>An HP in DQ Land: My Dressage Lesson

>Since Tucker is still out of commission (though the vet is coming to check him today — cross your fingers), I have been looking for other rides on the weekend.  I’ve been curious about dressage for a while now, and figured now would be the perfect time, especially since I’m boarding Tucker at a barn run by a dressage instructor (Cindy), who graciously offered to give this hunter princess a dressage lesson. 

I have to admit to a bit of naivety here.  I’ve probably spent a collective 20 minutes in a dressage saddle in my lifetime, occasionally hopping on in someone else’s tack to help a rider get her horse past a spooky corner or something of the sort.  So going into the lesson, I figured how different can it be?  My stirrups will just be longer.  I can adjust. 

Haha.  Haha.  Ha.  About the time I picked up my posting trot, the mare I was on was probably quite confused, and thinking to herself, “You seemed to know your way around tacking up… but… clearly you have never been on a horse before?  Are you okay up there?  Are you having some kind of seizure?  If not, can you please get your feet out of my elbows?”  Cindy had to walk over and put my leg back where it was supposed to be a couple of times.  It didn’t stay there.  In fact, I pretty much lost all communication with the lower half my right leg and couldn’t tell you what it did for the duration of the lesson.

Now, to state the obvious:  Dressage is completely different.  The seat is different, the leg is different, the hands are different, the posture is almost the opposite of how I normally ride.  My hip angle usually stays closed.  My weight is down in my heel.  My hands follow, all the time.  My shoulders are angled a little forward.  I close my leg with the back of my calf.  I send the horse forward by sending my hips forward.  All this: out the window.

I had the hardest time finding my balance.  And quickly learned that the aids I normally use were close to useless.  It sort of felt like I was speaking Spanish, and the horse was speaking French, and occasionally we’d hear a word that sounded similar and be able to communicate for a brief second.  Then we’d lose each other completely again.  But, thankfully, this mare was very tolerant of my complete incompetence and for the most part tried to understand what I was attempting to tell her, in my bumbling, yet earnest, kind of way.  I did have moments at the trot where I “got it,” and they felt lovely.  Brief, but lovely.

Highlights of the lesson:  Upon my first canter depart, I did what I normally do, which is slide my hips forward.  This resulted in ramming a rather sensitive area into the pommel of the dressage saddle, which, er… took my breath away, so to speak.  I then spent the next ten strides or so trying to figure out where the tack had gone and why I was sort of floating and swinging along like a piece of driftwood.  I wondered whether it looked as bad as it felt.  Glance to my left… instructor laughing hysterically.  Excellent.  It looked worse than it felt.  I then tried desperately to find someplace to sit.  Whenever I found it, the mare would break.  I could not for the life of me correct this problem (Cindy explained it was because I was sitting with no strength coming from my chest/core.  Makes sense now).

Then there was the downward transition.  Where I got run away with at the trot.  This is the point at which I realized my position would have been excellent… had there been skis strapped to my feet and a boat in front of me.  Sadly, that was not the sport in which I was participating, and was rather ineffective for the task I was trying to accomplish.  Eventually, the mare got sick of speed-trotting in circles and decided to walk of her own volition, for which I was quite thankful.  Cindy had been trying to get me to move the horse right to left and regain her balance and focus.  I finally accomplished a few steps of this once we had come back down to the walk.  After looking down to verify that my right leg was, in fact, still attached to my body.  Since my brain had apparently completely lost contact with it.

What I learned:  I learned a few things that I can definitely apply toward my hunt seat riding.  First, I tend to twist my torso, so that my right shoulder is always forward.  Cindy advised me to look at the wall whenever this happened (tracking left), and voila – fixed.  Something I am going to continue to do to keep myself sitting straighter.  Second, opening up my chest.  By stretching taller instead of hunching my shoulders, I gain more strength in my core, which gives me more stability and leverage.  I used this on the equitation horse I rode on Sunday and it definitely helped.  This is not a new critique — instructors have been telling me this for years — but I did get the feeling a bit better sitting in that dressage saddle, since I basically lost all control when I hunched forward.  Third, the half halt starts from the shoulder (my shoulder).  I love this.  I haven’t really thought of it this way, but it makes sense, and I think will provide a more subtle way for me to increase a little pressure on the rein for my very sensitive horse, and I’m always trying to find a way to be more subtle with him.  It also keeps me from breaking at the wrist, which is a terrible habit of mine.  Fourth, my hands need to be more still, steady contact, instead of fidgeting with the bit.  Hard habit to break, but something I definitely need to work on, in any discipline.

Things that are really sore right now:  The tops of my feet (!), my shoulders, the sides of my torso, and especially, the outside of my hips/thighs.  I really don’t use these muscle groups when I ride.  I suppose, arguably, I do use my shoulders.  But not quite in the way that I used them on Saturday.  And I definitely don’t use the outside of my thighs.  Holy cow.  The first word out of my mouth on Sunday morning was “OW!”  Followed closely by “I’m coming, I’m coming,” as I hobbled slowly toward the cat food.

All in all, definitely learned something, and definitely had fun (despite the pain).  How many of you have taken a lesson outside your discipline, and what did you learn?

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p.s. — I’m not holding out on you… Julie’s travel plans shifted a little, so she won’t be home until Tuesday night.  I’ll take lots of pictures, promise!

>2010

>Hey there Tucker fans.  Sorry I’ve been MIA at the end of this year.  I took a little break for the holidays, and then a subsequent death in the family took me away for a while longer.  My Uncle Joe died (Well, “Uncle” in the loose, Italian family sense of that word.  He was related somehow by marriage to my Grandmother).  Uncle Joe was the only relative I know of who actually owned a horse at one point.  I believe her name was Bonnie, and I remember when I was little that there was a photo of her hanging in their front hall.  He loved to hear about my horses, and loved to tell me stories about Bonnie.  My Uncle Joe was a good man — always gave people a hard time, never missed an opportunity to tease — but in the end, he had a good heart.  When I was a child, he would tell me I was a pain in the neck, and the next breath be muttering to himself in Italian about how beautiful I was.  I adored him.

He and my grandparents were very close, part of a big group of friends who got together every Friday night for a martini party, where the ironing board became a bar, and they “raffled off” the living room tv set for laughs.  They threw parties for snowstorms, parties when someone got a new car, parties when someone came to visit from out of town, parties for the day after a party called “used booze” parties.  Sounds like the kind of folks you’d want to hang out with, right?  I hope at the end of my life that I have good times like these to look back on.

Speaking of looking back, I’ve been reading lots of blog posts that are retrospectives on 2010.  It’s funny, if I were to look back on the blog this year, it would appear as though I’ve had the best year of my life.  Tucker and I moved up to the 3′ Hunters, we did our first Hunter Derby, we started schooling some 3’6″ gymnastics at home, I got over my confidence issues and learned to enjoy horse shows again.  He suffered some minor injuries but is overall happy, healthy, and wonderful.  Reading that, it sounds like an amazing year. 

Which is all another testament to how amazing Tucker is, and what he’s meant to me.  I am so, so thankful for this horse.  You see, pretty much all the other “life” stuff that I don’t write about here (for fear of, as I’ve mentioned before, infecting the blog) hasn’t been as good.  When I look back at 2010 overall, I’d say it was the toughest year of my life.  If I gave you the laundry list of things that went horribly, irrevocably wrong, you’d think I had turned this blog into a work of fiction.  To tell the truth, I can’t even believe I made it through everything.  But each time I was hit with something else, I’d sort of figure out another way to move forward, over it, under it, or around it, and somehow get to the other side and look back amazed at my own resilience.  So, I guess I have that to be thankful for as well. 

I don’t usually put much stock into the whole “New Year’s Resolution” tradition.  New Year’s Day is actually tied to a very sad little fact about my life, so I don’t even usually celebrate it.  But this year I think maybe it’s time to embrace the whole idea of rebirth, regeneration, regrouping.  It’s time to let all that awful stuff that happened to me just stay in 2010.  Time to do everything I can to approach 2011 with a positive attitude, an open mind, and an open heart.  In 2011, I want to figure out a way to have the rest of my life match my horse life.  I want to go to sleep at night feeling satisfied with everything, not just content with the couple of hours that I spent with my horse.  It’s not going to happen overnight…  a lot of things need to change in order for me to feel that wholehearted satisfaction.  In the meantime, I am lucky to have a wonderful horse to lean on, who is steadfast, relentless, even adamant in his need to make me happy, regardless of whatever else is going on.

So, to those of you who had a difficult 2010 as well… we all know that at the stroke of midnight all the problems we faced last year will not magically disappear.  There will be issues that will linger into the new year, and we will deal with them like we’ve done before.  But perhaps this new year is a good time to make a clean break from what we’ve been though, so it doesn’t drag us down for another year.  And if it starts getting tough, I recommend finding a big, sweet, beautiful horse (cat, dog, bunny, stuffed animal, what-have-you), and wrapping your arms around his neck.  Always works for me.

>Tucker the Wunderkind, the Movie

>Last night I rode Tucker at home and he was W.I.L.D.!  You know that feeling when you get on your horse and he needs to trot… immediately?  That’s how it started.  So we trotted for a while and once I felt him start to relax I figured it was safe to pick up my canter.  Figured wrong.  I picked up my canter and as soon as we got to the top of the long side, he exploded like something cowboys would be fighting over at the PBR.  He bronced and lept and bucked and carried on all the way down the long side (and you know how big that ring is).  There was another rider in the corner putting her horse’s cooler on and she turned around to see what the commotion was… for a second there, I’m pretty sure both our lives flashed before our eyes.  Thankfully I was able to stay on somehow, and got him trotting on a circle in the middle of the ring for a bit. 

We kept trotting until the ring was empty, and then I hopped off and pulled his tack and let him run around.  Clearly he had something he needed to work out… because he ran, and ran, and ran.  Then trotted for a minute, and ran some more.  I just stood in the middle of the ring and watched (he actually looked gorgeous once he stopped bucking).  Finally he had enough and trotted a few times all the way around the ring, so I caught him, tacked him back up, and hopped on again and let him walk for a while to catch his breath.  I wanted to end with a few minutes of work but we took things nice and slow and easy, trotting circles, working on getting him to accept the outside rein, bend through the middle, keep an even tempo (tiny little bite-sized goals).  We ended the ride cantering circles like a normal horse so apparently he had gotten everything out of his system.

I went to Alicia’s this afternoon for a lesson and I wasn’t sure exactly how he would be, but I’m happy to say he was absolutely perfect.   I rode him in the hackamore and he flatted really nicely, though I’m having trouble lately with keeping him from over-bending tracking right, which we’ll have to work on some more on our own.  We warmed up over some small jumps and then started working on a gymnastic down the center line and he was absolutely fab-u-lous!  He was soft, and quiet, and jumping so nicely.  I’ll let the videos speak for themselves….

Is that a wunderkind or what?  Don’t you just love him?  He makes it looks so easy.  3’6″ feels like nothing for him.  This was our best gymnastic yet (they seem to be getting better and better every time).  I definitely like doing gymnastic work in the hackamore.  He stays so incredibly soft and jumps so nice and round in it.  Never thought I’d say this, but I actually asked Alicia to put the jumps up a little for our last time through!  This horse does wonders for my confidence.

After our lesson we went down the barn aisle and I let Tucker say hi to all his old friends.  He was so sweet with all of them and they all seemed happy to see him.  I love the way he sniffs noses and blows in their faces, and then he’ll sometimes lick their muzzles like a puppy.  Just the sweetest thing.  Then when we opened the door to head back to the trailer Tucker didn’t want to leave!  He backed all the way up into the aisle, just about broke my heart.  I felt so bad taking him away from his friends.  There’s always a chance that Tucker will end up living with his little herd again… though probably not right away.  Right now I’m just hoping that at some point soon all the pieces of my life are going to start making sense again.  Tucker certainly made his wishes known today in case anyone was wondering though!

Things are a little up in the air in my life right now, but today I had one of those rides that totally clears your head.  Makes everything just snap right back into place.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I love that horse so much.  I can’t even put into words how special he is to me.

>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!

>Enamored, Part II

>So on to the jumping portion of Sunday’s lesson….

We started off with two small jumps on the outside, a vertical at the far end and an oxer at the near end.  They were set up as a six-stride line, and the exercise was to pick up my left lead canter in the corner, roll back down the quarter line and jump the vertical on an angle (landing right), then walk in the corner, pick up my canter again, roll back down the quarter line, and jump the oxer on an angle, landing left.  Walk, pick up my canter again, and repeat.  So it looked like this:

Once we did that smoothly (and Tucker was landing his leads), we eliminated the walk transition and kept going back and forth through this figure eight.  The goal was to keep the canter coming forward through the turns, and keep the same forward rhythm all the way to the jump, but still getting a relatively conservative distance since the jumps were small.  Tucker was very good through this exercise, listened well, and picked up on landing his leads very quickly.  I had to work on getting my eye on the next jump right away, keeping my arms soft and the canter moving forward around the turns.  A simple exercise, but challenging to get just right.

Then we did a little course.  It was the above outside line, vertical to oxer, in six strides, then cantering down the other quarter line (to the inside of the other outside line), rolling back through the middle of the ring to a single vertical on the diagonal, landing right, and then back down the outside line off the right lead, oxer to vertical.  Again I had to work on keeping the canter going forward through the left roll back.  The six stride outside line got a little easy for him when I jumped in with a medium distance, so I had to sit up and balance for six, which he did well. 

The next course started with a skinny jump, which was set up catty corner on the quarter line at the far end, turning left to the six stride on the outside, then the diagonal line, a flowing six strides, landing right, then walk, reverse, and back up the six stride diagonal.  The skinny jump was an exercise in straightness, so I got the canter coming forward down the long side of the ring, and then balanced and thought about both hands and both legs, and collected his stride to add a step, which Sarah said was a “good choice.”  Then I landed, looked left, and turned to the six stride on the outside.  We jumped in a little quietly so I just softened a little and he rolled right down there in six.  Then to the diagonal line, I saw the long one and just softened my hand, but I needed to close my leg too, because he added another baby step in, and then we landed trotting (mildly embarrassing moment).  So Sarah had me just turn left and come back to it with more pace, and the six worked out just fine.  Then we walked at the end of the ring, reversed, picked up the canter again.  I tried to get the same forward rhythm again but didn’t quite get it back, so we jumped in quietly (not a chip, just a little short).  But, since he’s got such a big stride, I landed and let go and closed my leg and he made it down the six no problem.

For the next course, we used the other outside line, which had a liverpool in it.  Before we started the course, we made the liverpool tiny and I cantered him over it once.  He barely noticed it was there (such a brave horse!) so we put it back up to normal height and did our next course.  This one started with the skinny jump again, then left lead to the outside six, then the other outside triple off the left, which was a one-stride to a five stride (ending with the liverpool), then the diagonal six left to right, then right lead to the outside six, right lead to the outside triple, five strides to one stride.  The last time we jumped the skinny he went a little right, so I closed my right leg on takeoff and he landed much straighter.  Then we jumped in to the six just right, so I just had to stay tall and keep the canter together.  He got a little bit rushed through the one stride because the first fence, an oxer, had a little red wall under it that he overjumped a bit, but then he was very good through the five stride to the liverpool.  I kept him coming forward and got a much better distance to the six stride on the diagonal, and then the line rode just right for him.  He landed right, and I jumped in a little forward to the outside six so I had to balance a little stronger in the line, but he listened really well and collected his stride beautifully.  Then we went back up the triple, found the first fence right out of stride, although he drifted left slightly in the one stride.  He landed left and I asked him to change, but we missed it and had to catch up.

We walked and let him catch his breath and Sarah pointed out that I was breaking the course up into pieces too much instead of riding it all together.  I would jump a line, regroup/balance (slow down), then have to get my canter back for the next fence.  So, she told me to look for the next jump as soon as I land from the line and ride forward as though I’m going right to it, even if I have a long way to go in between.  I found this really helpful.  So, we did that whole last course again, and I worked on making it all one piece and looking for my next fence right away, which helped me remember to maintain the same rhythm all the way around.  This made everything so much smoother and we found all the jumps just perfectly.  I assume this is because Tucker had an easier time finding the jumps when I took care of the rhythm and didn’t let the pace change anywhere (something I’ve been working towards).  And, he landed from the triple this time and got a really nice left to right change, so we ended on a very good note.

So, all in all, a really fun lesson.  Tucker was great, and behaved himself extremely well in a new place.  He jumped well, he listened, he worked hard, he focused.  All I could ask for from a horse!  I was so pleased with him. I couldn’t stop thanking him when we were done, and telling him how happy he made me.  He seemed to know he did something right.  He was looking pretty proud of himself by the time I wrapped him and put him away for the night.  Every time I think I love this horse as much as I possibly could, I find a reason to love him just a little bit more.  He’s amazing!

>Enamored

>You know those days when your horse totally steps up to the plate and exceeds your expectations?   I love those days.  I was absolutely enamored with my horse (all over again) by the end of the day on Sunday.

Since I’m trying to be financially responsible these days, I have scrapped my plan to try to take a bunch of clinics this fall/winter (though I am very tempted to take the clinic with Chris Kappler coming up next month).  Instead, I’ve decided to schedule some lessons with a few other local trainers whom I’ve heard good things about, just here and there to get another perspective on my horse and my riding (with Alicia’s blessing, of course).  So on Sunday I took a lesson with Sarah Segal, who trains along side of Chris Kappler.  Tucker was amazing, I learned a lot, and it was a very fun way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

We started off getting a nice forward trot rhythm to the left, using about 1/3 of their huge ring, and getting him in a little more elevated, and in fact less round, frame so that he was lighter up front and using his hind end more.  Once Tucker got the hang of what I was asking, he happily complied.  Right off the bat we did lots of walk-trot-walk transitions.  I tend to give Tucker as many steps as it takes for him to walk without bracing or losing his hind end during downward transitions, but Sarah pointed out that this is actually making it too easy for him and allowing him to avoid the moment of actually sitting down and using his hind end.  So we worked on making the transitions happen quicker, even if they weren’t perfect the first few times, and they did improve as we kept doing them.  (Such a smart horse!)  Then we let him extend his trot to give him a break from all the hard work.

Then we went to a smaller circle, tracking left, and worked on counterbending, then back to an inside bend, and went back and forth between these for a few circles.  Once that became smooth, we increased the aids for the counterbend and did a shoulder-out on the circle, then back to a normal bend, then a shoulder-in on the circle.  He did all of this really well.  I haven’t done much shoulder-in while on a circle (I always do them down the long side of the arena), but it really seemed to help him since it became more like just amplifying my aids for a normal inside bend. 

We went back to the full 1/3 of the ring and then changed directions, and did some more transitions, trot-walk-trot.  Once these improved, we went back to the small circle to the right, and did the same exercise in this direction.  I had explained that I struggle with his shoulder-in tracking right because he pops his left shoulder out and overbends instead of using his hind end.  The circle exercise really helped with this and then she had me hold the shoulder-in coming out of the circle, tracking straight across the ring.  He stayed really soft and used his right hind so nicely.  I’ll defintely be using this exercise going forward.  It feels more like a logical progression: establish a good trot on the circle, then counterbend, then shoulder-out, inside bend, then shoulder-in.

We let him walk and catch his breath and then went to the right lead canter.  Again, lots of canter-walk-canter transitions.  We’d canter about ten strides, walk, then canter right away again.  And repeat.  Then we did some countercanter, another thing I haven’t done much of with him, but I was relieved that for the most part, he executed it beautifully.  So we’d canter right, walk, canter left, walk, canter right, walk, canter left, and progressively asked him to hold the counterlead a little longer and around the corners.  Then I did a simple change of direction through the walk, and we did the same exercise to the left.  Lots of transitions, and then we started alternating leads between the left lead and the right lead countercanter.  It was easier for him to hold the right lead countercanter (not surprising, since his right lead is always easier).  I was so impressed with how well he held the counter lead though, since I almost never ask him for it.  I think I’m going to start making it a part of our regular flatwork. 

The jumping portion of the lesson was great as well, and I have lots more to tell you but it’s time for bed…. There’s a kitty curled up on my lap right now and she’s making sleep look very appealing. 

On a different note, I hope everyone will say a little prayer or send good vibes or think positive thoughts for Gennyral.  My thoughts will defintely be with OTB and her beautiful boy while we wait to see what’s going on with him.

>Fun with Gymnastics and Success with Collection

>Sunday was my first day shipping back to Alicia’s for a lesson and it went very well.  Since Tucker has lived there for two years, he wasn’t at all fresh or nervous.  He was very relaxed and really worked hard for me.  Alicia rode him on Friday night (which always helps), but this time as an extra bonus I was around to see her work with him, which always teaches me a lot.  I got to see how he moves laterally when he’s engaged and crossing over with his hind end, how he looks when he’s travelling straight, and watch his canter go from forward to collected but stay engaged.  For some reason seeing it makes it easier to replicate, it’s like envisioning what I’m asking him to do makes my aids a little clearer.

So, the flat work portion of our Sunday lesson was very good.  He was straight and forward (for the most part) at the trot.  We worked on asking him to straighten off of my outside aids (instead of popping his shoulder) but not letting him counterbend, so that he held a correct inside bend while staying straight, instead of just switching the bend.  We did some shoulder-ins, at the posting trot, and they were very good.  Alicia pointed out that my right hand was blocking his forward movement because I was burying it in his wither as I applied more contact, so I concentrated on keeping my right elbow at my side and my right hand elevated, and the shoulder-ins tracking left got so much better.  I was very pleased to figure this piece out, since I had a hard time with shoulder-ins on my own on Saturday.  His canter in both directions felt wonderful today.  He was forward and engaged and stayed really soft the whole time.  And… we got a clean lead change, left-to-right.  What a good boy!

Then we worked on the above gymnastic, which included Tucker’s first time jumping a bounce. (!)  It started out as a ground rail, 9 feet to a 2′ vertical, 10 feet to another 2′ vertical (the bounce), then 18 feet to another ground rail (which later became the oxer you see in the photo), with a placement rail halfway in between.  The first time through the bounce he rushed a little, but I worked on staying relaxed and getting a slow, collected trot coming in, and it got better and better.  Then the last ground rail became a vertical, and then an oxer (around 3′).  The first time through when he saw the new element he sped up, but each time he got better and better about collecting his stride to fit into the 18-foot one stride (which, for those of you who don’t jump, is a very collected one stride.  They’re typically more like 21-24 feet long).

I love gymnastics because I get to concentrate on my position (plus, they’re really fun!).  Alicia had me spread my hands wide in the air, for an automatic release, which forces you to balance on your own without leaning on the horse’s neck.  This really helps me — it gets my weight in my heels and keeps my upper body following the motion instead of getting ahead.  I had to work on keeping my back flat, not rounded.  When I first concentrated on keeping my back flat, I opened my upper body too soon over the oxer, instead of staying in jumping position until he landed from the jump. The next time, I stayed closed, but my back rounded.  Then I finally put them both together and kept my back flat and upper body closed until landing, and could really feel the difference in how he jumped.  Amazing how much our position changes their way of going.

Then we added a fourth element, two strides to a 3′ vertical (a little hard to see in the photo above because the rails are dark).  The two stride was set about 3 feet shorter than normal (about 33 feet instead of 36), so he had to maintain the same collection he had through the bounce and the one stride.  When that went well, we kept going to the triple on the diagonal (the same one we worked on last week, collected four strides to another collected four strides).  The first time through, I asked him to wait in the first four, and he blew me off and ended up on top of the middle oxer.  He seemed to realize his mistake and wait for further instruction in the second four, where I had to close my leg and tell him to keep going.

Then we went back to the gymnastic and through the triple again a few more times, and each time the triple got progressively better.  The last time through the triple, in the second four, he was so correct with his collection.  He shortened his step without losing impulsion, instead of just slowing down.  I sat a little deeper, closed my leg and hand, and actually felt him compress, but the canter stayed engaged, his front end was light (yay for flatwork paying off!), and the jump was lovely and soft. 

The last three times through the gymnastic though, we had a major left drift between the oxer and the last vertical (common Tucker strategy for giving himself more room).  The drift was actually happening in the air over the oxer, he’d leave from the middle and jump to the left, so we’d land and I’d have to veer him back to the right to get to the vertical.  Alicia pointed out that he was taking advantage of the spread hands and automatic release, so the last time through I kept my hands together and he was perfectly straight (so happy the flatwork is translating to the jumping, finally).  Since I had done all that work with the automatic release, my hands were together but I wasn’t leaning on his neck, so my balance was more secure, and he jumped a lot softer and rounder.  I have to remember that feeling for my next few jumping sessions. 

Then we headed back home and I wrapped his legs up for the night with some sore-no-more, cleaned my tack, and put fresh bedding in my trailer.  And took a few more shots of my handsome boy, this time with a real camera, instead of the camera phone (laser beam eyes set to “off”). 

Just a question:  How can you possibly resist this face?  I don’t know how anyone could help but fall in love with him.  I certainly can’t.  I absolutely melt every time I see him. 



>"Finding a Distance"

>There is a great thread on COTH right now about how to let the horse find his own distances, though I fear that it may be about to spiral downward into an online cat fight due to a snarky comment or two.  Regardless, there is some great advice there about establishing a good canter and then letting the horse find the distance himself, so ignore the snarkiness and have a look. 

I’ve been working really hard on this, because I feel like I am on the brink of getting it…  I’m slowly clearing the cobwebs out of my mind…  Starting to get a complete picture of what I’m supposed to be doing rather than watching vague concepts float around in my brain…  Feels as thought it’s just slightly out of my reach… but I can almost get a finger tip on it if I stretch up on my tippy toes…

Here are the things I’ve pieced together (also known as, the things Alicia has been repeating to me for a couple of years now, that may finally be starting to sink in):

• Pace is the key.  Establishing a good, forward canter rhythm, and not letting it change on the way to the jump, is really what it’s all about.  I’ve learned that I am a slow poke by nature.  Whenever I think I have a good canter, I need to send him forward.  When he feels like he’s going too fast, that’s just about right.
• From a forward rhythm, the horse has plenty of good options.  If he’s engaged and moving forward, he can easily extend his stride a hair to make the long one not so long, or he can balance on his hind end if it’s going to be a little tight.  Most of the time though, it comes up right out of stride if the pace is good, which to me says that the horse is rating himself and finding his own take off point.  If he’s crawling to the jump, it’s either the ugly chip, the long-and-weak, or chase the last three strides to get there (which typically sends us into orbit). 
• Straightness is the second most important issue, if not equally important.  If your horse bows out, drifts to one side, bulges through a shoulder, swings his hips out, etc., that’s going to change your track and make the distance that you both saw out of the corner suddenly become miles away.  I know this because it’s one of my favorite ways to screw up the long approach to the single diagonal oxer. 
• The rider needs to support, but not micromanage.  This means neither extreme will work.  The rider can’t pick-pick-pick, change her mind, or shout out seven different directions three strides out from the fence.  (That last one typically causes Tucker to roll his eyes at me in disgust.)  On the flipside of that coin, the rider can’t sit there and do nothing.  Supporting leg, supporting seat (whether that’s a half seat or a deeper seat), and a light contact are still necessary.  Staring up at the treeline, taking your leg off, and leaning forward toward the jump is utterly unhelpful.  Trust me, I know these things.
• Lastly, the horse needs you to hold your position still.  If you start moving around, it’s going to change his rhythm or track.  Plus, a good position will hide a multitude of sins.  When my shoulders are back, my hand is up and following, my knees aren’t pinching, and my weight is in my heels, Tucker can pretty much make any distance look okay.  Even if it’s a chip, if I hold a good position and stay the heck out of his way, he’ll still jump it pretty well.  Conversely, if I climb up his neck, stand on my toes, lean off to one side, and shove my elbows out (picture a drunken chicken trying to peer over a fence), I can almost guarantee that he’ll jump badly, knees pointed toward the ground, neck arched, back inverted, instead of swinging through his shoulder with his front end up in front of him.

I’ve been having better luck practicing these things in the hackamore.  For some reason, I’m much less tempted to take too much contact and slow him down on the way to the jump (maybe because he’s so much softer).  We’ve also been doing a lot of work on making me go forward to the jumps, which makes a world of difference.

In my last lesson, we were jumping a triple across the diagonal (vertical/oxer/vertical), and they were set at a steady four to a steady four.  The first time I tried to get a conservative distance in.  That didn’t work though, because then I had to move up for the first four and therefore had too much horse for the second four, which ended up being about a three-and-a-half.  The second time I went forward to the first jump, had to collect in the first four, and then just steady a little for the second four.  The third and fourth time, I got the same forward rhythm going in, and by then Smartypants had figured it out for himself so all I had to do was stretch up tall and support with my leg and seat.  Ohhhh…. I get it. 

Then we kept going to a long approach on the other diagonal to a vertical, which was set at 3’3″.  My goal here was not to micromanage, just keep counting the rhythm.  He saw the distance from way back in the corner as we turned off the rail, and I just stayed still, kept counting, and kept my leg on.  Success!  Every time we jumped it, he found it right out of stride from a nice, forward, engaged canter (which of course felt way too fast for me), and he jumped it beautifully.  I’m sure it helped that we spent pretty much the entire first 40 minutes of the lesson getting him straight on the flat, because we didn’t have any issues with straightness to the jumps.  Also probably helped a little that I was riding the greatest horse in the world.

>So Damn Lucky

>That’s what we are.  Do you know that?  Horse people are the luckiest people on Earth.  We have virtually no free time.  Every coat we own has hay and dirt on it somewhere, and vaguely smells like damp earth.  Our cars are always a mess.  Many of us can’t put together an outfit that doesn’t involve breeches and tall boots.  We are all usually broke, or about to go on a spending spree at the local tack shop that will leave us broke.    But we are so damn lucky.

Through our horses, we get to be stronger, faster, braver, and more agile than most people can even imagine.  We get to fly.  On a regular basis, we get to meet new challenges head on, we get to feel an adrenaline rush and push through it and do something great, something we were previously too scared to do.  We get to feel how making a tiny adjustment (a shoulder an inch farther back, more weight in one stirrup, a little more give in one elbow) can influence the entire way of traveling of a 1200 pound animal.  Maybe even most importantly, we get to forge these complex, deeply personal, spiritual, life-changing relationships with the horses in our lives.  They are our companions, our children, the loves of our lives, our teammates, our partners, our teachers, our best friends. 

I was trying to explain these concepts to some family members on Sunday morning.  My grandmother seemed genuinely curious about why I do this.  I couldn’t quite articulate how I feel about my horse, but I tried.  I wondered out loud what non-horse people do to replicate the way I feel about riding, and my horse.  How does someone without a horse get to experience anything like the feeling I get when I jump something big?  When do they find themselves in a situation where they have to work through their fear or anxiety and accomplish something, and how can they live without that regular feeling of elation, satisfaction and pure joy that we get from a really great ride?  And most of all, how would I even know that my life is on the right track without seeing how happy my horse is?  How would I know that I’m a good person without seeing how much my horse loves me?  These sentiments were, generally, met with blank stares, and then some vague musings about other people “playing sports too” and most people having these types of feelings for “other humans” (and, by the way Marissa, you’re not getting any younger, are you ever going to get a new boyfriend?).

Despite my inability to explain it, it was all perfectly clear for me on Sunday afternoon.  I got to the farm and had the whole place to myself, it was so quiet and peaceful.  My horse was in one of his really expressive, affectionate moods when I went in his stall to say hi.  I groomed him and he kept turning around and grooming me back with his muzzle.  Then I had a bunch of things to organize before my lesson and he was just hanging his head out of his stall and watching what I was doing, following the sound of my voice and watching the doorways when I came back in.

We had a great lesson in the hackamore.  We worked hard on the flat.  I had a really tough time getting him going forward at the trot.  There were times when I had to outright kick him with my spur to get any reaction at all.  Eventually though he did start getting his act together and the canter was good.  We worked on going forward and holding him straight.  Seems like in the hackamore, since he couldn’t evade by locking his jaw or leaning, he was more prone to bulging through his outside shoulder.  We corrected it though, and got him going straight and forward. 

When we started jumping, we worked on carrying that straightness and forward rhythm over to the jumps.  Since he was a little on the quiet side, I really had to work on sending him forward out of the turn to the jump.  We started with a tiny little jump on a left lead circle, and Alicia pointed out the spot in the circle where he was slowing down so I worked on closing my leg and sending him forward there, and paying close attention to the canter rhythm by counting.  Since the jump was about 10″ high, I could just concentrate on the pace and keep sending him forward without thinking about the jump itself.  I was able to really feel the difference between coming forward all the way to the jump and letting him slow as we rounded the turn to the fence.  Same distance, but one coming forward and one slowing, and the jump felt way better coming forward.  Then we picked another little jump off a right lead canter circle and did the same exercise. 

Then we worked with two single jumps on the diagonal, a vertical off the left lead and an oxer off the right lead.  Started out at about 2’6″ and 2’9″, and just repeated a figure-eight pattern over them.  We worked on the same thing, coming forward all the way to the jump, keeping my leg closed, and keeping my hands up and following.  I loved jumping in the hackamore.  He was landing so softly and jumping really round.  Then Alicia put both fences up to 3’3″.  I have to say I was kind of intimidated by the oxer, but we did each fence twice and he felt so amazing!  I kept my hands elevated (it felt like they were all the way up in front of my face but of course they weren’t) and kept following with my arms. I realized I was tempted to take more contact on the way to the jump and had to force myself not to touch him.  He was right on it every time when I just left him alone and kept going forward.  And he was so incredibly light.  The hackamore is amazing!

The last time we jumped the oxer he jumped it so well…  he was soft, and round, and made a big effort but since he was so relaxed and forward, I didn’t get jumped loose and was able to hold my position in the air.  It literally felt like flying.  Such an incredible feeling.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever ridden a horse that jumps as well as he does.  I think he had fun too.  He walked back to the barn with an extra little spring in his step and he kept licking his lips.  Then when I turned him out for the night, he paused for a minute and just pressed his nose into me and closed his eyes before he walked away. 

I’ve been turning these moments over in my head for the past couple of days and every time I do, they make me so happy.  The grooming, the flat work, that light as air feeling in my hand on the way to the jump, the mid-air, defying gravity, flying feeling, and that sweet moment in the dark when I turned him out.  And that, my friends, is why we are so damn lucky.

>A little progress with straightness; The wound saga continues

>Between the heat wave and the self-mutilation, Tucker had a full week off last week.  He didn’t seem much worse off though, he felt happy to be back to work.  Unfortunately, all the progress we made toward getting him straighter in the week before seemed to have vanished.  I had a pretty solid flat session with him on Saturday, and we had a flat lesson on Sunday.  I still want to hold off on jumping him until the swelling is gone in his leg and I know it’s in the clear.

On Saturday all I really worked on was getting him to go forward, which was a challenge in and of itself.  It took the entire first half of the ride to get something above a Western jog.  The trot was fairly abismal, so I decided to canter first and then come back to my trot work.  After the canter something seemed to unkink itself, and then I got a nice freely-moving forward balanced trot.  He still resisted the contact on the right rein so I never really got him straight, because when he grabs the left rein, his hips swing to the right, and if I straighten his hips but don’t get him accepting the right rein, he’ll just pop his right shoulder out.  But, I figured forward and straight-er was better than how we started so I quit on a good note.

In my lesson on Sunday after struggling to get him to accept the right rein for a while Alicia had me flip both reins to the right side of his neck.  So, I still had one rein in each hand, but my left rein was basically useless, since it was on the right side of his neck.  The point was to give him no choice but to accept the right rein because that’s all I had, and prevent me from riding entirely off my left rein.  This meant I had to use a ton of left leg to keep him straight.  After doing this exercise, I realized that in general, I need to ride him with a lot more left leg.

Tucker, of course, didn’t understand the objective of the exercise and swung his head completely out to the right, so he was trotting around staring at the wall.  Hmmm.  Talented little horse I have there.  Just as I was starting to think to myself that this was completely pointless, though, he actually started accepting the right rein a little.  Apparently trotting around with your neck at a 90 degree angle from your body becomes uncomfortable after several minutes or so?  He still wasn’t completely straight, but at least he contemplated the idea that I could push him with my left leg into my right hand.  I have a feeling we’ll need to do that exercise a few times to actually accomplish its purpose, but it was helpful.

As for the wound care department, I was trying for the first two days to keep it open, on the theory that it would form a scab best that way, and the Alushield would serve as an antimicrobial layer.  Unfortunately I think it is a little too deep to start healing that quickly, so I’ve decided to keep it wrapped for a few days until it starts to form a scab.  I consulted with a few friends whose horses have had similar injuries and the consensus is that’s what the vets usually say.  So, for turnout I did a gauze pad with vet wrap (not too tight, because I was worried about putting pressure on his tendon, but snug enough that it wouldn’t slide down).  For tonight, since he’s staying in due to thunderstorms, I did the same thing under a standing wrap.

Yesterday and today, instead of just scrubbing with betadine/novalsan, I flushed it out really well with hydrogen peroxide in a syringe, which I think really helped to clean it out.  Under his wrap, I switched to a more heavy duty topical treatment, Equaide, which prevents proud flesh, is a heavy duty antibiotic, and generally helps with healing.  I don’t know if it’s actually developing proud flesh, but the fact that there’s no scab forming after four days and it’s a fairly deep cut makes me want to take all precautions.  He’s also been on SMZs and will continue that for another 4 days.

I stopped at CVS tonight and got non-stick gauze pads, because I noticed when I took his wrap off tonight that, although the wound was very clean, it was really stuck to the gauze.  That certainly won’t help with scab formation.  I also got some saline solution to keep flushing the wound.  I remember the vet telling me something when Lilly had her last absess about hydrogen peroxide, that it’s good in the beginning, but after that can dry out and kill healthy skin cells trying to heal. 

I took pictures, but they really aren’t coming out well enough to show you guys any meaningful detail.  What I can say though is that there was a white to yellowish discharge on Saturday after being left open, but only blood tonight after being kept under the wrap.  I think that’s good.  There was also white fleshy-type material forming in the center of the wound, which easily came off when I gently scrubbed on Sunday, no such stuff tonight.  Those two things are making me think that the wrapping and the Equaide are helping.  I don’t plan to wrap indefinitely because I think that would create its own set of issues, but at least until there is a scab forming and the swelling comes down.  The good news on the swelling front is that even without icing or work today, it was only swollen around the perimeter of the wound, rather than from knee to pastern, as it had been on Thursday through Sunday.

The saga continues, but all seems to be moving in the right direction….