Here are some of the pictures my wonderful husband took yesterday when I rode Sophie. She was only BTV at the trot in a couple of the pictures and BTV in the canter for a stride and then good for a few and then BTV again. It does look like her neck is bent incorrectly in a lot of the pictures though, and I am also slouching terribly in a lot of them. So I'll try sitting up straighter and pushing her forward and seeing if that helps. I do have a lesson on Thursday, I'll be riding, and it will be a full lesson, but I think we're better off doing a full lesson once a week than two short lessons twice a week.
First, some trot pictures. These were taken at various points during the ride, before we cantered. They are generally the better trot pictures. I have a couple of sequence shots where you can see her approach the "bad" section of the arena and make her way through it. Generally during our rides she kind of picks a spot in the arena (other than the scary end) that she loses her balance in and pops her head up a bit for a couple of strides before going back to goodness.
Regular walk...not this nice until after we've been trotting for a while...
And our free walk...
So, what do you guys think? Any tips or advice? She wasn't flipping her head really at all for the ride, and was overall pretty good (at least to me), though *I* need a lot of work. Oh, and are my hands too low???
4 comments:
Nice free walk! Jack does not drop his head that low unless he's really tired at the end of a ride. Sophie looks great! It looks like you have a straight line from elbow to bit, so I think your hands look good. It just looks like she needs a little more connection from inside leg to outside rein. Not that I'm an expert, though ;-) Isn't it amazing how hard something that sounds simple... having your horse move straight and relaxed can be so difficult? It's one of the things I like about dressage. There's always more to work on!
Oh and your wedding pictures are beautiful! Congrats on one year!
Ok, so my internet has been out for a few days with the storm we had, so I’m just catching up! I’ll take these posts one at a time and see if I can give you any advice that may help :-) I’m not trying to be over critical, as there is a lot of good stuff in these pictures that I will probably skip over, but it doesn’t mean it’s all bad, it just means I’m focusing on the stuff that could use some work – please don’t take it personally :-) and sorry, but i am going to be incredibly, boringly specific :-\
From what I can see in these pictures, she has good even paces and a nice regular, diagonal trot, which is always a good sign :-)
1st pic: here she is in just enough of an outline – you don’t need more at this point. You might try giving a bit more with your outside rein to allow her to stretch down into the bend if she wants – remember she’s learning, so give her the ability to find her own balance a bit. Also, watch that you don’t lean in through the turns, as this could unbalance her and cause her to panic and rush the turn
2nd pic: here your hands appear to be restricting her stride a little which has caused her to lose some of the regularity in her front end and has caused her to fall onto her forehand a bit
3rd pic: here again the low hand is causing her neck to back up and her mouth to open
4th pic: she’s a little tense in her back here, but tracking well into a lighter inside rein, which gives her a more natural head position
5th pic: here her head ‘position’ is ok, but the bulge in her lower neck tells me she’s resisting and lifting from the lower neck muscles, possibly because the rein is a bit restrictive…
6th pic: here you’ve got her head ‘down’ and her stride has remained regular, but she is nearly BTV and her neck is too bent for a regular trot – I’d like to see you allow your left hand forward or let the rein lengthen to allow her to stretch more
7th pc: ok, you won’t believe me, but this is your best pic of this series – here she is balanced, engaged, highest at the poll and her neck muscles are being used correctly :-) nice!
8th pic: here she’s got a little of what I call the ‘loch ness monster’ neck – the bend is beginning to look a bit unnatural
9th pic: here I can’t see what sort of rein aid you are using, but she has fallen into the turn and tipped her poll into the center of the circle, which suggests to me that she is bending in front of the wither only and you may be using too much outside rein to counteract that…
10th pic: a difficult angle, but I think she is again bending in front of the wither
11th pic: here I suspect she has not tracked up in this walk
12-last pics – nice and relaxed – you might want to incorporate more walk-breaks like this into your sessions between exercises, as she looks like she really appreciates it. Also, watch that you don’t get into too much of a chair seat at the walk, even if you are relaxing – your leg position was pretty good throughout the other pics
Other thoughts: she seems well forward and I would not push her more. Your hands are a bit low, and I like the longer rein, but you can tend to carry them over the saddle, and not over the shoulders – try letting your hands come up and forward a bit by allowing your elbow to come slightly in front of your sides…
Thank you so much you guys! That was really helpful jme! It is difficult for me to accept the more open frame as being correct because that's not what I'm being told is ideal (even at this stage of our training, lol). I also posted on UDBB and got some useful comments there as well. I'm going to try my shoulders back device so that I can sit up straighter and be able to keep my elbows by my side better.
One issue I have with the outside rein is that Sophie makes an "S" with her neck unless I help keep her straight with the outside rein. Though I didn't notice the problem so much before the last lesson I had where I rode her. So, I'll try lightening up on it. I'm also going to see if I can get her working on a longer rein so that she's using her neck correctly. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!
i'll be curious to know if lightening the outside rein helps. the 's' neck is usually because the horse wants to bend too much in front of the wither (for any number of reasons) and the rider tries to limit the bend by holding the outside of the mouth, but a really persistent horse will resist this by tipping the poll inside. once they start doing this it is difficult to cure, but it won't happen from the outside rein - you'll usually have to go back to a shallower bend for a while and retrain the inside leg/rein aids. don't worry about the inside leg to outside rein theory just now, but work on being clear and consistent with just those aids that ask for bend...
just out of curiosity, how are you using your inside rein for the bend? direct, indirect, in front of or behind the wither, etc?
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