Left lead right lead

I got to work on the canter a lot on Katie in my last lesson.

I usually find it difficult to ask her for the right lead, but this time it was clicking for me. We could switch leads by going into a few steps of trot.

We worked on me standing for two seconds and sitting for two seconds in the canter. I didn't really succeed in fully standing. I think my legs aren't really in the right position when I stand up (more forward), so it's more like a half seat.

Also, when I sit down, it's not soft enough and Katie would break into a trot. I'm thinking this means I need to maintain a light seat in this exercise.

We did a little jumping and went over a 2'6" standard a couple times, but it wasn't hugely successful, we couldn't get over the middle of the jump. I still call it a minor success because I used to be unable to get over a jump with her at all. She refuses if there is any leaning forward on my part at all.

She also requires being fine tuned in my aids. If I ask for a canter, but then keep asking too much, she will start bucking. I'm learning to sit up more when that happens, but my instinct is to grab mane, which means leaning forward.

Leaning forward is consistently my issue. I think I still do it in my trot to canter transitions, as well. I guess I have a fear of being left behind and losing my balance that way. I guess I have to let myself be behind the motion and then fine tune from there if I want to make progress - lesser of two mistakes?!

Corrections for no stirrup

In yesterday's private we worked on trotting without stirrups, and I realized why it's so hard. I thought I could just relax my leg down the side of the horse, but apparently that isn't the right position. I had to put my hand on the pommel to pull my seat forward, let my leg hang long, but then I have to make sure my leg is lightly touching the horse, from my knee down to my heel. This meant my toes were still up, like the stirrup would position them. It also meant I had to use muscles I never use. I couldn't do it for much more than 5 minutes, and with a lot of readjusting by grabbing the pommel.

This is the sort of thing that would be great to work on during practice rides!

...

I'll be traveling for work 5 days a week for the next month.

Sigh.

We also worked on keeping a rhythm at the trot and canter and going over crossrails/2' verticals. I cantered longer than I think I ever have on the rail (ok, sometimes I cut some corners) and was actually doing it long enough to find a rhythm. My left leg really slides around, though. Which just makes me think that no-stirrup work is really valuable!

Pony Club kinda

My friend wanted to take a riding lesson after taking some riding lessons at camp when she was younger. To be clear, that would have been about 20 years ago for her. I arranged a semi-private where we could ride together, and my amazing instructor managed to teach both of us simultaneously.

Her lesson largely consisted of working students switching off leading her at the walk and trot while she worked on posting. She did some airplane hands and also went over a tiny crossrail (re: crossed ground poles) to find her balance. By the end she was getting that posting thing! She's super athletic (like me, hehe) so I saw her go through the same thought process I always do to learn new things:
1. Relax the body
2. Correct the posture
3. Feel for the rhythm/find the moment you need to act on
4. Tell your body to do the thing!
She will be joining me again in a couple weeks, and I'm so excited to have a friend to drive up and ride with. It's something I've never consistently had. I think a lot of people love the barn for the friends that come with it, and I've always wanted that.

I have this issue with dropping my shoulders - as I was learning to canter (ok, still a bit when I ask for the canter) and going over new jumps. So it was interesting to see her doing a similar thing when put in a new situation. I know you can learn from people who are better than you, but there is something about seeing the mistake you make magnified in a beginner that can teach you, as well.

For my lesson we worked on jumping on angles. This definitely falls into the category of your own mind creating the challenge. The horse's job is the same as taking a jump head-on, it's up to me to figure out what the path should be and where the takeoff is. I was riding the pony, and she likes to drift left, which meant missing the center of the jump. So I had to learn to reeeeally see that angled path to the jump, know where to look beyond the jump to get it right (in other sports I call this the follow through - like in tennis, softball, golf. It's interesting that there is a followthrough in jumping, especially complicated since your body has to follow through while your mind thinks  about the next jump).

Riding the pony was fun, but I had some technical issues - the saddle didn't fit her quite right, so it shifted, so my stirrups were uneven, so I'd lose a stirrup - etc., etc. And I'm finally starting to understand what it means if a saddle is too small for you. I would never have noticed before, but as we're getting to working on more precise stuff it's manifesting as an issue as I go over jumps. Then again, I try to avoid excuses and always assume you should be able to jump perfectly no matter what - because I know a really good rider could overcome that sort of thing... But it got me thinking, maybe I need to move away from riding the pony (and jumping around from horse to horse, for that matter) and work on things with one horse that fits me. Something to discuss with the instructor.

In true style, I promptly left for 2 weeks to go to Italy for a wedding and to see some cities and haven't ridden since.  I'm looking forward to the end of summer meaning regularity in my riding schedule. And a jumper show is coming up! I may end up riding the same classes I did last year, since it's literally the only jumper show I've done, but I know I have improved and hope it comes through in my performance.

Last Place for Chase Me Charlie (shrug)

I went back to my usual lesson on Sunday for the first time in what felt like a month. I wouldn't say I was that rusty, but in there are things I still need to work on.

I rode a very promising future eventer type that is proving to be a wonderful teacher in dressage and jumping - even as he's learning, himself.

He's been doing this thing lately where he drops his head too low when we're working on the trot. That was sort of a first for me, after learning on him how to get his down, only to find he's going to far with it now! Minor issue, but recorded for posterity.

We worked on jumping. I think the biggest thing I need to work on is getting the horse straight to the jumps. Not because just doing this alone will solve all my problems, but it's universally important on all horses. Especially when my instructor gives us a course to try that involves jumper turns, I need to not exaggerate those turns at the cost of a crooked approach.

Once I'm straight, we are fine going over the smaller jumps assuming there's impulsion so we don't rub. I was in a lesson with one other person (and by person, I mean a girl that is maybe 18 years younger than me) and our instructor set up a Chase Me Charlie. Each bar added was 9 inches. The other student had no problem on the pony getting up to the 4th bar (3 feet) - she was just working on something improvements like sitting up too soon after the jump.

I, however, did just fine at 3 bars (2'3") but we kept refusing at the 4th. I saw 'we' because I was either
1. Leaning forward sub-consciously before the jump and throwing off the balance or;
2. Not having even leg pressure going in.
I would also occasionally throw in something weird, like overcompensating with too much right rein when I needed a tiny adjustment.

I guess it was a bit of a mess. Needless to say, I lost. I am so looking forward to jumping 3 feet for the first time, and I may have temporarily led myself to believe that was going to be the moment. But you can't take a summer off from jumping and then magically be better at it.

Slow, infrequent, but steady improvement is the theme of this blog, after all.

Shootin from the hip

Yesterday I did a 2+ hour lesson on centered riding with Icelandic horses. I'm going to try my best to capture everything we went through - it was a lot, but everything was what I was missing up until now.

My instructor own a small barn with 3 (soon to be 4) Icelandic horses. There was the older schoolmaster, who had eventing history. There was the young spry guy she described as more of a ferrari, and one boarder.

We started with understanding the bit. Feeling with my hands what it felt like in the horse's mouth. How doing an opening rein (rotating palm up firs, then open out) felt like a smoother turn than a direct rein. Practicing myself by holding the reins and seeing how she reacted holding the bit as we walked around. I also felt (from both sides) how even the way I pick up the reins can feel jostling.

 It was something I don't think many instructors would have an adult rider try out. One of the first things, of many, I'd never gotten the chance to do with my quick, hop-on-the-horse-and-go lessons.

We moved on to grooming, and I realized how much I missed on a horse, both in terms of area as well as finding bug bites and skin ailments to treat.  The horse I was grooming, Star (he had a real Icelandic name and I'm the lame-o who couldn't memorize it) was very comfortable with being brushed all over, so I actually got to brush him in places I thought would make a horse uncomfortable. I'm not squeamish with that stuff, so it was a good experience for me.

We tacked up - we used an Icelandic saddle. Super comfy and sits a little further back on the horse to accommodate the Tolt.

We went into an indoor arena and she hopped on and showed me how she steers, how she tilts her pelvis forward and says "walk on", how she moves her pelvis is larger figure eights to get a fast walk, how she rolls her seat in, but keeps her back at the same vertical to as for a tolt. For walking, hands followed the head movement (the minute they didn't, Star would stop). For the tolt, they held a little more pressure.

Then I hoped on and we worked on the opening rein discussed, looking with my head and shoulders, with a direct rein to straighten out the body. It's something that needs a little bit more work to get used to. There was absolutely no leg squeezing, just relaxed and neutral.

It seems so simple, but it tripped me up a bit! It's certainly something that the sooner I get back to and work on, the better, but it's a more expensive lesson (well, it was a great value at 2+ hours for $100, but that's not something I want to spend week on top of my regular lessons). My thinking is to get out there a little over monthly based on my work week schedule.

Summer Camp for One, Please

I am hardly one to drool over the bigger horses. As an adult beginner, I think I love the control I feel (misguided or not) of being on the ponies. But there's nothing like a successful lesson on a big horse to make you question your priorities.

I've had 2 weeks off (summer weekend social life is not conducive to getting to the barn), but I got a 45-minute private lesson thanks to all the kiddies being tuckered out from Camp week. (I'm not jealous of camp week. I'm 30, why would I be jealous? Spending a day painting horses, playing tag on horses? I'm too old for that stuff. Ugh. Dammit.)

I rode the thoroughbred quarter horse mix that I hadn't in a while. He belongs to someone in the program that only rides him about once a week. They have a nice deal going where he gets worked, she gets a discount off board, and the program gets a solid almost-schoolmaster. Not sure where over 16hh he is but he's up there. It'd been a while since I'd been that high up, but I only noticed when I was getting on (and off, like when forgetting there's an extra step and you kind of go, "Whoomph."). He's been hard at work for camp and, as my instructor was explaining, the horses are at their best when they're working most days of the week. Especially the thoroughbred types.

I would say Tony's thing is he gets a little strong once you start jumping and cantering him. He actually likes a pulley rein, which just seems wrong to me, but okay, I'll do what I have to to get back down to a walk. He will also choose not to jump if he thinks you're nervous, but I am proud to say that happened once and then I got in the mindset of "we're going over this jump and I'm already thinking of what happens next" and we progressed pretty quickly. In that 45 minutes we accomplished:

- Sitting up a little straighter at the trot to get that dressage look (and, more practically, learn not to lean forward on a very forward horse)
- Getting straighter to the jump (ok, still working on this)
- Half-halting/ right rein&right leg to keep him from drifting away
- Staying off his back upon landing (so he doesn't hit the rail with his back legs
- Being straighter after the jump so he doesn't take a hard turn
- Cantering without leaning forward (amazing how you have to teach me the same lesson at the trot and at the canter, but I'm kind of a dunce like that)

The jump was only 2ft, (we use cavaletti blocks that are 24”L x 15”W x 9”D) but she did build it up to look like an oxer to try to make it look scary.  I feel pretty ready to try 2'9" again soon!

No lesson this coming weekend, but I've set up a lesson closer to home for next week with an instructor who has Icelandic horses and teaches centered riding. I'm pretty excited to find something I can get to during the week. More to come on that. I will try to remember taking pictures. This blog is so dull without them!

Horse flies are no joke

Horse flies: Not a play on words, apparently.

The horse I was on was getting eaten alive if we stood still for even a second. He actually had blood on his legs from the previous lesson where they were standing still for too long. I was worried he'd lose patience with what we were putting him through.

This was the same horse I rode last time. He also dumped me a couple years back when we were both much greener and he abruptly stepped out of the ring and into the woods. It's nice to be on nicer terms now.

We are working on half halts and it's just amazing how being aware of half halts has opened things up to new complexities. Like, right in front of the jump, he will drift right if I don't use a strong leg and a half halt (both on right side). If I use more than a half halt (pull and hold) his neck has no room for the jump and he will refuse.

He requires only the occasional squeeze (I counted every eight steps of the trot) to keep going, so I'm trying to use leg less, so he stays responsive to it. And trying not to pull on his mouth. Sometimes he gets stuck following after his friends when I want him to go a different way, so I have to pull the rein to my belly button to turn his nose and kick with the outside leg.

We did a jump to a bounce, and then the reverse. I did okay, but something about the bounce to the jump was messing me up a bit. I didn't have time to reorganize after the bounce to do the strong leg-half halt mentioned to keep him from drifting. So staying organized after jumps will be my big challenge if I hope to put a course together - those three jumps in a row were just at 2 feet. Sigh.