Eddo Hoekstra Clinic Notes...Day 1...Horse 4 and 5...

I didn't take a lot of notes for horse 4...mainly because I was too busy drooling over the amazingly gorgeous black Trakehner mare in the ring. The epitome of dream horse for me. The big thing they did to start was stretchy circles, give with rt hand, drive with rt leg, give with left hand, drive with left leg, and so on, slowly feeding the reins to the horse one side and a little bit at a time.


When doing walk to halt transitions stop your body and wait for the horse to lessen forward movement; if it doesn't in a few steps then use your hands to ask too.


Practice using your seat bones to ask for the walk.


After doing walk-trot-walk transitions ride while thinking of rebalancing for the walk but don't actually walk. This helps to improve the trot tremendously! You can also shift your inside hip forward and ask for the canter during one of these rebalancings.


The next horse they worked on managing the go of the horse without trying to stop it. While they did shallow loops they added in walk/trot transitions on one long side. Then the next long side they would just trot with lengthened strides. After around 3 laps they would change directions.


There will never be spring without swing!


Walk-trot transitions on a circle, ride the horse "slightly in" when walking (without steering though, steering is blocking) after this reverse directions on a new circle through the canter like previous horse.


After the horse has become good at the shallow loops (or maybe more accurately, once the rider is proficient at guiding the horse through shallow loops) then you can do shoulder in, guide back to the wall, haunches in, back to the wall, etc. Very small SI/HI, so the horse doesn't realize it's doing it.

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom...

Well, today Sophie decided that my well thought out warm up was a complete waste of time, and she'd rather get straight to work. So after we walked around the arena for 3 minutes she did a big spook away from the wall on the end of the arena she liked even when she was "bad". Aaaaargh! She also decided that the other big door couldn't be trusted, so she had to keep an eye on it as well. I was not in the mood, so we went straight to work and if she even *thought* about slowing down when approaching one of the doors I smacked her with the whip to keep her forward. I only had to do that twice and she was moving off my leg well and accepting my half halts. By the time Kim came out, she was going beautifully.

I discovered that sitting trot adds an extra bit of power to Sophie's trot, and really gets her through and working over her back. So we started out with some extensions across the short diagonal, and there was much improvement. Kim gave me a new exercise with them, and that is to go from lengthened trot to walk once you reach the wall again, that way Sophie starts thinking "is she going to make me walk?" and really sits down when I do half halt just to bring her back to a more collected trot from the lengthening.

After the extensions we worked on cantering, counter canter, to be more exact. Her canter was *amazing* tonight. Much better than last lesson. We started off by cantering a 20 meter circle in the middle of the ring. Then I would ask her to trot, we would trot along the wall and begin another 20 meter circle at the end of the ring. Once we had a good canter established I would turn down the quarterline and try to leg yield over to the wall a few strides (pretty much until she broke). We only got 2 or 3 strides when we got any, but Kim seemed really pleased. It was a great improvement because we were cantering down the long side, and last lesson Sophie wasn't able to canter hardly at all down the long side. Kim had also set up three cones to give us a distance to stay away from the wall, kind of like a barrier to leg yield around.

After the cantering we worked on leg yielding away from the wall, to the quarterline, and then back. We had a discussion about my reins, because I always think they're too short and she always thinks they're too long. So I tried shortening my reins a little more, and it was like someone turned on the 4 wheel drive. There was so much power under/behind me. Sophie was up and open and actually started to get some suspension. Kim was very impressed and had us try some lengthenings with this newfound energy and it was incredible. I could feel her launching upwards as we began the legnthenings. We've decided that Sophie (and I) are ready for more sitting trot than rising trot, provided we're both properly warmed up. It's amazing the difference it makes in the quality of her trot. And my half halts are so much more effective with my butt already in the saddle, as are our transitions.

We then worked on shoulder in, initially at the trot, which didn't go well at all. So I went back to the walk and Kim told me to make sure I keep my inside shoulder *up*, and back, like I was turning to look at someone in a tree behind me. It worked like magic. As soon as I got my shoulder back and up I could actually *feel* Sophie snap into position. I was just sitting and she was performing shoulder in, every now and then I would use a little inside leg, but it wasn't a constant squeezing of the inside leg, asking her to bend that way. She was working almost completely off my seat. It was like magic. And it worked in both directions. I was able to more effectively half halt and use the outside rein once I was confident in my position, and Sophie looked like a real dressage horse doing shoulder in. It was incredible. We had 3 really good steps of shoulder in the first time, and then 9 the next, once I put it all together. As I get better at half halting while doing the shoulder in I'm going to start asking her to trot *while* already doing the shoulder in, instead of trying to do it after a corner or a 10 meter circle.

Our final exercise was more canter work. Sophie was no longer light and back to being more barrel pony on crack than she'd been in the beginning of the lesson. I know some of it was probably a little bit of fatigue, so I think that when I'm working on my own I'll do canter work early in the ride. Instead of the end like we had been doing. That may have been why we had so much trouble with the canter at the end of last lesson. At one point, when I asked for a lengthening I used a little too much of just my outside leg, and she picked up a lovely canter, I went ahead and rode it, and she kept it around the tight turn when we returned back to the wall and all the way up to the other end until I asked her to come back.

Today and the previous lesson were full length lessons, with lots of warm up to boot, but Sophie overall did very well. Both of us are gaining strength and stamina, I don't actually require breaks during the lessons anymore. And Sophie mainly gets them as a reward for doing especially well. We're at the point now where I'll sometimes just give her a few inches of rein and let her stretch her neck. Kim said that she thinks her neck is really coming along, and is much thicker now than it was (in a good way, lol). She was also soooo forward at the beginning from being worked out of spooking that Kim didn't have to tell me once not to let her get any lower. Sophie was just trucking along just like a real dressage horse. So, though it started badly, it was an overall very good lesson. I needed that, because I'm beginning to feel crampy, and have a feeling that I'm going to be starting to miscarry before the surgery on Thursday.

My last lesson of the year (and for the next four months) is tomorrow night, provided I feel well enough. I feel like we're in a really good place though, with *tons* to work on and continue improving while we're without instruction.

Oh, and I am officially crazy. I looked at the weather report and said, wow, it's warm today...because it was 23 degrees, and felt like 23 degrees.

So this is what it feels like...

Today I learned what it feels like when Sophie is truly "in front of my leg". We had another lesson tonight to make up for cancelling last Tuesday's and it went great. We warmed up by walking for a while again, and then trotting big circles and laps around the ring on a long rein, but on contact. Our warm up lasted 15 minutes and I even had time to take off my sweatshirt and tighten the girth again. Then the lesson started.

Sophie is accepting of contact now, at the walk. I generally let her walk with her head wherever she wants it, as long as I have a steady contact (she no longer throws her head at the walk, otherwise I would worry about it more). I will half halt and use my inside leg to push her into the outside rein to encourage her to come round, but I don't focus on it by any means. I collected Sophie back up to begin, using a lot of strong half halts to encourage her to walk up and into the contact, it wasn't the best walk in the world, or the most through, but definitely an improvement.

We then picked up the trot, have I mentioned how good our upward transitions are getting? I really think Kim is astonished by how quickly we've been progressing and how *good* Sophie is. We did laps around the arena, working on really improving the trot and getting me to focus on making half halts nearly constantly, to keep her active, forward, but engaged. First we would get it just right for a stride, and then two, and then four. It was amazing how different Sophie felt. Once we improved enough around the arena we began a 20 meter circle in the center, where we worked on more half halts to encourage some actual suspension.

After that we moved on to trotting leg yields down the long sides, as well as working on lengthening the trot down a short diagonal. The lengthenings kind of sucked, but the leg yields were great. After a short walk break we worked on the canter. She was still sucking back and then raising her head when we cantered, so we worked on trot-canter transitions. My big problem is I still tend to brace through the transition, and I had to work on letting go, half halting through the transition. Unfortunately I needed a break after a few of those, so we walked for a bit and then reversed.

Once we reversed we worked on the canter to the left and tried something different. Sophie was so *on* that we decided to ask for a lengthening for a few strides before asking for the canter, to avoid the sucking back. It worked, I had three or four nicer transitions with some good jump to them and less bracing. After that we worked on leg yielding, which wasn't as good in this direction. After the leg yields we worked on walk-trot transitions which were *much* better. I discovered that they are lovely when I release the inside rein in between half halts entirely. Poof, perfect transition, so I'm going to try that when cantering to see if it helps there as well.

We also did some more lengthenings on the short diagonal and they were much better, thanks to the feel we'd discovered while doing the canter work. We did try some side passing around the corners, which also helped us work on our trot-halt transitions (which were lovely!) but Sophie was getting tired and let us know that she wasn't thrilled with more work. So we did a couple of stretchy trot circles in both directions and called it a night.

In all I rode for about 45 minutes with the warm up and the lesson. It was a very good lesson and Sophie was awesome. She's lost a little weight, so we'll probably up her hay soon. Kim said that when she was getting 2 flakes at night she wouldn't eat it all, and would have some leftovers when cut back to a flake. But once I restarted lessons she's been cleaning up every bite.

And on another note, now that my riding lessons are cominig to an end, I'm going to start taking piano lessons. Weird, huh?

Third Level Friesian Gelding...Day 2...

****Connecting Half Halt****
Close both legs
Close outside fist
Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle the inside hand
Do all of this for 3 seconds

Do 3 supples then half halt (while thinking add, add, add); soften and let the neck fall down (ie use suppleness to improve the connection)

Too much flexion on inside is a sign of more focus on the inside rein, need to focus on the outside hand which is the connecting hand; you should still row the boat as you half halt

The outside hand captures, contains, and recycles the power

Your horse must be supple on the inside rein and connected through the outside rein

Inside/outside is not determined by the wall of the arena, but by the flexion and bend of the horse

Precede the opening of your fingers for a stretchy circle with a good connecting half halt
*Do the same thing with a test that asks you to loop the inside rein*

Second Level Morgan Gelding...Day 2...

"Amateurs ride from movement to movement; professionals ride from half halt to half halt" --Robert Dover

Don't increase the leg if the horse is heavy in the hand; just use regular leg aids

Leg aid at the half halt is just slightly more than the maintenance aid (if your horse is in front of the aids)

****Signs of Collection****
Horse is shorter from nose to tail
Height of withers compared to heigh of croup (withers are higher)
Loading of the hind leg

Frequent transitions skipping a gait improves collection (walk to canter, halt to trot, and reversed)

Downward transitions-hands forward, tighten back/tummy muscles

****Collecting Exercise****
5 strides canter, 5 strides walk, 5 strides canter, etc
No dribbling in between
Down transition through the rider's back and outside rein
Can also be done between the trot and halt

****Ways to Get More Collection****
Lateral work with bend
Decreasing size circles
Transitions while skipping a gait

Collecting half halt is a momentary closure of leg, seat, and hand (it's the "textbook" definition of a half halt)

Keep the same rhythm and tempo while decreasing ground covered by 50%, which equals a good collecting half halt
Take, give, take, give, take, give (not just add, add, add)
Once you have it down do it when doing shoulder in, half pass, etc
Needs to be timed for just before the hind leg pushes off the ground

When you feel the inside seat bone go forward when trotting that is the time to cue for a half halt

When the seat feels deepest is when to half halt when cantering (this is also when the mane flips up a little)

Training Level/First Level Warmblood...Day 2...

She had an extra long lesson because the amazing Hanoverian that was to follow had an injury. But it turned out to be good for the auditors and the rider because they were just at a breakthrough point when her ride was *supposed* to be over.

If you go +2 or -2 it's too easy for the horse to bend at the neck.

Coordinate closing of calf with turning the key, then in between be quiet

Crest of neck, left and right (flipping the nuchal ligament); try the flexing at the halt, you can see the crest flip, Conrad will start a lesson with this, do NOT wiggle the rein when you do this, just flip the wrist; then do it at the walk

If the horse tilts on a 10 meter circle of Shoulder In then it may be locked on one side of the poll-so supple it (can do it while in shoulder in as well as 10 meter circle or on a straight line)

The moment you get the +7 then release; if you hold him he breaks at the jaw

On a circle, the horse HAS to be on a +1 flexion, otherwise he's not straight; even through the transition

You don't go from stiff to supple in one fell swoop; it goes Stiff-->Less stiff-->A little stiff-->a little supple-->a little more supple-->supple

****Testing Suppleness****
1. When your horse is supple the weight of the horse on your hand stays the same when you supple because the horse just follows your hand around with his mouth

If you have a markedly one-sided horse spend 80% of the time suppleing that stiff side, you can track left and still work the right side of the body

2. When you take on the rein the horse lengthens and lowers his head toward the bit (as you supple)

3. If the horse stays straight on line of travel (doesn't swing its hindquarters)

If the horse swings you have to block the escape route by using passive non-suppleing side leg

****End Suppleness Tests****

Reiner Klimke would school a line of flying changes and then walk on a long rein plus pat his horse, then pick up the reins and do a pirouette, then lengthen reins and pat his horse, in other words-he spent more time walking on a long rein and patting his horse than drilling stuff

During a connecting half halt keep the leg on, don't pulse

Rober Dover-lots of bend, driving aids, and holding rein, on a 20 meter circle accelerate into a 6 meter circle within the 20 meter circle (at the walk), (using lots of bend, driving aids, and a holding rein)

When the horse steps through the closed outside fist the horse comes through and over its back

For this exercise, 20 m/6 m circles when walking, 20 m/10 m circles when trotting and cantering; think of it as if you're going to do a medium gait just before beginning the circle

Once the horse has it on a circle do the finished half halt on the circle

Think add, add, add as you do the half halt, then relax and the horse will round and come on the bit if it was right

Connecting half halt-aid to put your horse on the bit and make it straight

Unilateral half halt=Connecting Half Halt
1st Purpose=put the horse on the bit
2nd Purpose=make the horse even in the rein

If your horse is too heavy in the right rein then it is too light in the left rein

"Schooling is about fixing problems, competition is about hiding problems"

Make sure to add in a way that doesn't chase him out of his rhythm

Horse stiff on right, so go left, do counter -1 flexion, twinkle outside hand, close inside hand, close legs which equals a reverse half halt

Layer half halts like coats of paint, softening in between

If the horse gets behind the leg ask for a lengthening

In competition you wouldn't flex the horse to the outside, so reverse half halt is just for schooling

Question Session Day One...

Jane doesn't change the flexion for flying changes because it puts you in the mode of using the wrong hand (it gets you focusing on the inside hand when the outside hand is more important in flying changes)

Jane first tries to teach a horse flying changes through a figure 8 with simple changes, walking in the middle and using the horse's tendency to anticipate.

****Training Flying Changes Tips****
Use outside leg (one trainer says, "give them a reason to change")

Add outside hand

Then inner leg/seatbones become more important and gives you expressive changes

Don't teach the horse to half pass away from the outside leg because it's too easy for the horse to mistake that for a canter depart

Fix overtempo by traditional leg yield with head to the wall, keeping a 35 degree angle between the horse and the wall

Jane's dressage "bible" is "The Complete Training of Horse and Rider" by Podjasky

He also discusses connecting half halts in this book, but he calls them Unilateral Half Halts

5 Year Old Training Level Hanoverian...

This horse was super, super, super nice! Absolutely exactly what a training level horse should be. Unfortunately he was off today, from a week old splint, so the Saturday notes are all I have.

Keep your hands together (side by side, in alignment so that you only see the closest one from the side) or you block the outside hind

When the horse is lookier in one direction it's because their dominant eye is away from it, generally that's also their stiffer side.

To figure out what *your* dominant eye is, point at an object in the distance, without moving your finger, keep pointing and the object and close your left eye and then close your right eye, whichever open eye causes your finger to seem to not move compared to where it was with both eyes open is your dominant eye!

When suppling don't hold the +7 for more than a second, or the horse will break at the jaw.

The first ingredient of a connecting half halt is to close the calves and the outside hand so that it captures, contains, and recycles the energy back to the hindlegs; it lasts 3 seconds, long enough to inhale and exhale; give it by closing the legs, close the outside hand, and vibrate the inside rein while thinking "add, add, add"

Don't use the inside rein until just before the horse bends to the outside due to the closed hand.

When the horse can learn to go forward through a closed outside rein then you have a horse that can truely be on the bit.

Half halt through the transition to make it nicer

Work on keeping the horse from subtracting the gait, when half halting

****Exercise****
Lengthen trot on open side of a 20 meter circle, half halt on the opposite side, the half halt should have the same power/energy as the lengthening; use tummy muscles to shortern from the lengthening

Lengthen long enough to get an answer

When you close your eyes you should get the lengthening for 1 stride before closing the hand when half halting

After the half halt allow the neck to "fall down"

You need an extra insurance policy in the beginning by having more go than you need

Half Goes and Half Whoas...

Today's chapter from Lessons With Lendon was regarding the half halt, though breaking it down into half whoas and half goes. First on a straight line and then on a circle. So, I got Sophie ready and we started off going large around the ring. I decided to work on half goes on the long sides and half whoas on the short sides, though I would often carry the half whoa portion out through part of the long side too, so that she wouldn't anticipate. It went pretty well, she was a lot more responsive off my leg than I thought she would be, that's for sure.

I was very pleased that she wasn't nearly as looky at the sunlight door, I don't know if it was because the light wasn't that bad or if she was less concerned because she saw much worse yesterday on the trail ride. After she was going good on the long/short sides we did a 20 meter circle in the center of the arena (at E, normally we were in one corner of the arena doing 20 meter circles). She worked pretty well at half whoas and half goes.

Half goes are when you lightly apply your leg to the horse, expecting a forward reaction. With Sophie, she speeds up the trot a little and takes bigger strides. You aren't looking for a specific reaction, just something "more". I only had to back up the leg with the whip once or twice the whole session.

Half whoas are when you still your arms (at the elbows) and stop following the horse to temporarily stop the forward movement. As soon as you feel a slight stall in the motion you release and go back to softly following. It's like breaking down a half halt, which is a rebalancing of the horse through seat, hands, and leg, all applied simultaneously.

In addition to working on the half whoas and half goes we did a stretchy circle to the left and worked a little on the canter in both directions on a 20 meter circle. Overall it was a good ride, though I think Sophie was a bit tired from yesterday, not too tired to trot or canter, she was perfectly willing to do that. But she actually had an easier time of being on the bit yesterday, on the trail ride, than today.

Oh, and I got her two sets of washable dressage boots from Tack of the Day. She has a wound on her neck, I think from Maddie, so I braided her mane again and put some Corona ointment on it. I'm not sure if I'll ride tomorrow or not, but I'll at least check Sophie out and check her wound. Tomorrow's my birthday and I'm going to dinner with my husband! I'm thinking I may just work on stretchy circles because I don't think I'll be able to ride on Thursday, and Friday through Sunday is out too. Stretchy circles seem to be something Sophie can do pretty easily and I think it'll be good for us. We'll also try playing with different rein lengths, because I don't want her to become dependent upon a short rein for balance, or to get used to carrying her head a certain way and not actually being through and on the bit. Plus, we can always practice more canter transitions!

Watch Where You Flop...

Headed out to the barn today for another longe session. I longed Sophie yesterday and she had two days off before that (from longeing at least). We started off with her mane side to me, which is my least favorite side because it's her hardest side. Longeing in that direction goes like this, *cluck*, half halt, half halt, *cluck, half halt, *cluck*, half halt, for the first few minutes before she relaxes into the trot and reaches for the bit. Every time she would lower her head she would get a "gooooood giiiiiiirl" as well. I was dreading it but everything came together pretty quickly.

I switched to using my surcingle because it will fasten tighter than Kim's. It doesn't have rings as low down the side as Kim's though. But, mine doesn't rub her elbow either. Her mane side was actually better this time than her non-mane side, so I'm going to give her a break next time. What happens is when we stop to reverse she yanks her head up and forward, pulling the surcingle out of place which also effects the adjustments needed for the side reins. So next time, I'll remove the side reins and walk for a couple of minutes to let her stretch her neck before continuing.

After longeing I gave her her bobbing bucket and untacked her. She was pretty sweaty and still a little warm, despite walking for a while after we finished (it was near 90 degrees when I left for the barn, probably 85 by the time I worked her), so I decided to hose her off. I was a little nervous about that, since I've never hosed her down or seen her hosed down before, but she was great. Didn't care at all. After I sweat scraped her I took her out to graze beside the barn and that's when the torbie cat that reminds me of Kitty tracked me down. I petted her some, as Sophie grazed, and at one point she was so focused on me that she flopped down on the clover just as Sophie was trying to eat it. Both animals were *very* surprised when that happened.

And on another note...today is horsie laundry day. I'm washing my dressage boots for the first time and they look great! Just threw them in the washer and you'd think they were new looking at them. They came out of the washer almost dry, so I'm letting them air dry the rest of the way and they should be good by the time I make it out to the barn tomorrow. I really wish I'd bought more of them, but next time around I will!