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!

Pushing Too Hard...

Today went well. I had great plans for doing the next chapter of Lessons With Lendon. It's actually an exercise that Courtney King (or Courtney King-Dye) had a few riders do during the dressage demos at Equine Affaire in April. Courtney called it flexing and Lendong calls it bending though, extreme bending to the inside and the outside as you ride a circle. But we didn't really get to that. But, the chapter is called Active Hands, which is what I'd been playing with on my own, so it was good to read a more detailed account of what I should be doing. I was pretty much ok on my own, I'd realized after the first day that I needed to not pull my hand down when flexing my fingers because I didn't want to force her head down, I wanted her to feel safe putting it down, and just encourage it. Lendon emphasized that it's better to lift the hand, and away from the neck a bit while you do it to ensure you are effecting the lips, not the bars. So we did work on that section.

Sophie was trying *very* hard today, and she started out better than yesterday, we were doing stretchy circles after just a couple spiral circles at the trot. It was actually easier for her to do stretchy circles than to do the spiral circles. So we went large to trot past the scary end of the arena (where the light shines through the crack between the door and the wall) and did a few circles down there until her head didn't fly up when approaching the light. As soon as we were past the light, her head would come down and she would relax. Then up when approaching the light again. But she did start to relax and not counterbend on the circle, once she did that we moved on from the light.

We went to the left first, and then reversed and did the spiral circles and stretchy circles to the right after a walk break. Sophie was having a lot of trouble balancing though, even through the leg yield out, which is not normal for her at all. So we did a couple of circles by the light and then had another walk break. We finished up with a canter circle in each direction, which she was very good for. After I untacked her I went ahead and curried her really good. I always do her face with the soft side of the jelly brush first because she's always itchy and is always super and doesn't rub her head on me after we're done working now. Then I used the hard curry on her body and she was actually leaning into the curry comb. She never does that. She's normally pretty standoffish when it comes to brushing, doesn't dislike it, but doesn't really seem to like it either. Except for her face when she's sweaty, her chest curried, her mane brushed, and her udder cleaned. Those things she gets droopy eyed and lowers her head or leans as appropriate.

This leads me to the conclusion that riding four days in a row and really working these last couple of days was a little much for her. So I'm going to cut back to two days riding, one day off and see how that goes, while she gets legged up. She'll have tomorrow and Saturday off because I'm going home tomorrow. If the weather cooperates I'm going to take Jessie for a spin while home and see how he feels under saddle. At least get some new pictures of him!

Meanwhile, I've exchanged a couple of emails with Sophie's breeder, and her daddy's owner (her daddy is Advocate). They're both very nice and seemed to like getting the updates. I also sent an email to her old trainer with links to pictures and letting her know that everything's going well, I'm also hoping that she shares the email with Sophie's old owner. Tomorrow I'm dropping off two saddles at Equus Now to be sold on consignment, the money will be nice and I can't use either of them on the two horses I own (and the dressage saddle will never work for me).

Amazingness, And A Dressage Appaloosa...

Today's ride can be summed up with one word...*amazing*. I skipped a chapter in the Lessons With Lendon book (the one on hands, since I try to focus on those every ride) and skipped to the one about leg yielding. Today's ride was spent working on leg yielding in and out on a circle (while staying bent on the circle). We started out doing it at the walk and Sophie did great. It's almost like half passing when spiraling in and of course, we leg yield to spiral back out. Sophie leg yields beautifully, and the spiral circles at the walk were a piece of cake.

So we tried it at the trot after doing them in both directions at the walk. The trot was a lot harder because I had to worry about posting, maintaining rhythm and tempo, bend, and then ask her to spiral in and out at the same time while staying soft and giving with my hands. She was very soft and round throughout most of the circles, and when she would tense and brace I would push her into the outside rein with my inside leg and gently tense and relax my inside ring finger, worked like a charm, she would soften pretty quickly, considering. I did find that the key to that is my leg, without using my leg it wouldn't do anything.

She was going so lovely that after we reversed and did our spiral circles to the right I tried feeding out the reins and she followed the bit down into a nice stretchy circle. I didn't have to wiggle anything or convince her to stretch, she just did it, as long as I kept my inside leg on her at least. Then I decided she was going so well, I brought her back to me and asked her for a canter. She was wonderful, picked it up not on my squeeze but after I kissed at her. We tried two more times and each departure was better than the last.

However, I fell into the trap of being a passenger again, I kept her going at the canter, helped her to keep from falling to the inside by using my inside leg to support her and providing a supportive outside rein, but when we got back to the trot I started out so relieved just to have had a nice canter that she was racing and tense and I just let her be that way. After the second trot-canter transition I really paid attention and half halted to bring her back to a more regular and right for her tempo and she really listened. Then it was much easier to do after the last trot-canter transition in that direction. I also realized that I was pinching with my knees during the downward transition and focused on not doing that for the final transition.

Then I gave her a walk break and reversed to stretchy trot to the left and canter to the left too. Our stretchy circle came almost as easy as the right did. I played with stretchy trot, working trot, stretchy trot transitions. When she was going really nicely I slid my right leg back and prepared to ask fr the canter and she picked the canter up immediately. I think it was due to the fact that with the right going so well I was much more relaxed. Her canter-trot transitions were amazing, she went straight from canter to working trot, no rushing or tenseness. But she was rushing the canter a little. We'll work on that more later, I was mainly focusing on the transitions this time.

I haven't read ahead to see what chapter we'll be doing tomorrow, but we may do some more canter work, even if it's just working on transitions and helping her to be more balanced. Spiral circles may help as well. One thing I've noticed is that Sophie tends to carry her haunches a little to the inside when tracking right. I'm not sure if it's me, or if she's extra sensitive because we've been playing around with moving her side to side with my legs.

Oh, and the ride lasted right around 20 minutes, maybe a touch over. We could have gone longer, but she was so, so, so, so, so good I wanted to reward her by not doing too much. The temptation is there to do more, but I'm a little sore from our short sessions and know that my riding will be helped by not being *really* sore and it'll be easier for Sophie to realize that I'm pleased with what she did. Lendon Gray mentioned in her book that often she has ridden a horse a few minutes and then dismounted, because the horse had done everything well. So I figured it was a good thing. Of course, stopping at 20 minutes means that we aren't ready for a lesson yet, but I feel like we're getting a lot of progress made on our own, and Kim hasn't been around when I've been riding anyway. I also don't want the shock of a lesson to be too much for Sophie, going 45-60 minutes straight and being asked to do more than what I ask on my own.

Because Sophie was so good for our ride I hosed her off after untacking her and handgrazed her while she dried. She loved it. And she loved all of the treats she got while I was cleaning my tack post-drying!

And finally, some pictures, since it's been a couple of entries ago that I posted pictures. No kitty walking pictures though, they haven't been downloaded yet, but instead, a neat Appaloosa that was at Champagne Run Horse Trials a couple of weekends ago. He's a neat color and put in a lovely test. Enjoy!

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!