Discipline...Or My Use Of It...

I decided to make this entry about discipline. This comes about because yesterday, I did some housekeeping on the blog. Now that I understand the concept of tags I went through every old post and tagged them more selectively. I thought that as I start riding and taking lessons it will be useful to be able to reflect back on specific movements or issues and see everything I've learned about them thus far, or something like that. One thing that I have trouble with, and has so far been a little bit of a recurring them, is discipline.

I don't mean discipline in the way that I would if Sophie had just barged into me while I was leading her because she got distracted by something to the right and her left shoulder bulged into me. I'm talking more about *my* discipline. To expect the best and keep going for it, to not settle for good enough and to seek to do better than the last time, everytime.

So, on to my ride. It was hot and I was given permission to sweat as of today, so I made up a ride plan in my head and went over it with Sophie as I was grooming her. Before heading out I read Lessons With Lendon, exercise one, which is called "Can You Do Nothing?" It basically covers expecting your horse to respond to basic commands, and you not getting in its way. In other words, work on getting the horse to walk/trot off of your seat, but don't pull on its mouth as it takes off. Also, in downward transitions, get them, if you ask the horse to walk, it had better walk and ASAP. That was one of the most difficult things to get over once I started taking lessons. I was more of the opinion that it was ok to take three strides to get to the walk when cantering, or two to get from trot to walk, but why? What does allowing my horse to take those extra steps accomplish? So, if my instructor says it's not ok and Lendon Gray says it's not, I'm not going to allow it.

It's funny though, because the first few transitions are horrid. They aren't pretty, the horse isn't soft and supple, because you haven't trained it to respond quickly or that you have an expectation of an immediate response. But, after you sit deep and follow up with your hands the horse gets the hang of it real quick. Same thing with trotting from the halt.

So, needless to say, my plan was to work on getting Sophie lighter off my leg and seat, and to work on our trot/halt and halt/trot and walk/trot transitions. We started out ok, Sophie had definitely heard me talking because she was much more willing to trot. I wasn't sure how she was going to be, so we did 20 meter circles, practicing changing the bend and flexion to switch directions. I tried to keep my hands soft and giving and Sophie was shifting between braced and round. Then I started utilizing the half halt while also moving the bit in her mouth through wiggling my fingers. It was like magic, she softened at the poll and melted into my hands. Suddenly, my goals were forgotten. I asked for a 15 meter circle as opposed to 20 meter and worked on giving the inside rein, checking to see if she kept the bend and circle. She did! I was very impressed, especially when I asked for more trot and she took bigger strides (though after a couple of quicker steps). We did this a few times in both directions, also working on transitions at various points.

Next was the big test, while gently wiggling my fingers I slowly started letting out the inside rein, then the outside. She stayed soft, round, and slowly lengthened her frame, reaching down for the bit and we were doing a lovely stretchy circle. We did it to the right first, because she showed the willingness to do it there, giving me the idea. I could even get her to trot a little bigger, as long as I "played" with the reins while I asked. To the left it was a little harder, she isn't as willing to bend in that direction and my right leg is stronger, so it's harder for *me* to encourage the bend in that direction. But she did well, and seemed to enjoy it.

It was 90 degress today, though not too bad in the indoor. We took a quick walk break and then I decided to work on shoulder in at the walk. We walked laps around the arena, doing 10 meter circles at the walk in the corners to establish bend and help me position myself, and then shoulder in from there. Ironically, she seemed to do much better going to the left with the shoulder in. We only did two long sides with 10 meter circle breaks throughout the long sides and then switched to do it to the right. We only did one long side as I think that she has it enough to benefit more from doing it at the trot than the walk, due to the greater impulsion. I was able to release the inside rein often when doing the shoulder in, but she came off the track a bit, I think due to my leg not being on enough. But, she's the first horse that I've really *gotten* that the outside rein brings the shoulders off the track. Once I build up my stamina enough for a lesson it'll be nice to see how correct it was, because for a few steps it seemed pretty good, but I can't tell if the bend is there, or if she was just doing a sideways leg yield.

I wasted a lot of time warming up today, because I was just being a passenger. Sure, I was asking her to bend and be engaged and doing things like serpentines and circles, but I didn't really have a plan for how to make my plan happen. Only by really engaging my mind and recalling past lessons was I able to do a proper warm up, and actually get Sophie working better. I'm going to do that from the beginning tomorrow, so that we can do some more shoulder in work than what we did today. Due to the weather and the fact that neither of us are used to riding I only rode for 20 minutes today. But it was really good work, and hopefully we'll be able to do stretchy circles prior to the end of the ride!

My most recent eye appointment was this morning. I no longer have to wear the eye shields at night, or use the antibiotics/steroids in my left eye. The right eye is another story, the inflammation is much better, but I still have to use the steroids and antibiotics in that eye. But, I'm allowed to sweat! I still wear the goggles for grooming (though they didn't say I had to) and will continue to for the next week. But, I don't wear anything on my eyes because when I rode yesterday I wore my sunglasses and there wasn't any dust on them when I was done.

That's about it, I'll try to get good pics of the cats tonight, last night they weren't doing much when I had the camera. Elphie is scared to be outside but it seems to work to let her just be lose, with the leash on, and the back door cracked so she can go inside if she wants to. Kitty is happy as a clam on her tether in the yard. Though she doesn't like it if you stand inside the house, at the backdoor watching her, she just stares at you and meows. But if you sit outside with her she just explores the end of her tether. She did get to stalk a bird yesterday though, she loved it, even though she wasn't anywhere close to it and the bird was outside the end of Kitty's leash range to boot!

Poor Sophie!

Sophie had her little legs worked off of her today. We started out just fine with the longeing, she was doing great, I was doing great. Then Kim stopped by to watch and suggested that we raise the side reins to simulate hands more so because Sophie is progressing so quickly. So we moved the side reins and didn't get the results we were looking for. Then Kim pulled out the sliding side reins which had Sophie in more of a Training Level/First Level frame than just Intro/Training. Then we ran into the problem of getting her to extend her trot. Everytime she was clucked at she started cantering, after all, it's much easier to canter than it is to extend the trot. So after some persistence we convinced Sophie to extend when clucked at, not canter. We also worked on whoa on the longe and a little on kissing to mean canter.

Overall it was a great session and Kim's input helped a lot. I just hope I can figure out how to attach the sliding side reins tomorrow. Sophie was soaked by the time we were done, it was 85 degrees, so warmer than the last couple of days, but we were also asking her to do a lot more. I could just envision her under saddle while watching her today. She has a gorgeous trot, especially when she has a lot of impulsion to move her along. Kim said that she's progressing faster than she thought she would, and asked if I'd heard about my saddle recently. I was going to call when I got home, but forgot, I'll try to do it tomorrow instead.

Today was just a further lesson in how I need to expect more and expect perfection when I ask for something. I'm sure Sophie prefers it when it's just me and her, with no "help" from Kim, but this is what's going to make us good. I console myself with thoughts of her apple/carrot water that she gets after the workout is over. Today I tried throwing some treats in the bucket as well, to see if she will eat them when wet. She did, fortunately, so now I have a back up for if I forget vegetables or we don't have any. Especially since they float, so she needs to bob for them, and they absorb a lot of water. She really enjoyed bobbing for her food though, it was fun to watch her.

Anyway, I got some of the pictures from the other day uploaded. Where I was playing with Sophie like she was a Barbie horse, or a My Little Pony. So enjoy!

Pretty Pony Hair School Pictures

A nice picture of my shiny horse from her hairless side. This was after I decided to braid her mane. When we show seriously her mane will most likely be pulled short and braided in regular dressage braids. But for this summer I'm letting her mane grow out so that I can get some pictures of her with a long, pretty mane to keep. I figure there's plenty of time to cut it next year, when I start showing.

This was my first attempt at a running braid on Sophie. The first I've done in a very long time to boot. It was fun, and started off as just a lark. She was hanging out in her stall and I was brushing her and decided to give it a try. So I went to work and it was tight and wonderful looking, but I had no rubberband! And Sophie didn't even have a halter on. So I finished the braid and pulled the rubberband from my own hair and wrapped it 30 times around her little tail while I got a horse rubberband. Unfortunately the braid looks crinkly when she lifts her head higher than it was when I was braiding. She stood still the whole time I braided as well, which I was happy about. I think she's flexing her neck in this picture.

Stretching out, showing off the running braid at its best. It looks equally good if her neck is exactly level as well (which is where it was when I was braiding it).

Continental braid...my first attempt. Haley walked by as I was nearing the end of it and said "looking good". Then when she walked by the next time I was pulling the rubberbands out and she said "you did all of that work for nothing?" I told her I took pictures, but she didn't seem to think that was worth the time, lol. But it didn't take that long, especially since Sophie's mane isn't very long right now.

I told her she looked like a fairy horse with her mane crimpy. She just rolled her eyes at me and looked scared.

Eyeball picture.

Showing off her tail (and shiny rump).

They Never Said It Would Be Easy...

Another full day spent at the barn. When I arrived at the barn Sophie was laying down. My heart stopped for a minute, and dropped to the bottom of my stomach. I slid her door open and she nickered at me and rose to her feet. She looked bright eyed and perky, searching me for treats. I set about getting my gear out of the trailer so that I could keep an eye on her and once she realized treats were not coming she started eating what was left of her hay. But coming to the front of the stall each time I came in.

I filled her apple/carrot/molasses bucket with some water and held it up for her to taste. She *loved* it. The apples floated and the funniest thing I've seen a horse do is bob for apples. After she got an apple I went to work grooming her and tacking her up for today's longe session. Her snazzy lavender dressage boots from TOTD came today and she looks great in them. We longed for 20 minutes and I brushed her again while replacing her water bucket with her "treat" bucket. After I was done brushing her I cleaned the rest of my tack. Yesterday I did two saddles and lots of bridles, today I did two saddles and bridles.

Once I was done Kim and Hayley were there, tacking up their horses, so I gave Sophie back her regular bucket and dumped out what was left of the water in the treat bucket (she fished everything out but drank a lot of water in the process). Then I went to watch Kim and Hayley ride, since they were riding their Grand Prix horses.

It was very interesting and really drove home the fact that you can't settle for good enough when schooling. Sometimes it was hard to watch because a passage or pirouette I would have been very happy with meant that the horse had to be corrected and asked to do it again. But, the horse recognized that it wasn't good enough and did do better the next time. I'm definitely too gentle of a rider for Grand Prix. I'm hoping to lose that once I get started again, because it's not doing the horse any favors by allowing it to "kind of" do what it's asked to, not in the long run.

First lesson done...

I had my first lesson with Kim on Sophie today. It was...interesting. Sophie was very upset to be in the arena and not out with the other horses, especially since they were being turned out for the day. So we started out with walking skinny serpentines, doing lots of changes of direction to get her focusing on me, not how miserable she was being alone in the indoor. After she was mainly paying attention to me we started adding in stops as well. Then I would ask her to walk forward solely by lifting my seat. Which she ignored, so I would back it up with leg (though not fast enough for Kim!). We worked on that for a bit and then Sophie decided she was still unhappy about being in the indoor and started flipping her head.

Kim told me to urge her forward, so I would give with my hands while sitting up straight and giving her an open window to be able to move forward. Eventually during a move forward phase she broke out trotting, so we ended up trotting lots of serpentines, with her trying to slow down to toss her head every now and then. But there were breakthroughs...sometimes after a head tossing episode suddenly her head would come down, she would round to the bit and move beautifully. We started doing circles as well and got loads of nice work and less head tossing.

By the end of the lesson we were trotting around the whole ring working on stretching down and out while performing the most amazing trot ever. At that point Kim said she was looking like a Trakehner now and it was wonderful. Kim said that we should score well though and the she's a really nice mover. So that made me feel a lot better about everything.

And an interesting side note, Sophie is the boss of her little group in the pasture, even though she's younger and smaller than the other two horses. But she tells them were to go and they do it. I was hoping to get to The Tack Trunk today to pick up another trial saddle, but I just couldn't make the drive after spending all morning at the barn. My body was pretty exhausted from all of the gardening and cleaning over this last week. So we're going to try to make it out tomorrow morning before meeting up with my sister. Not ideal, but I needed a three hour nap and wouldn't have made it after. Hopefully the perfect saddle is there, and I can look at the KK's.