squeeze cluck stick

My lesson ended up being a solo one because of cancellations during the holidays. I rode Tank, who would love to go as slowly as possible if I let him. I did let him, as it turns out, until D told me to use the stick with a little more force. The truth is, I know I'm supposed to let him have it if he isn't responding, but he isn't my horse and I always feel with the lesson horses that I should get permission first. As silly as it sounds, politeness is a tough habit to break.

There's always something that is left unsolved by the end of my lessons, and that day it was keeping Tank from breaking the canter while I was in half-seat position. When I'm sitting the canter, I can keep my leg on him to make sure he keeps going. My leg is not as secure in the half seat. Something I will have to think about. Any suggestions would be helpful!

Straight lines are hard

This past lesson we worked on going down the center line and just off the rail perfectly straight. It was pretty hard, especially when the pony just wants to go where he thinks he's supposed to go - on the rail. D was pretty tough on us and even caught me posting on the wrong diagonal for one second transitioning down from the canter. As she pointed out, at my level, that shouldn't happen. Fair enough! Our lessons are definitely progressing towards jumping, with the center line work supposed to prepare us for lines towards jumps...down the center line. I guess that's pretty obvious, but sometimes I feel like I'll never get to do jumping lessons because a couple people in my group lesson are a little behind me on some things. Still, if D can catch me doing something wrong, then there's still work to be done.

The day before, I got to practice ride Calvin while the high school team was practicing around me. It was tons of fun to watch. They kept mentioning that I could "Jumping right in and use a jump if I wanted." That would have been soooo awkward. I'm sure they think I can pop over jumps like it's no big deal, but that is not the case. I have been wondering if I should get a lesson with Calvin's trainer, as sometimes she does lessons during the week and I will be working from home these next couple of weeks. I feel like I'm progressing much faster with the added practice ride. I have become more confident riding with other people in the ring and don't feel like cantering by myself is so scary. Some things I need to work on:

- Not letting horse/pony break the canter when they feel like they can get away with it
- Not letting Calvin fall in and trot like a mad man instead of immediately going into the canter
- Smoothing out downward transition so I'm not bouncing around to prevent any posting on the incorrect diagnol

Wait...'leg on' actually works?!

I had a lesson with what appeared to be 14 year old twins on Sunday and it was pretty fun. They were around my ability in a lot of ways. I was on Chance and you've heard me complain before that he falls in on the right rein. Well, not any more, folks! I finally keep my leg in the correct spot to funnel him along that rail like he's supposed to. So that's settled.

Okay, new problem. As we got further into the lesson (9am, Sunday) his energy started to increase (he's young and happy) to the point where trying to keep him at the walk required a LOT of half halts. We ended up going bareback at the end so that I could learn to keep my butt in the saddle and relax when he does that and, low and behold, he was walking around just fine. It's kind of nice to be faced with a problem and immediately know the solution you need to work towards (relaxed seat), so hopefully I can ride him again this week and correct that.

Tomorrow I'm going to ride Calvin and then lesson again on Sunday. We are going to see a show with our families on Sunday and I didn't have much on Saturday so I'm actually spreading out my two barns over two days. What a luxury! I really love the flexibility I have to ride Calvin. It's such an unusual set up that I wont be taking for granted.

Practice ride on Calvin - getting to normal

Calvin and I bonded a little on Sunday during my practice ride. I didn't have a lesson that day because the lesson barn was hosting a show. So I spent a good amount of time on Calvin. He is really awesome. I had a feeling he would be awesome, but he's learning and I'm learning so I was going on instinct. In the past month, he has come so far. He trips less, he's in better shape, he has this awesome walk to canter transition that's super smooth. I got him to trot to canter one way and had to struggle a bit to get it the other way, but that's not unique to him. The trainer said she was really happy with how things were progressing with him. He got tired near the end and tried to head over to the gate, but I eventually convinced him not to by pre-empting the behavior and than rewarding him. I wanted to go over a foot-high cavaletti, but no one was watching me at the time so I figured I'd play it safe. We went over some ground poles without a problem.

I'm really hoping the weather is reasonable this winter so that I can keep up these practice rides. Last year was crazy, but you never know with New England (and el nino)!

Cantering over cavaletti and canter to trot transitions

Cantering over a ground pole and foot-high cavaletti is old news now, guys. You can pretty much expect me at the Olympics tomorrow.

JOKES ON JOKES. The Olympics aren't happening tomorrow.

Went to a group lesson Wednesday and we worked up to cantering foot-high cavaletti. I think I used to call that a jump, it doesn't even feel like a jump to me anymore. Maybe because I'm finally in the correct position so it just feels like gliding. Also, I was riding this awesome pony that would do anything, with or without my help, perfectly.

On Sunday I had a semi-private with someone I was a little more advanced than (those exist?!). We started with no stirrups and I really need to get better at posting trot without stirrups, I'm barely coming out of the saddle at all before losing my position.

We did transitions and Danielle was overly complimentary on my canter to trot. I still have to work on keeping my elbows at my sides and also figuring out how to stay out of people's way when sharing a ring. I had to canter past a couple people who were backing a horse for the first time, and I was on Chance, and we were going the direction he likes to fall in on. It's always when I know it's a really bad idea to fall in that I get my focus together and stay on the rail.

I'd like to know if I'm sitting back for the canter more now than I was in that little video of me. And I'm trying not to have my leg swung so back for the canter. I didn't realize how obvious it was! I'd rather not see a video of myself posting trot without stirrups. I know that's terrible without seeing it.

WTC Transitions

Guess what was easier than explaining what my lesson consisted of today? THIS FABULOUS PROFESSIONAL-GRADE DIAGRAM. I worked on transitions on Chance. I did a figure eight cutting across the ring between ground poles.  That little white circle at E represents D, who was standing there to make sure I got as close to her as possible without cutting the corner. It was hard to do! I need to work on getting Chance straight during the walk portion and then bending him correctly into the direction we are going to canter. I also had my stirrups a little shorter than usual and it caused me to put too much weight in them when cantering, which is no excuse, and in fact prompted us to focus on me sitting back and wrapping my legs around the horse better. This confused me because I had been taught to avoid letting Chance fall in by partially putting weight into my outside stirrup. That's probably cheating. I'm gathering the more 'correct' way to do it would be to push him out with my inside leg and adjust the weight in my seat. Bet let me know if you hear differently.

I didn't get to ride Calvin today because I had to some family obligations :(

Cantering a crossrail

So I have a confession to make. My instructor at my lesson barn might not exactly know about my rides at my second barn.

Oopsie.

The truth is, they didn't give me an option to ride outside of lessons unless I wanted to pay $900 a month (you saw that right), so I very discreetly go down the street to pay $40 to ride to my heart's content, whenever I want to. I'm not really sorry. I just figured she'd think it was kind of odd. Someday, I will tell her.

But I don't really feel guilty because it's been working out amazingly.

At my lesson, now on Sunday mornings, I got one-on-one attention for a half-hour. We worked on circling to warm up Chewie (yay, back on Chewie!) and for me to focus on bending at every turn. We then worked on counting strides. Yes, I can count each separate stride. But then, if she asked me to do exactly 7 strides, it was hard for me to transition to a trot at exactly 7. Something to work on. I also do a bad job of getting my seat firmly back in the saddle to transition down. D calls it water skiing, when your weight is in your stirrups and you're holding on to the reins to slow down. When she puts it that way, I feel bad about it. I don't want to just pull on the reins!

After my lesson I got to do a little mini trail ride around the paddocks on Chewie and then put him away. I had an hour in-between to eat a breakfast sandwich (one of my favorite foods) and then I showed up at the second barn to ride in the outside ring. The trainer who belongs to Calvin actually stayed and watched me ride, I think just for safety reasons. It's always kind of a sweet deal when that happens because trainers can't help but put in an idea or two. She said she liked how I ride Calvin "very forward" since mostly he gets beginner-beginners who just kind of kick and pull (after my pulling from canter to trot on Chewie, that made me feel better). I had some trouble getting Calvin to canter tracking right, but left was no problem. I trotted over a cross rail and the trainer pointed out that Calvin needed to be a little more forward or he doesn't do a good job over fences, so why don't I canter it?

Whelp, never done that before, but sure, why not.

We cantered tracking left, turned down the centerline and popped over the cross rail. I'm sure the equitation was terrible, and Calvin and I just kind of settled down to a trot right after because I was disorganized. But we made it over!

After that, I promptly called it a day and cooled Calvin down. It really takes energy out of you to try new things!