>A Nice Ride, and the Bit Search Continues

>This is Take Two of this post… Blogger ate the one I wrote last night, so I’m rewriting it while I eat my lunch.  (Good excuse to turn the lawyer-brain off for a few minutes).

Tucker and I had a very nice ride last night.  We ended up with the company of two horses in the ring, which you know my horse was very, very happy about.  No need to stare at the door tonight, he had friends!

We flatted tonight in a french link full cheek snaffle that Alicia loaned us.  We used this bit in my lesson last Friday as well, and at first I hated it, but after a while of flatwork, I started to like it.  What I like about it is that I can take more than just a light feel of his mouth in this, without him getting behind the vertical (which isn’t always the case in the twisted Dr. Bristol), but the bad news is that he has a major tendency to lean on it.  So, it takes a lot of strength on my part (both hand and leg) to keep him balanced, which isn’t really what I’m looking for.  Next up will be a full cheek Dr. Bristol, which I found online for a good price (plus a $10 off coupon code).

We started out last night in a long-and-low, stretching, forward trot.  It was cold, so I just wanted his muscles to get warmed up and relaxed.  As he started to feel more fluid, I started adding in some smaller circles in different spots around the ring, where he’d get a little more elevated (letting the circle collect him a bit) and then ask for a bigger trot down the longsides, down the center line, the quarter line, or across the diagonal.  I was hoping that allowing the circle to collect him might eleviate some of the leaning.  It worked somewhat, but his first reaction is to use my hands as a crutch, instead of using his hind end, which means a lot of leg and seat and trying not to give in to his leaning by letting my reins get longer or my position fall forward, so he only gets a release once he starts supporting himself. 

Then we added in some lateral movements at the walk and trot:  haunches in, then shoulder in, then some leg yields, which he executed very, very well.  He got a little stuck doing the haunches in tracking left but when I applied a little more inside leg at the girth (instead of all outside leg) I got him coming forward.  His lateral work is getting really strong (and the lead changes are getting better… I’m thinking that could mean he’s actually getting stronger behind like I had hoped!).

From there we moved to our counterbending circles, spiraling down from a big circle to a small one, and then changing back to inside bend and spiraling out.  The counterbending really got him to balance and he actually was very light in my hands at that point.  When I changed back to the inside bend tracking left, though, he swung his haunches way out to the right (common evasion tactic of his).  Since I couldn’t get control over him using my outside aids (kind of blowing off my outside rein), I went to a shoulder-out until I had control of his hind end.  Then we went back to the inside bend and it was much straighter. 

After a walk break, I used these counterbending circles as a platform for his canter transitions, which were absolutely fantastic.  Tracking right, I asked for a counterbending circle (bent left), and once he got lighter up front and stepping under with his inside hind, I’d turn left out of the circle and ask for a left lead canter.  Then I’d come back to the trot, start on a left circle, counterbending right, and once he was light and soft, turn right and ask for a right lead canter, and repeat.  His transitions were awesome, he stayed round, and soft, and stepped right up into my hands.  Such a good boy! 

I had a little trouble with him bulging through his left shoulder in the right lead canter, so I modified the spiraling down circle exercise a little bit, asking him to straighten (not counterbend) and pushing him in with my outside leg (which took a little more spur), but not making the circle as small as I do at the trot.  This helped, though it felt like more of a struggle than I would normally like because he really wanted to lean and bend right.  Then we finished up with some more long and low trotting and stretching down in both directions, and he felt even more relaxed and loose and balanced than when we started.

All in all, it was a really nice ride.  And, the dressage rider that we were sharing the ring with asked us what Level we compete at!  Ha!  Not too shabby for a hunter princess huh?  I’m starting to think this horse really could do anything.  I wonder if he’d cut cattle?

>Renaissance Man

>What’s the only thing that could possibly be better than your horse returning a loose baby draft horse to his home, spending 2 1/2 hours on the trails wandering through the woods, galloping through hay fields, keeping his trail mate calm and relaxed, and walking home on the buckle, in a hackamore?  That same horse spending the next day in the ring for a lesson, getting down to business doing some serious flat work and jumping around a 3′ course.  He is truly a renaissance man.  The kind of man I’ve always dreamed of, in fact.  Up for anything, dependable, reliable, smart, brave, honest, devastatingly handsome….

On Sunday we went for a lesson at Alicia’s farm.  I spent Saturday afternoon body clipping him after our trail ride, so he was looking extra gorgeous, all dark and sleek and shiny (another plug for SmartShine).  Before my lesson we discussed my lesson with Sarah, which was very helpful.  (Note:  This is the mark of a truly great trainer who is not an egomaniac — something hard to come by in the horse world.  Alicia appreciates the benefit of getting another trainer’s perspective and wanted to discuss it with me, as opposed to so many other trainers out there who would completely lose it at the thought of their students ever doing anything so disloyal and sacreligious as taking a lesson elsewhere — heaven forbid!  Do you know that some trainers don’t even let their students take clinics?  Talk about insecure… sheesh.  But I digress.) 

We started off at the walk asking him to do some lateral movements to get him stepping under with his inside hind leg in both directions.  Then we did the beginnings of a turn on the haunches.  We didn’t worry too much about maintaining an inside bend (that can come later).  Instead, we started off on a small circle and spiraled it down, focusing on keeping him coming forward as the circle got smaller until I was asking him to turn on his haunches, pushing him off my outside leg.  He got the concept right away and did this really well in both directions.  This was a good exercise to get him engaged behind and coming forward, and light on both reins.

Once Tucker was warmed up at the trot, we worked on some collection and extension exercises.  We would do a small circle in the corner asking him to collect, letting him elevate his frame a little, with a slight shoulder-fore to avoid letting him bulge through his shoulder to avoid collecting.  Then Alicia had me follow with my hands for an extension coming out of the circle (so my hands slid about 4-5 inches toward his ears) and Tucker reached down for the bit and held a longer, more relaxed frame, in front of the vertical and stretching down and out, but he stayed light in front and pushing from behind for the extended trot (we’re not talking about the kind of “extension” that I see in dressage tests here, mind you, just a bigger trot than his regular working trot).  For Tucker’s conformation and build, this is a great exercise for him.  It really makes him work hard and push from behind, but stay relaxed through his back and swing through his shoulder.

In the canter, we worked on getting a similar carriage out of him on a big circle.  Once we had a good, engaged canter in his normal working frame on the circle, I followed more with my hands and used a lot more leg and seat to push him forward and get him to stay engaged but in a bigger canter and a more relaxed, lower frame.  He did the same thing he did at the trot, when I gave with my hands he followed and reached down for the bit but stayed light (good boy!), though it was hard to hold the canter together and not let him get strung out (my thighs were burning!).  We could tell this was really making him work, because after holding this canter for two circles he broke back to the trot right out from underneath me, which made us laugh (“Um, guys?  This is super hard?  Trot now?  Please?”). 

We re-established our canter and then worked on figure-eighting a set of cavaletti, where we had no trouble getting the left to right change but could not get the right to left.  I had a couple of little break throughs on the lead change issue (or, Alicia did but somehow also managed to get the concepts through to me too).  First, Tucker likes to bend right, so when I go for my right to left change, he’s bent right, not straight.  So, when I ask for the change, he just falls in with his left shoulder, swaps in front, swings the hips out and there’s no chance we’ll get a full change. Second, I sometimes try to ride my 17hh warmblood like he’s a 12hh welsh pony.  I stand in my stirrups and lean for the lead change (this doesn’t really work with little welsh ponies either, but I think when you weigh 65 lbs it doesn’t really matter what you do up there).  I also plant my hands on his neck when he raises his head and gets quick for the change.  This move is also known as RVB:  riding very badly. 

We then carried our cavaletti exercise over to figure-eighting a small jump in the center of the ring, landing and turning right, then landing and turning left.  We worked on the same thing, getting him straight instead of bent right.  When he’s bent right coming to the jump, this turns into bulging through the left shoulder, drifting left, landing on the right lead, and missing the right to left change (see how this is all connected?).  When we come to the jump straight, with a little counterbend out of the turn, he stays straight to the fence, the distance works out better, and he’s more likely to land his lead in the direction we’re going, or get his right to left change.  (Remember that line from Cocktail with Tom Cruise?  “Light dawns on marble head!”)

Next we jumped this same fence bending left 5 strides to another small vertical, landing right.  I find these short bending lines exceedingly difficult, even when the jumps are itty bitty.  HP’s do bending lines in 10 strides, across the entire diagonal of a huge hunter ring, where you have plenty of room to find your track and get straight for the last few strides.  5 stride bending lines make us nauseous.  You have to count and turn at the same time.  It’s madness.  So, the first time we did it in 6 (we got a little, er, lost).  Then I came through the turn to the first fence with more pace (reminder from previous lessons — jump in with more pace if we want more pace in the line itself) and we got 5, but jumped out huge (I thought there was one more, he didn’t).  The next time, Tucker knew where we were going and helped me out a little (this horse is going straight to heaven one day), so we did it a little more directly and the 5 worked out perfectly.

Lastly, we did some course work.  Started out with the bending line in 5, landing right, then long approach to a single 3′ oxer on the outside off the right, then the triple (vertical-oxer-vertical) across the diagonal, landing left, and then a forward 6 down the outside line, vertical to oxer.  As opposed to my last couple of lessons, this time we did the triple in a collected four to a forward three, and the last vertical was set at 3’3″ (the rest of the line was around 2’6″/2’9″).  The first time the bending 5 was great, but the outside oxer was a little tight.  I have a bad habit of taking my leg off when I see the distance, instead of keeping my leg on and stay still.  But, because he backed himself off and I stayed back with my upper body, he jumped it well anyway.  We landed left and missed the change, so I did a small circle (which was part of the plan) and asked for a little counter-bend on the way in to the triple.  We jumped in quietly, put in the four strides neatly, and then I gave him a big release in the air over the oxer, landed sending him forward, kept my arms following and my leg on, and he made it there in three strides easily.  Then, since I knew that the last line was forward and he landed forward, I tried to maintain that pace all the way around the corner and the six was beautiful.  I’m starting to realize that I can actually signal in the air when I want him to land forward through how much of a release I give him:  I can either land with a little feel or land with a following hand and almost no contact at all, and that changes how big his first landing stride is (I think I used to know this, once upon a time, and I’m re-figuring it out).

We did this course twice more and each time it got a little smoother.  I was so pleased with his adjustability.  He had to stay collected for the five stride bending line, then get a good, steady rhythm to the oxer, then collect for the four, move up for the three, and go forward for the six.  I never would have thought he’d be adjustable enough to do a collected four to a forward three in the same line, that was such a huge accomplishment for him.  We finished by doing the oxer just one more time and I changed my track a little to get a slightly better distance, which we did.  He jumped it fabulously, and then we landed left and I remembered to lift my hand when I asked for the lead change and I got it.  Love ending on that note!

>Knock it off, and get over it

>So we had our lesson this morning and it wasn’t all pretty but it was a great learning experience.

We worked on the flatting and it seems, as far as the counterbend goes, when I want to go back to an inside bend and he then wants to get heavy on the inside rein, I need to shoulder-in. We did quite a bit of shoulder-in work today and I was very happy with how that went. Tucker was listening and when I was asking correctly was really responding well. I love when that happens, when the horse acts like a barometer for how correctly you are applying your aids. Ask right, get the right result. It doesn’t always happen, sometimes you ask right and they still don’t want to cooperate 100%, but in Tucker’s best moments he is just like that. I had a lot more control over his hind end both laterally and in terms of staying connected, which I was happy about. Our canter transitions, both upward and downward, still need quite a bit of work. But our flat work within the gaits, including lateral movements, is really coming along.

We did a lot of work with three cavaletti set nine feet from each other on the long side of the arena. He was great through them at the trot. We discovered that tracking left when I was posting on the wrong diagonal, I had more weight on my inside seat bone and the trot improved. Thought that was really interesting. During the left lead canter he wanted to flatten out and rush through the cavaletti, so we worked on me sitting tall, leg long, lifting my hand and eye and keeping him straight with right rein and left leg. He improved as we went, and we added trot work in between, and some shoulder-in, to get him re-focused and listening again.

Then we started jumping. We started trotting in to a short two-stride with a nine-rail in front (a ground pole set nine feet from the first fence). The first time through he didn’t listen when I asked him to wait so he was tight jumping out, and then the second time through he was smarter about it, which was great. Then we added a third jump to the line, so it was a short two-stride to a short three-stride. Same thing, the first couple of times through the three-stride he blew me off and didn’t wait, then he got smarter about it and started listening. I was really happy with how I was able to hold my position over all three fences, my leg stayed under me, my upper body was good, and to get the collection in the lines I remembered to sit, press forward with my hips and lift the hand. One of the best moments was when he landed on his left lead, cantered one stride and did a full left-to-right lead change. Brilliant. Once he got into the routine, he almost always landed right. Smart boy. So that part was really good.

Then we added two diagonal fences. The first was a wall (it’s about 2’6″) with no standards. That one went really well. Then there was a 3′, pretty airy oxer with fake flowers on the ground in the middle of it. The first time we jumped this, Tucker saw a distance that I didn’t see and left the ground well before I thought he was going to. It actually ended up fine, I was in a good position to start with so I just grabbed a little mane and stuck with him. That one made us laugh pretty hard though.

We did the whole thing again, and this time to the oxer I didn’t see it and we were really deep, he had a rail and landed all pissed off doing his violent head-swinging, leaping, scooting business around the corner. But, it was kind of my fault that he had the rail so I wasn’t really going to fault him. We went back to the wall on the other diagonal, again that went well — I asked him to add and he politely listened. This time to the oxer he was really naughty. The distance was right there and one stride out he just dragged me past it and jumped up huge, and then threw the same temper tantrum through the corner, and this time it was worse. There was a second where I thought I was coming off straight into the wall but then I managed to hang on. It was so uncalled-for that I yanked him up and slammed him to a halt in the next corner, and growled at him to KNOCK IT OFF. He was so shocked that I got after him so strongly that he actually hopped up into a little mini-rear. But it was well-timed, and deserved. I’m all for being understanding and accepting that he’s a horse and he’s going to have his moments, but that’s up to a point. He also has to learn that he can’t get away with being rude or acting out for no reason.

So we made the oxer a big cross-rail and did it a few times from a slow sitting trot, and Alicia reminded me to soften my hand in the slow sitting trot as we approached so that I wasn’t stiffing him off the ground or coiling him like a spring (which causes him to land explosively), and then making him halt on a straight line. The first time, even from the slow sitting trot he wanted to drag me around the corner but I made him halt and then patted him once he did. Came around twice more at the slow sitting trot with a halt, and then he landed softly and we cantered quietly around the corner. I was really happy to see how quickly he got over himself and started behaving again.

Then we went back to our wall on the other diagonal, and made him land halting there as well. I actually never got a good halt on a straight line there but decided not to have an argument with him about it because he did quietly come back to a halt just past the corner. Then I picked up my canter again and went back to the oxer. Came off the rail and we just kept drifting right so the distance I saw out of the corner disappeared and we got really tight and he punched out the first rail. This caused yet another temper tantrum around the corner, but I got him back under control and this time didn’t pull him up quite so abruptly since he did have the rail and that genuinely upsets him.

Alicia had me turn my right hand upside down. She does this a lot and it really helps — instead of holding the rein with your thumb on top you turn your hand over the way you’d hold a driving rein. The problem was that I wasn’t using my right rein at all as I came out of the turn and he was just drifting all the way to the right of the oxer. So we went back to the single wall, and this time he was more focused. He and I both saw a conservative distance, so all I had to do was stay back with my shoulder and sit very still and he waited nicely. We halted again (slightly past the corner). Then I had a moment of total panic. I walked a small circle and realized I was starting to hyperventilate a little, and I heard Alicia say “You okay?” but I couldn’t answer. If I had stopped for a moment to think about whether I was really okay, I probably never would have jumped the oxer again. So I said to myself “Oh, just get over it,” picked up my canter again and came to the oxer. This time I remembered my right rein, we stayed straight and the distance worked out nicely. He kind of snapped his knees and jumped it really hard but that’s to be expected since he had the rail the time before. On the upside, my leg was anchored solidly underneath me and he didn’t jump me loose. The best part was that he cantered quietly around the end of the ring like a gentleman.

So two things about that jump were great. One, it was great to see how quickly his attitude changed. When we got to the jump well, he didn’t hang on to what he had done during the times before, but instead just behaved himself like he’s supposed to. Two, I was able to get over my fear and anxiety and ride through it. Riding is such a mental game, it’s such a huge accomplishment when we can put aside an emotional or mental block and get the job done by good riding.

>Another catch-up post

>I didn’t get a chance to do a post about the horse show last weekend as I had hoped (yet another crazy week, sorry Tucker fans) but I will at least give a re-cap. . . . It was a cold, rainy, windy day and my man was WILD. Wild for Tucker means he jumps like there are springs in his feet. I’ve told you all how brave he is, stopping is not an option in his mind, but jumping the 2’9″ Level Zero and the 3′ Level One schooling classes like the are a 4’3″ mini-prix is most certainly acceptable to him. He’s too polite to buck anybody off, so I think he just tries to get his energy out by jumping as hard as he can. After watching Alicia do the first round and seeing even the woman with legs of steel get jumped loose, I decided she could stay in the driver’s seat for the day. By the third round he was better — there wasn’t two feet of air between him at the top rail of each fence.

The day got me a little frustrated, because I honestly don’t think I could have handled him as wild as he was. Alicia did a fantastic job, of course, of reminding him to do his job without stressing him out or escalating his behavior, and we want our trainers to ride ten times better than we do so we can learn from them. But it’s tough to see your own horse and think to yourself . . . that’s a situation I can’t handle. By the third round though, it did look like he had settled and I probably could have gotten on and showed at that point. So maybe when he’s that fresh and we can’t longe, Alicia just needs to stay aboard until he returns to earth.

We went to The Ridge Farm‘s new location in Asbury, NJ, and I promised them I’d give them a plug on the blog. They have a whole series of schooling shows over the winter and if you’re in the area I’d recommend it. It’s a beautiful facility, with an outdoor grand prix ring, a grass grand prix field, another outdoor ring, an indoor, and space for tents and (!) a grass hunter ring. (Hunter Derby, anyone?) The people were very friendly and the schooling show, although there was a small turnout due to the weather, was well run. My only criticism is that I wasn’t allowed to longe my horse in the rings and wasn’t allowed to longe on the grass because it was so wet. In the end it worked out okay and it was good for Tucker to have to deal with not being longed. They did tell me that in dry weather there is longing allowed on the grass, but if you have a really green-as-grass horse that couldn’t deal with you hopping right on, if it’s wet out, you might want to skip this one.

We’ve made a bit progress with our flat work. Alicia has been telling me this and I’ve finally been able to accomplish it successfully: asking for a bit of a leg yield during the downward transition really helps Tucker stay connected and keep coming forward through his hind end during the transition. Dressage folks — any thoughts on why that works? Also, his upward transitions are much more fluid when I spread my hands. Again, not entirely sure why that works but I’ll go with it for now. I’ve got a list of questions to ask in my lesson this weekend, and I promise I’ll report back.

One last thing . . . I have a new blog to introduce you to. It’s called She Rides, I Pay. Cute, right? It’s written by the sister of a new boarder at Whitmere. I think the moms that read my blog will especially appreciate it.

Happy Halloween everyone!

>Good solid flatwork

>So my goal for this winter is to really delve deep into my flatwork with Tucker and make it right. Like all horses he is a work in progress, and since we’ve been training with Alicia his balance and self-carriage has improved by leaps and bounds. He understands collection now, which for a big guy like him is a huge feat. It’s amazing the horse he has become since he first moved into Whitmere last winter.

What I’m working on now is acceptance of my right rein. We have left rein issues — probably something that I unwittingly started and he has now taken and run with. I think it went something like this: He was a little stiff to the left, so I worked my left rein more, he became dependent on me using my left rein, and he now seeks the left rein contact all the time in both directions, to the point where he’s very uncomfortable taking the right rein. Does that make sense to everyone? The progression has happened over a number of years, and now we’re working on creating a more balanced Tucker, which of course has to start with me changing my behavior.

We worked on this during a flat lesson this past weekend, and I picked it back up last night. Basically, tracking left, I am using a counterbend to establish connection between my right hand and right leg, so that he’s actually turning off my outside aids. It’s so amateurish, but I have realized that I have gotten into the habit of turning him left with my left rein. And then his hips go right and he gets stiff on the left side. Tracking right it’s much better. He wants to bulge through his left shoulder and lean on the left rein so I just have to create a wall and keep his hind end moving forward into my hand with both legs.

By the end of the ride he was much more accepting of my right rein and I tried to get a little bit of a left bend by opening my left hand without taking back on my left rein and asking him to move away from my left leg into my right hand. Moments of success but overall as soon as he thought there was something to lean on in my left hand he wanted to get a little flat and heavy.

Yet again… I seem to have stumbled upon a gap in my riding knowledge. Why is it so important for them to turn off our outside aids? I know that’s what you are supposed to do, but why? Just for the reason I stated above, that otherwise the hips move out and they lose their bend or get heavy on the inside rein, or is there something more that I’m missing? And, how does it help me to counterbend, when what I want is acceptance of the outside hand on an inside bend? Is the counterbend just a means to an end? It does seem to help, don’t get me wrong. By the end of the ride I could at least track straight down the longside (without a counter or inside bend) and see in the mirror that without any left rein contact his hips were square behind his shoulder and he was moving straight and forward and light. I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Ultimately I think I’ll need to hash this out in my next lesson and hopefully I’ll report back with a little more knowledge.

The other thing we are working on is downward transitions. He wants to get heavy/stiff and I lose the hind end in the very last step of the transition. It’s a very subtle thing but something that could really use improvement. Walk to halt start off badly (he just wants to lean through them) but then he gets it and I can get really nice halt transitions off just my seat and leg. Trot to walk are getting much better, but it seems that he really doesn’t understand what I want at first. (“What? I walked. That’s what you said. What’s the problem now?”) I have, in lessons, gotten a few really nice trot-to-walk transitions though. So I know that it’s possible.

Canter to trot, still haven’t been able to get a transition that I’m happy with (sort of an emergency brake, horse falls out from underneath you type of transition). It has improved to some degree though, because his trot is well-balanced and soft right away, instead of heavy, too big, and overreaching for five strides. I’ve had to learn to keep my leg on through them, that helps a lot. And stay relaxed and tall through my back, sink deeper with my seat. Those things help. I sort of query what I’m supposed to be doing with my hands though. Reader thoughts on downward transitions?