Unexpected progress

I was fortunate to get three weeks of lessons in a row before I had to stop because of COVID-19 shelter-in-place. The consistency made a huge difference in my progress. I've started to put a few things together:
- Turning at the right time to be centered over a jump.
- Feeling the difference between collected and on the forehand so we jump better (and getting a trot to a good energy so he canters away from the jump)

The exercises that have helped with this:
- Jumping without stirrups, working up to two feet
- Putting jumps together in mini-courses with tough turns (I realize this is something everyone does, but we have a very small indoor, so it's rare for us)

One thing that is still really tough for me is making sure the horse doesn't take a hard turn after the jump. I have to remember to look in the opposite direction and make sure I don't have too loose a rein over the jump. I get mixed directions between having a loop and not having a loop in the reins over the jump. Is it making sure there's no loop when you've landed?

My first-ever lunge line lesson

I have never before had a lesson on a lunge line, but I've always thought it would be a great opportunity to focus on my equitation, or just relax and loosen up to be more susceptible to changing how I do things.

I ended up on Colt, our newest lesson pony (who is not officially ready for the lesson program yet), on the lunge line, which still managed to be a bit thrilling. It was easier to focus on how I would ask him to trot, how I would ask him to walk (you just think walk and he does it). I also had to add turning him properly (he doesn't bend well yet) and doing something/anything/god-help-us when he would lose interest and charge at my instructor.

I made the most progress with stopping a habit of pulling too long (my half halts don't reward fast enough for him) - especially when he was charging the lunger.

I wish I could say I've conquered this pony after that lesson, but it's not even remotely true. Maybe in four lessons, or five. And maybe just alone in the ring. Being in a busy ring might take me 10 lessons. Yikes. 

Spontaneous Gallops II: The full ring edition

I failed in this last lesson. I know you arent supposed to declare failure, because you learn something every time. But really, guys, I had to eventually get off the green pony, and get on the veteran pony to finish my lesson.

I couldn't get him to slow down.
I couldn't get him to go straight.

I couldn't get him to stop walking over to his stall, which is in. the. ring. (who designed that?!?!) 

I looked like I didn't know how to ride. It would have been mildly embarrassing, but luckily, I am no longer an adolescent, so instead I just feel myself questioning any abilities I thought I have. 

The only tiny light bulb I got from all of this, was that I was using reins as the first cue, and then leg. Obviously, leg comes first in things like turning, so I need to stop that habit. Or I need to sit deep and back before I give a half halt to slow down (I'm probably leaning forward quite a bit). 

I also read an interesting point on Dressage Daily: If a young horse is excited and inclined to run, it's often best to ride these horses forward and then bring them back when they calm down. This is the opposite of what I do. The pony chose to ignore me, and ran over to his friends, while I got more nervous and pulled on his face. Also, I probably do half halts at the wrong moment (related to that first point), when I should really wait to say something clearer with the half halt.

Sometimes you have to get off the pony to get some clarity. It's a harder lesson to learn, but it's still a valuable lesson.

Powerful transitions

I continuously make the mistake of coming to the first jump without sufficient power and collection to get over it cleanly. I can hardly blame the bored lesson horse for this. We have no rhythm and no clue what the distance is, so it's very unorganized.

So we started by working on transitions to make him more responsive to my leg. We did a forward walk, adding more energy until we trotted, then went back to a walk and did it again. Then we did a forward trot with more and more energy until he broke into a canter, and did it all over again so that I could ask for a trot or canter quite easily.

From there, we went with a forward trot towards a jump, but then halted in front of it, and then asked for the jump (and grabbed mane!). This used the energy on the hind end to launch us forward.

We also worked on 2 jumps with a broken line. I was really bad at that. I'm really bad at fighting the horse to shove over when they know where I want to go and just want to cut corners. Part of it is where I'm looking and part of it is inside leg.

We finished with working on adding and subtracting strides on a straightaway. I need to plan ahead, so that when I go down from 4 strides to 3, I'm not jumping from a long distance.

There's progress in there somewhere, I just don't necessarily feel it, with all the basic things I still need to work on. OH, actually, the progress was me not falling off during an excited buck-turn after a jump. Tiny win.

Fall no. 5

I think this is fall number 5 for me. I could kind of see the train wreck before it happened, and yet somehow, the fall still caught me by surprise.

I was working on jumper turns over very low jumps. Our new indoor is smaller, so all the turns felt somewhat tight, although I in theory had enough time in between to get organized (get back to the track, get balanced and find a rhythm). The problem is, I just don't seem to multitask well with jumps, so as I was heading over a second jump, I was thinking about the third jump, not the turn. We didn't go that nicely over the jump and then Tony cut the corner and swung his head down. He swings his head down when he doesn't like the jump much. That combined with a tight turn throws me off. It's thrown me off before, and by golly, it didn't it again.

This time I landed on my feet, which promptly buckled, so really I landed on one knee. Big bruise, but I was able to get back on. She proceeded to drill the idea into me at the walk, which is a little embarrassing, but I was mentally and physically fatigued at that point into the hour (think - legs actually shaking), so I think the result doesn't show the lesson learned.

Fall no. 5 felt like 5 steps back. On a horse I'm used to. I could think of a million excuses, but really, there's nothing to do but push forward. Naturally, the following weekend I wasn't able to ride because I came home from a work trip on red eye Saturday and ran a 10k on Sunday.

So, just to review: Fall off a horse, next day fly to San Francisco and work long hours at a conference. Come home on a red eye Saturday. Run a 10k Sunday. Then take a breather and reflect on why you fell off the horse when you should be doing work at your desk Monday morning. Learnign to ride as an adult, in a nutshell.

Circles are hard

Drawing a circle is hard, so I don't know why I would assume riding one is easy.

The 10 meter circle is a great example of how pulling the horse's head in the direction you want to go will only get you so far.

First 25%: We're doing it! We're doing a circle!
Second 25%: We're looking a little bulged in the outside shoulder, but if I use some outside leg, we're stay on track!
Third 25%: We are definitely falling out of the circle, I think we might be going the opposite direction now.
Final 25%: Horse has had it with my pulling, will not listen to me for the next 5 minutes.

Linda talked me through the different levels of steering. First, you have a horse you can turn by light half halts of the inside rein and turning your body the direction you want to go.

Then you think about your legs, and add outside leg behidn the girth to keep the hind in, and inside leg at the girth to...I actually don't remember. Just sort of frames them up and balances I guess.

Anyways, then you do proper leg position, half halts of inside rein and the correct with half halts outside rein. This looks like over correction when I do it because I'm still learning. It looks like the horse turns his head in, then straightens it out before he bulges his shoulder too much. The more advanced version of this would look like the horse's head is straight and the body is curving. So there's no bulging at all.

I was barely getting it. But that wasn't even my biggest challenge for the lesson.
I was actually having trouble asking for the canter. I was riding Calvin, who has a very bouncy trot, and I, embarrassingly, couldn't sit the trot in an organized way to give clear aids. I will have to think on this a bit. I love how there is usually a conversation somewhere on the internet that discusses the exact issue I'm having. It makes the time between lessons a bit more productive!

Sticking The Landing (gymnastics part 2)

Continuing with the gymnastics work in the lesson this weekend, I started with the usual issue of not having enough impulsion over the very low jumps. The horse I ride maxes out around 3 ft (especially as he's getting older), but doesn't care to jump over cross rails. He perks up when he sees a gymnastic of verticals, but that's usually a few go's in, anyways.

After we had done the gymnastic pretty well, we had to work on straightness going out of it. Of course, I was so focused on what was going on in the gymnastic, I allowed the horse to get in the habit of turning immediately after. This is an old problem that haunts me when I'm focusing on the jumps. In our next lesson, we're going to work on 10 meter circles to become more intentional in all of that.