

This is a better trot.

I really appreciate Christy’s willingness to grab video for me in my lessons.  It’s so helpful to see what I’m doing and what we look like.  My reviews of the last couple nights’ work weren’t terribly encouraging.  On the up side, during the spooking episodes, I could see that my lower leg didn’t move and my position remained solid, enabling me to stay firmly in the tack – which is why I wasn’t bothered by Derby’s antics.

I was able to do a better job of capturing the forward energy tonight.

However, there was a lot not to love.  I am not holding the outside rein.  I’m letting him steal rein length from me. I’m collapsing in my core.  The result – we’re going around in a nose-pokey-outy hunter frame.  This won’t cut it. What energy I manage to generate behind I lose out the front end.

Tonight I told Christy what I had observed, and she nodded in agreement.  She also noted that she’s taking the gloves off because we showed her last night that we’re ready to work harder.  She started us off with an excercise that improved the trot right off the bat – having me do very brief walk transitions, at A and C, which we then turned into half-halts. As we proceeded, Derby became rounder, the contact got better and his responses improved.   This was a fantastic exercise for us. Christy continued to fine tune our work, reminding me to keep my inside leg busy (“Come on hind legs! Tap tap tap with your spur! Tuck that hind leg underneath!”)

Later in the lesson, we took aim at another issue I have – I need to soften the inside rein rather than pull it.  Christy had me make a point of giving the inside rein – and the second I did, Derby rounded.

It was a good ride – the quality of the work improved, and I’m going into the weekend with some tools to use to keep encouraging Derby to work over his back – we need to build those muscles.  Lessons start again on Monday!

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Change of plan.

April 11, 2012 Leave a comment

Aieee!

Both Derby and I overdid things early this week, and I ended up cancelling my lesson last night.  My entire body was sore from an ambitious workout, and Derby was sporting a fresh cut on his leg and a sore back, both most likely the result of playing too hard.

Tonight we reported for duty, and we were both feeling better, though as we warmed up, I could tell that my leg muscles were still going to pose a challenge. My legs felt really tired and the muscles were burning just a few minutes into the lesson.  After a few more minutes, I told Christy that I needed to get off the circle we were working on, because I just didn’t feel able to sustain the bend and all the corrections and adjustments necessary.

I'll remember this when he tells me he can't sit into collection in a couple years.

Nothing was going particularly well, and then things actually got a little worse when Derby spooked at some activity in the aisle. It was completely rideable, making for some funny video stills.  And I got a much better trot out of the deal.

It was also an opportunity for me to “sit up and ride” as I used to when Maddie lost her marbles.  And, as these situations are, it was a reminder that riding more purposefully and assertively yields results.

Well, at least he's round.

He was still a bit distracted, but responded nicely when I got busy with my inside leg, yielding out on a circle and giving me the nice quality trot I was after (and must re-establish as our norm.)

Until he pulled that crap again.

When he spooked again, I stuck my spur into his side and kept him cantering.  He actually picked up the wrong lead, so we went around and around and (*kick*) around counter-cantering.  I was just hell bent on keeping him going, because, as Christy says, if you have the energy to spook, you have the energy to work. On a positive note, I supposed, Christy said the counter-canter was nicely balanced and he held it for a while.  At this point, second level is light years away so I’m not too worried about this at the moment.  We transitioned into a trot, and I kept him going some more.

He's like a drama-queen tween, intent upon looking good while making a scene.

At this juncture, we finally got some nice work.  Derby was really on my aids, and was electric and forward. He felt fantastic. And despite the nonsense, I felt good and in control pretty much the whole time.  He came right back to me after each bout of the stupids, which is the outcome I prefer.

However, at this point, I was about to slither from the horse.  I was worn out – my leg muscles were completely shot.  Not sure how I’ll feel tomorrow – I’m taking some Advil and hitting the sack!

 

 

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One thing leads to another

April 9, 2012 Leave a comment

Pick 'em up, put 'em down, Derbs.

The theme of the next few weeks, Christy informed me tonight, will continue to be “Fix it – NOW.”   And the sub-theme needs to be “Ask nicely, then correct.”  I’ve been rewarded when I ride more assertively and responsively recently, and I need to continue to speed my deployment of fixes – and reduce my tolerance for a less than crisp response.

Tonight’s ride focused on getting the hind legs engaged. The trot work improved after we cantered (got both leads, nice transitions, yay) but not before I started to wear out, due to the effort I expended at the beginning of the lesson.  I was working harder than the horse was at the outset as we worked on developing a good quality trot circle.

Toward the end of the lesson, I needed to switch things up, as my legs were getting tired after the circle work. We decided to do big laps, focusing on getting Derby to really step out.  He was moving nicley but I can feel the difference in his fitness a few months ago, and his fitness now.  I know that as he gets fitter (and as I do too) the quality of our work will improve.  In this sport, one thing leads to another.

On my way home, I mused about all the work we need to do and the things we need to practice, an I admonished my self not to get impatient with the horse, or with myself, for that matter.  As Christy said, I need to focus on fixing issues as they arise, in the moment. And I can do that.

As I continued to muse, my subconscious fixed on the word “Fix” and connected that to a video I watched about eleventy-billion times back in the day.  For those doing the math, yes, I saw MTV’s first video, yes, I was a child of the 80’s.  Here is a very apropos selection for your enjoyment.

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Ride.

April 7, 2012 2 Comments

Handsome fellow. He looks dashing in red.

After a few really nice rides, we had an extremely crappy lesson on Thursday.  Derby was dead and behind my leg, and was resistant, going around giraffe-necked and bracing. I had gone over him with a fine toothed comb prior to saddling, and hadn’t found any soreness, and indeed, his resistance wasn’t the sort of emphatic “get off me now or I’ll see that you do” resistance one encounters when riding a really back-sore horse.  It was more along the lines of “Don’t wanna.”

Christy suggested I canter him to wake him up, and while the canters were OK (decent quality, decent tempo, fairly prompt transitions) he still didn’t offer any really good gaits. So, because he didn’t offer, I had to ask –  nay, insist. I had to really ride.

It was really tough to get him to stretch into contact and relax. Christy had me work the stretch, which resulted in only achieving a barely passable working trot, but at least his back came up and he rounded.

All in all, it was a tough and unsatisfying ride, despite the fact we only worked for about 40 minutes, and didn’t work terribly hard.  The culprit, we know, is fitness. So Derby bought himself an additional ride on Friday.   I don’t normally ride on Fridays, and was in fact taking Good Friday off, but I juggled my schedule and got out to the barn mid-morning.

My plan was to primarily do a lot of trot work, with a bit of canter thrown in, and the ride went according to plan.  Derby felt really good, I had my nice forward horse again, so I took advantage of it, working on adjusting the trot from a smaller (but still round) gait on the short ends to the big, pushing trot down the long sides.   While Derby was still a hair resistant and I had to really stay on top of him to get the roundness I wanted, he was listening to my halt halts and we motored strongly through some circles, serpentines and diagonals.

We did to a little canter work, but I made the decision to focus mostly on staying moving for a longer duration of time, and trotting is the way to build good top line.

It is hard to stand still for a picture when I really should be inspecting her pockets for stray sugar cubes.

I was also very happy with the quality of walk I had when we were taking breaks.  He was focused and forward, marching strongly, with a nice swingy back.

At the end of the ride, I couldn’t resist the sunny day, so I dismounted, grabbed my jacket (it was cool and breezy despite the sun) and we cooled out in the outdoor. I did some lateral work, spiraling in and out on a circle, and doing shoulder-in both directions before letting him stretch and free walk around.  We ended schooling some walk-halts.  I was very, very pleased with the ride on Friday.

Derby gets the next couple days off.  On Friday afternoon, he got his spring shots, and we always rest the horses the day after vaccinations, because they sometimes feel a little icky afterward as they adjust to the vaccine, just as we do when we get flu shots.  Sunday is Easter, and I have family visiting, so I’ll be skipping the barn that day, too.  It’s supposed to be very pleasant this weekend, so hopefully Derby and his pasture mate Remy will spend most of the weekend snoozing in the sun, resting up for next week’s work!

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Fix it — NOW

April 4, 2012 1 Comment

As you may imagine, I’m pretty happy that Derbs didn’t need surgery after all.  While I would never hesitate to put the horse first, nonetheless, I’m really glad that we’re not heading into weeks of stall rest – especially as others are prepping for a schooling show at Silverwood in early May!

I really dialed things back pre-surgery, figuring that if he was going to be stallbound for a while, it would be better to not ramp up his fitness levels immediately prior to the time off.  So we did easy rides.  Now, however, it’s officially go time.  We need to balance getting to work with not over-doing things.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and I took the afternoon off to deal with the logistics of returning Derby to Silver Fern, and to hang out and enjoy the day.  I watched Christy take Remy for a spin while Derby had some turn out time, then I brought him in and tacked up.   I decided to try using my Perfect Balance saddle pad with the new, thinner inserts I had purchased recently, but after about 15 minutes of really crappy work with no forward, I hopped off and put my old fleece pad on, and took Derby outside.

Things improved but by that time we were full on into feeding time – the other horses were being brought in, everyone was calling to everyone, and the parking lot was filling up.  It turned into a good test of my ability to deal with a distracted horse.

In my lessons, whenever Derby catches me out and pops his nose up, inverts or lets a shoulder bulge, Christy is on my case, insisting that I “Fix that! Fix it now!”  I practiced “fixing it” with Derby, getting busy with my inside leg, and really concentrating on not restricting him with unyielding hands.  It took some doing but eventually I had a much more pliant horse, and got some decent trot going both directions.

Tonight I had lesson, and things went pretty well as we warmed up.  As we got going. Christy started to ask me to “fix” certain things.  Get a decent trot. Make him rounder.  Add more bend in the corners.  Get those back legs going!   I knew I had to up the ante on the quality, so I went back to a key lesson from the Dover clinic last year.  Every corner is an opportunity to half halt and rebalance.

Going into the short side, I half-halted, applied inside leg, softening the inside rein while making sure not to throw the outside rein away.  “Better, that’s better…” the boss commented, as I held a smaller trot gait down the short side, half halting again before the corner, then adding bend.  “That looks good!” was the ensuing comment.

Derby started to run out of gas as we did some circles, so Christy asked for a canter to see if it would wake him up.  I sat, and asked, and happily, the canter quality was decent, my lower leg stayed still and when we transitioned downward, we had some nice trot.  A few minutes later, we did it again, then switched directions. I was really happy that we got the right lead correctly both times (that had been a little sticky for us) and that over all, my position was decent.  I’m glad that’s not fallen apart in the time off!

We’re doing another lesson tomorrow, and I’m going to try to get out to the barn early on Friday morning for a ride, before taking the next two days off.  I’m just so glad be riding, versus nursing a bored, ouchy, stall-bound pony!

 

 

 

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