The “Maserati”

August 27, 2012 1 Comment

Starting to get some real throughness.

Back when I was riding Maddie, I actually got to the point where I was starting to really ride correctly, developing real connection and that powerful closed loop of energy you get when your horse is really pushing with its back legs, is on the bit and working over its back and you’re holding correct contact.  I remember how it felt the first time on Maddie – when that big, 16.3 hand mare suddenly felt like she grew a finely tuned sports suspension.   All the parts of the horse are working in unison.  There are no trailing hindquarters or popping shoulders.  The horse is through.  Its back is up, it’s on your aids and connected and paying attention. It’s a wonderful feeling of power married with pinpoint control.

I’m starting get that feeling of throughness with Derby, too.  Our work has really improved recently – due in large part to our newfound forwardness.  I’ve been able to generate and keep the “Maserati” feeling at the trot during my last few rides.  It’s so much more than roundness.  It’s amazing.

Bad and naughty pony!

 

I’ve also been focusing on maintaining my forward gears.  We now have a nice medium walk that is our default.  No more shuffling.  The trot is also completely respectable.  I still need to do more work in the canter, however.  And I had to remind him tonight, which elicited the buck you see above.

Happily, I stayed on, and even more happily, wasn’t even phased.  After the bucking incident, we had a better ride and more forward canter.  At one point I even got him to lengthen a bit, and could feel the difference.  I have a lot to do in the canter – developing roundness and adjustability for starters – but I feel like we’re making progress.  I’m actually influencing the gait.

I’ve added a couple more lessons to this week’s usual remit.  We have some momentum and I really want to keep the pedal to the metal right now.

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Finally forward (update + video)

August 23, 2012 1 Comment

A better canter is easier to sit on correctly. My posture looks much better.

Today temperatures got back up into the 90’s, and Derbs was sweating just standing in his stall.  Because he’s often at his laziest on hot days, I was curious to see if last night’s focus on ‘forward’ would translate to tonight’s ride.

It did! Right off the back Derby stepped into a good trot, and he didn’t require any sharp reminders with the whip.  I didn’t have to do any Pony Club booting either. We had a really nice ride.  I was thrilled.  Importantly, I think I can perserve these forward gears.

I was motivated by watching some recent videos and not being happy with how we looked.  When Derby is behind my leg, I have to work hard, which is totally exhausting, and it’s terrible for my posture. When I’m trying to push him forward, I essentially push with my whole body – tipping forward and closing my hips, which puts the brakes on Derby’s forward gears.

The quality of his gaits improved across the board.  We have a legtimate, swingy medium walk, a very nice free walk stretching into contact, and a rhythmic canter.  When he’s behind my leg, his canter gets lateral. It’s awful. Tonight, it was pretty nice.

I’m hoping to work another lesson in tomorrow. I want to keep this momentum going.

Update:

Here’s a clip of our canter work.  I was thinking about last night’s ride again this morning, and forgot to add one more observation – that a more forward horse is in steadier contact.  Anyway, in this clip I’m starting to influence the canter here and there, getting him to lengthen stride and round (albeit sporadically, but it’s a start!)

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Fixing my “Go” button

August 22, 2012 7 Comments

No, we’re not schooling Spanish walk. He was stomping a fly.

It’s become painfully evident to me that Derby is dead to my leg.  I’m not willing to escalate, and buy a longer whip and sharper spurs.  Ideally, I’d love to be an effective enough rider with a responsive horse to not require either of these accoutrements.   So in my lesson last night, we made getting rid of the whip in one week a goal.  When that happens, I need the horse to be pretty hot off my leg.  Otherwise, we’re going to get nothing accomplished.

Christy has ridden Derby for me, and has dealt with the deadness by insisting that he GO FORWARD NOW.  In all her rides, this insistence has elicited a buck from the protesting equine, but then, magically, the ride improves.  He goes forward.

Last night, I told her that I’d man up and get it done.  Tonight I got to work.  We started out in a nice marching walk, but Derby soon wanted to peter out on me.  I squeezed my legs.  Nothing.   I gave him a good Pony Club boot with both heels.  Nothing.   I took a deep breath, and repeated the Pony Club boot, and applied a simultaneous crack with the whip.

He bucked, and then went forward.  In fact, it was what Christy experienced.   Apres buck, I had a very motivated horse.  He carried himself and was in front of my leg (finally.) The buck was rideable, and frankly, the forwardness was worth it.  I have another lesson tomorrow.  Hopefully the boss will approve.

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Fun weekend

August 19, 2012 1 Comment

Look, I was born too early for My Little Pony. So I’m taking inordinate pleasure in dressing up My Big Pony.

This weekend really couldn’t have been any more beautiful – it was breezy and sunny, with temperatures in the mid 70’s.  While I don’t anything particularly earth-shattering or insightful to offer, I can provide a picture of Derby in his new spring green outfit.

On Saturday we tooled around with Christy and Amy (and Liam and Manny) in the outdoor.  We did quite a bit of canter work, trotted over the poles, and I will admit that I fleetingly thought about trying the x.  I still don’t feel ready to handle things if Derby over-jumps it, though.   He put in an effort that would have cleared 3′ plus, cracking his back (he has quite a bascule) and popping my butt right out of the tack over a couple poles lying on the ground.  I need to be prepared for that to happen – and I would like a better result than riding around his neck and then falling off. So, instead, I did some work in 2-point, letting the stirrups rattle on the bottom of my feet (i.e. keeping my weight on my inner thighs and knee, not the balls of my feet.

To finish the ride, I ran through Training 2 again, and then did some good walk work, focusing on connecting through the outside rein, to cool out.

Today I had the outdoor to myself.  I worked on Derby’s right lead canter, which can feel pretty awful – he can get lateral on it.  So we worked mostly in a circle, and I was able to break up the lateral pairs (I think, at least it felt like it) and get him to round.  That, for me, is real progress.   We also worked on adjustability in canter. Christy was complaining that he wasn’t really covering ground last week in a lesson.  It takes some bravery for me to say MORE CANTER, but today I did it.  Down the long side, I definitely got a bigger gait.

We also went back and forth through the poles.  Derby is starting to pick up his feet and bounce through the poles, rather than shuffle, hitting them as he goes.  This is also a welcome change of events.  I wrapped up by dropping my stirrups.  We trotted around both ways until my thighs were burning.  Then we cooled out, hit the showers, and had a nice long graze.

There’s my Mom, and she has cookies!

Then it was up to Wisconsin to visit Jag.  My dark bay boy has stood outside in the sun all summer, baking is brains out and bleaching himself into a bayskin.  His coat is rough and bleached, but once he sheds his blond hair, he’ll be sleek, shiny and dappled.  October is Jag’s best month. He always looks beautiful. He is fat and happy, sharing a pasture with his pal Stoli up at Wyngate Equestrian.

While I was up there, a rain shower passed over the area, leaving an unbelievably vivid rainbow.  While my camera phone picture left a but to be desired, you can get the gist.  And needless to say, this rainbow was terminating in a Golden Delicious apple tree.  So, no pot of leprechaun gold, but I think the horses would take the apples any day.

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Hard stuff.

August 16, 2012 Leave a comment

I’ve had two overnight trips to New York inside the span of a week, which has limited my time in in the saddle lately.  I had a good lesson on Monday night, and then an even better ride tonight.

In the interim, Christy got on Derby while I was away, and reported back to me that he felt very disconnected.  He doesn’t use his body as a whole.  He may soften to the rein, but he pops a shoulder out or a hip in when doing so. I need to get him into the outside rein, and I need to get control of all the parts.

We started out working on that tonight, which required me to really use my legs and seat, and to also ride Derby’s shoulders, not steer his face.  I practiced at the walk, trying desperately to feel what Christy felt, and to feel the difference when I got it right.  We discovered that when I used the “pirouette” mental image, in which I’m imagining that I’m riding a pirouette, I can move Derby’s shoulders pretty well.  However, the exercises I did tonight are going to be incorporated into my warm up, because this is definitely not habit yet.

Then we moved into doing some patterns.  A line of five trot poles was lined up down one of the quarterlines, so Christy had me start practicing riding the shoulders at the trot by doing a serpentine down one long side, a trot-halt-trot transition at the ends, and then trotting through the trot poles down the other side.

Trot-halt, mind you.  Something I’ve not schooled. Happily for me, we already have a good downward, and Derby takes half-halts well.  We got trot-halt down quickly.  However, the halt-trot upward – which is something that is required even at Intro and that I have schooled, wasn’t great.  After enduring several less than inspiring attempts, Christy upped the ante, asking me to do canter transitions in the corners, just a couple strides after the halt, and then bringing it back to a trot down the long side.  We managed this new addition well, and afterward – when Derby was finally in front of my leg – the halt-trots improved.

Then Christy said she wanted to do some test practice, so she put the poles away to clear some space for us.  In the interim, I was a good girl and dropped my stirrups, doing rising trot until Christy was ready.

Christy informed me that she would be calling movements to me as I rode, so I needed to have the horse in front of my leg and on the aids.  All right.

We started out at the working trot, tracking right after our salute, and then circling at B.  I had an inkling of what was up when we changed rein across the diagonal, and sure enough, as I neared C I heard Christy ask for the canter between C and H.  We made the transition accurately, and rode a decent canter circle before transitioning downward.  I lost my connection a bit, and the next movement, the stretchy circle, wasn’t great.  As we followed Christy’s directions, I was pretty happy with how we fared.  We were pretty accurate, and though the ride lacked polish, it was respectable.

“Was that old Training 1?” I asked her when we were done.

“Nope.  That was new Training 2,” came the reply, along with a pleased grin. “You’re not going to improve at Intro by schooling Intro.  You’re moving up!”

This is so exciting for me.  I’m hoping to get out to another schooling show in September, before giving the IDCTA dressage schooling show championships a try in October.  It would be really fun to ride a training level test yet this year!

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Incremental improvements

August 2, 2012 Leave a comment

Better posture.

While the new seatbones and leg position changes aren’t yet habit (I repeat the mantra “Lengthen lengthen,” going into each bend and corner) it’s already helping improve my position, because my core in more engaged.  Two days on from the discoveries about my issues and the subsequent fixes, my seat at the canter has improved – I’m sitting much straighter.   I’d still like to see myself elevate my ribcage more, and my hands are creeping back into my lap (I don’t have a straight line from elbows to hands to bit) but I can see improvement from earlier this week, which I’ll take.

I have to do a lot more work at the canter – and trot/canter transitions – but we’re heading in the right direction.

Working some stretch

Overall, my balance and contact is improving day by day, as well.  Derby and I are going around much more consistently, and I’m mixing in bits of stretchy trot here and there to test my contact (and work on that movement too, of course.)

Better core engagement is also helping in the w/t and t/w transitions.  While my downwards are getting pretty reliable, keeping Derby round and on the bit in the upwards can still be spotty.

I’m up early this morning watching the first day of team dressage at the Olympics, and hope I have enough gas in the tank for a good ride tonight.  I petered out after about 40 minutes – which included a long warm up.  From a cardio standpoint I’m doing fine, but I’m still struggling with muscle endurance.   I’m paying attention to my diet (plenty of protein, and healthy carbs before I ride) but suspect that I’m just in need of more wet saddle pads.   The problem is most evident after canter work, which tells me something.

Olympics watching note: 

If you would prefer to watch dressage with some good commentary, or if you can’t access NBC’s live streams on their web site, here’s how you can watch the rest of the Olympics by accessing the BBC’s live feed: Go to VPNAuthority.com and spend $7.50 for one month of VPN access. This will allow you to get around the fact that the BBC Olympic streaming is blocked for the US. Follow set up instructions and be sure to select a European server instead of a US server. The set up is very easy. Just follow the instructions. Once connected to the net via VPN Authority, you can go straight to the BBC.co.uk site, where you can access their Olympic stream.

 

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to C

July 31, 2012 3 Comments

Christy is a dressage biomechanics nerd, and her research, practice and discoveries have directly benefitted me, and no more than they did tonight. My lesson took an unexpected turn and we wound up identifying – and solving – a big and persistent problem I’ve been having.  Be warned, what follows will be granular and bio-mechanically oriented.

Our plans for the lesson went off the rails when, warming up at the walk, I caught myself in a bad habit.  I complain a lot about getting “twisted up” in the saddle.  Well, it turns out, I really and truly was doing exactly that.  As I walked Derby in a shallow serpentine, I was using my seatbones to guide his bend.  However, my left seatbone (always the offender) ended up almost on the cantle after I had tried to muscle Derby into bending left.  I caught myself doing it, and was able to realize that I’d gotten myself into a pretty untenable position in the saddle.

“Christy! I’m doing it! This is my problem! When I get “twisted up,” I end up with my left seatbone up almost on the cantle!”  Derby and I staggered toward her, maintaining this horrific state of affairs so she could see. The wheels in her head went into hyperdrive (I swear I could see them spinning) and she got to work.

We started by re-acquainting me with my seatbones and sitting straight. Seems obvious, but this is the very root of my problems. I tend to collapse pretty significantly to the right.  Clearly, I’ve developed this crazy twisting, seat-bone-pushing habit to try to compensate.  (It doesn’t work very well.)

So, sitting straight in the saddle, Christy had me walk.  She observed that I use my hips differently – our first clue.  My right hip, she said, follows the motion of the horse.  The left hip, she said, tends to push outward, rather than forward, with the motion and looks more stiff.  Well, she’s right.  My left hip is stiffer, and it’s a bit arthritic.

Making a point of following the motion, she watched carefully while she had me do a variety of different things.   Then she proceeded to install a new (and more correct) bending aid.  It worked beautifully at the walk, but I struggled at the rising trot.  Putting the changes into motion (and avoiding the temptation of reverting to my old habits) was tough.  To stay focused on implementing the changes she made to my seat, Christy had me focus on what specific muscles on my left side were doing.  At one point, as I accidentally enaged my quads instead of my hip flexors, Derby bobbled, which she saw just as I said “Dang! Wrong muscle!”

This little mishap led me to vocalize my concern that all my strong pushing, pushing, pushing on that left side (to the point where I have worn holes in breeches under my left seatbone, mind you) had desensitized Derby.   Christy reminded me, however how sensitive Derby is (and most other horses are, for that matter) to changes in balance,  and to think in terms of creating the space for the horse to go.

I was eventually able to figure out which muscles I needed to be using at the same time I was using my core.

“Your horse is a mirror of you,” Christy said. “If you’re not connected, your horse won’t be, either.”

As I became more attuned to the new muscles I was using, things started to click into place.  Though I wasn’t really asking (and we weren’t really moving) the horse started to round of his own accord.  The turns were soft and quiet.  And most amazingly, because I wasn’t driving my hip and leg into Derby’s side, my leg was quiet – and available to give other aids.

It was a seriously illuminating lesson and I can’t wait to get back in the saddle tomorrow night.

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It’s not a fluke

July 30, 2012 Leave a comment

My two rides over the weekend were both really nice.  We’re riding in the outdoor every moment possible – the footing is better and it shows in the horses’ gaits.  The footing is also a bit deeper – similar to what we see at shows – and provides some extra conditioning too.
I was disappointed when Derby came up back sore on Thursday, but I wasn’t entirely surprised.  I’ve been working him more over his back in the last week than I have in a long time, and while I’m not killing him with work by any stretch of the imagination, he is working differently.  So on Thursday we simply longed, and Friday Derby had the day off.  Saturday found him much improved, and we had a nice ride in which I was able to generate and hold correct roundness and connection almost from the beginning, and I got it in the canter, too.  I am noticing that Derby is starting to try to lean a bit on my hands, but that’s corrected pretty simply by sitting up and applying leg.

On Sunday, we rode late in the day, after coming home from watching Christy show. It was cool and breezy, and an afternoon rain shower had dampened the footing outside just enough to hold off the dust.  We got going and Derbs felt good but when I asked him to move out at the trot, I got an ‘eh’ response.   So I gave him a smack with the whip – and got a little buck and then canter.  While I didn’t love the buck response, forward was the right answer, so I let him canter.  Derby found the energy he thought he lacked previously, and we did a lap going forwardly, and then on the circle I asked him to round and come into my hands – and he did.  Actually influencing the canter is still so new to me, I can’t believe I can do it! It’s not a fluke after all. 🙂

So work starts again with Monday’s lesson, and we’re looking at getting out to a show mid-August.  Stay tuned!

 

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This is a canter we can work with!

July 25, 2012 2 Comments

Finally! We’re developing roundness at the canter. Yay!

I’ve really been busting my hump lately, and tonight we took another couple steps forward.  I was able to replicate the fleeting roundness at the canter I felt over the weekend, and I even held it together.   A round canter feels ENTIRELY different.  It is dreamy!  So that’s what the fuss is all about.  I get it! 🙂  And I was thrilled when Christy said “Now this is a canter we can work with,” and then started talking about getting out at Training.  This year.

Squee.

Much remains to be done.  Everything needs to be smoother, more balanced, and more consistent. But there were a few other high points this evening.

Round downward canter-trot transition

Starting the transition downward

Two strides later – no upflung head!  We stay round, steady, forward and quiet.

Starting to push the working trot out:


Oh! And stretchy trot. Forgot to mention we did that too! Woot!

So, this was an awesome ride. One of my best ever. And there was a secret ingredient.  Forward.  The horses were in all day today, and Derbs was fresh.  Having ready access to forward gears made everything work better.  I have to continue developing (and riding and encouraging and reinforcing and rewarding) forward thinking behavior from the Derbster.

Here’s a look at some video from late in the ride.  I was really running out of gas and it shows.  However, we still got some nice moments.  It’s a definite improvement.

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Responsibility

July 21, 2012 1 Comment

About six months ago, after riding Derby for me while I was away, Christy commented to me that he “felt just like Jag.”   We train our horses every time we ride, and it stands to reason that they quickly reflect how they’re ridden in how they go.  In this case, Christy was saying (among other things) that Derby wasn’t terribly responsive to aids, because I wasn’t requiring immediate, crisp responses.

I’ve ridden enough different horses to know what she’s talking about.  Generally speaking, horses that Christy has trained (like Liam and Maddie) are unbelievably fun to ride – they are so light and so responsive that that it almost feels like they’re reading your mind.  They respond immediately to the the most gentle of aids.

On the other end of the spectrum are wily lesson horses and horses ridden by beginners.  These horses are good at defending themselves against inconsistent riding, unsteady hands and other rider errors that are uncomfortable for the horse.  They aren’t terribly fun horses to ride.  You have to really work hard to get them to relax and work correctly. In my case, I dulled Derby’s responsiveness and dialed back his forwardness.  I’ve been working on improving my riding – and what upping my expectations of him.

Today we had a fun ride.  Christy and I met at the barn in the morning, to ride before going to Lamplight to watch the freestyles.   It wasn’t terribly hot, so we took advantage of the weather and rode outside.   Keeping my lessons in mind, I focused on keeping Derby on the bit, and holding the contact in order to define clearly where I wanted him to go.  Over all, he made me work here and there but it was a pretty decent ride.  We rode pieces of patterns and transitions, and I was getting nice work and good responses.  We also had some good canter work, doing 20 M circles and then laps.  And during one of those canters, I decided to apply what I’ve been doing in the trot – closing my fingers and closing my legs to hold the contact and encourage the horse forward.  And for a moment – a fleeting moment, he rounded and his back came up.  And that fleeting moment, felt great.   I’ve not been working much at all on the canter, and it was neat to influence the gait.

We cooled out a bit, and then I took Derbs in to untack.  I bent down to remove my spurs before taking him to the wash rack … and found that I’d forgotten to put them on!   His responsiveness is absolutely improving.  That was a nice ride, especially without the added emphasis of spurs.

Christy is going to get the chance to get on Derby again in September.  I hope she can feel an improvement in him this time around!

Separately, the show was interesting.  We watched a number of rides, from First through Fourth, and then a couple FEI freestyles.   As is always the case with a rated show, everywhere you look you see serious equine eye candy.  But only a scant handful of rides showed real connection and throughness.  We saw a lot of leg movers, gaping mouths, tense backs and lateral walks (a serious fault.)  Sure, when you’re watching, you have no idea of the extenuating circumstances the riders are dealing with when they go down the centerline.  I get it – a lot of horses (Derby included) are far different at shows then they are at home.  Still, we saw a lot of upper level and pro rides, and we could see the problems that stem from not really having the horse through.  Tempis didn’t have jump, extensions didn’t have reach and thrust.  Obviously, I’m light years from riding these movements, and I’m not saying this to impugn the riders I saw today.   But I did come away from the show with a new appreciation for how important connection and throughness are for a good ride.

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