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?

Oxymoron...

That's me cantering Sophie, a big old oxymoron. Every stride it's half halt with the outside rein and ask for more jump with the inside rein. She already feels fast, why would I want to use more leg??? But if I don't do it that way she gets strung out and falls into the trot. Heck, even doing it that way we still fall into the trot every now and then. But today was amazing, we cantered a 15 meter circle, might have even been a 13 meter circle!!!!! And it was under control, collected (for us), and round. It was awesome.

Due to it being in the 20's I warmed up longer at the walk, and then moved on to trotting circles on a longer than normal rein, just to see if she would do it. She did so well (stretching down and seeking the bit) that I started working on walk-trot transitions on the circle, still on the longer rein. They were very good transitions. We warmed up for about 15 minutes and then Kim came in to the ring and we started with some figure eights and then serpentines. The turn was too steep on the serpentines for us to make with impulsion and Sophie moving forward, so I worked on making the turns at the quarterlines, if that makes sense.

After that we cantered to the left and it was ok, we did get down to a 13 meter circle but it wasn't as balanced as the same circle to the right. We also did some leg yielding which just remphasized that I need to use my outside aids more and turn her like a "steamship", in other words, turn her shoulders and not let her just bend her neck around the turn. When we reversed the canter was a little harder to pick up, but once we got it going it was more balanced, especially when we did the small circle. The leg yields in that direction were rougher at first, she was tense and bracing and I was turning her oddly which wasn't helping.

Once we'd cantered a couple of times I asked for the trot and we did a stretchy circle for a couple of laps before settling down to walk our cool down. It was a very short lesson, but Sophie was sooooo good we called it quits there. It was especially nice because Sophie didn't get sweaty, just a little warm, so it took no time at all to cool her out. I decided to start taking my tack home at night, so that it isn't as cold on her and that way I can give it a good cleaning here at home, instead of just a rinse off like I do now.

Foiled by Fishy...

I have lost my diagonals. I mentioned it last lesson to Kim, and she said she was surprised because I normally don't have trouble with them. I was having problems today too, this time thinking I was on the wrong diagonal when I was good. Then Kim said the dreaded words..."It's because you're pregnant". Apparently she had the same kind of problems when she was pregnant.

Today Sophie was bending her neck incorrectly, she counter bends while appearing to be bent correctly (to the uneducated observer that is). So I had to do lots of half halts with the outside rein to keep her neck straight and then ask for correct bend once she was straight. We started out by asking for transitions on a 20 meter circle. I have a tendency to brace with my arms when asking for a lesser gait, which just gives Sophie something to brace against. So we worked mainly on me, half halting constantly through the trainsition and keeping my elbows loose and hands playful, not pulling, but giving and taking, with more give and very light on the take, if that makes sense.

We did this on a 20 meter circle in both directions. As she improved we started doing it on the diagonal. We started getting a nice transition, but lost the quality of the walk after the transition, so I started focusing on keeping my seat and hands following and the after got better, but the transition deteriorated. Eventually I got it and the transition and the walk were much better, as was the transition back to the trot. (We were trotting across the diagonal, walking right before reaching X, walking across X, and trotting after crossing X).

Of course, after about 10 diagonals Sophie started walking automatically because she had caught on to what we were doing. So we changed it up, but doing 3 loop serpentines and walking when we crossed the centerline, then picking the trot up right away. We did those a handful of times and then we worked on leg yielding in both directions. Sophie did much better, she was much more responsive to my leg and very even and steady in the reins.

After some leg yielding we had a walk break and talked about riding while pregnant. Of course, it ended up being a long break and Sophie was kind of annoyed by the restarting work, I think she thought she was done, lol. After I had a nice trot going we worked on the canter again. It was much less barrel pony on crack and even could be considered training level dressage horse canter at times.

We cantered in the other direction and she was a very good girl, so we let her trot again and do some stretchy circles in both directions. Then I walked her for 15 minutes and put her away. It was a shorter lesson than normal, but we covered a lot and made a lot of improvements. I'm going to focus mainly on transitions and leg yielding during my off time.

I also discovered that I've been placing my foot on the stirrup wrong. Instead of keeping my foot toward the inside of the stirrup I keep it pressed against the outside of the stirrup which encourages me to toe out. I tried fixing it for the canter work, which I think is part of the reason why Sophie had trouble getting back into the swing of things. I can feel the different strain on my leg when I have them in the right place. So for now I'm retraining my feet/legs while walking (part of the reason I walked for 15 minutes after the lesson, to practice keeping my feet in the right place). After I get better at the walk I'll start adding some trotwork too. It might take all winter, but I *will* stop toeing out!

Like a Barrel Pony on Crack...

That's kind of what it feels like when I canter Sophie.

Today's lesson was great, as what's becoming always. Sophie is on the bit, round, and starting to work over her back. She's found a comfort zone in what will become her natural frame when she's in self carriage. I'm thrilled that she's finally accepting contact, steady contact, and no longer throws her head.

But there's a downside...she is soooo comfortable with my hands that she's just fine with me holding her head up. My arms are not cut out for holding up Sophie's head. I was bad, and let her get away with it last lesson because I was so thrilled that she was so accepting of my hands and contact.

So this lesson we got to work on convincing her to hold her own head up. We started with trotting big circles to warm up and moving on to changing direction across the diagonal through round lines so that it was easier to work on changing her bend, that way it wasn't a long straight line across the diagonal. Once we had those going pretty good we moved on to three loop serpentines.

After that we did some leg yielding from the quarterline and those went much better than last week. We finished up with some canter work and it was fast, that's when Sophie started acting like a barrel pony on crack. She was fast and cantering big while about to break into a trot at any moment, she was also starting to wear out my arms with hanging on me. So during that walk break Kim and I talked about it and how Sophie was just going to get heavier if I let her, and that it'd be ok for Training Level, and even First Level, but it'd kill me any higher.

I think the turning point was recognizing how thrilled and grateful I was that she was just being so steady in her contact, that I just wanted to savor the moment. So after the walk break we worked on cantering to the right (Sophie's worse direction) and I really worked on half halting and then shaking her off. Something we'd worked on to the left, but I hadn't seen any real results. But to the right, she was like a changed horse, up, but round, Kim said she was almost there, almost completely through but at least had schwung when trotting prior to cantering.

The canter was much better, slower, but on the forehand, so I continued to really *ride* the canter. Inside leg, inside leg, half halt, shake her off, half halt, inside leg, shake her off, half halt, inside leg, half halt, shake her off, just constant. I'm sure it's not the prettiest thing to watch right now, but she didn't break into the trot and we had three *great* strides of canter. Really, really good canter. But then we lost it, and didn't get it quite back. At that point I was feeling queasy and called an end to the lesson, and cooled Sophie out.

I have another lesson on Thursday night and will have two next week, hopefully. Then just one the next due to Thanksgiving, two the week after that, and I'm not sure if I'll have another past that point because Kim is leaving on a Wednesday and I'm not sure she's going to want to give a lesson the night before she leaves.

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!

Courtney King Notes...

And now, my notes from the Courtney King clinics I spectated over the weekend at Equine Affaire. There were two clinics each of the two days. I hadn't known much about Courtney King going into the clinics, just that she was a Grand Prix rider.


Friday Morning-Dressage, How to Ride More Precisely
Horse 1-Dutch Mare

Collected Canter-keep the same jump and cadence throughout, always need a sense of forward

• Keep the collection by doing shoulder fore throughout the exercise
• When beginning schooling ask for 3 or 4 strides and then go forward again

Flying Changes-let the canter flow between the changes, there should not be a change in the canter prior to each change, the approach to a change should be the same as the departure from the change

Walking-(especially the free walk to working walk transition)-to loosen the back ask for sideways as you pick the horse back up. Ask for extra bend and a little sideways as transitioning from the free walk to the working walk to prevent the horse from stiffening and to keep you from just pulling back as you do it

• Never rush when picking the horse up at the walk

Miscellaneous-to get the horse more "up" use walk-trot transitions-not shorter reins and more leg.

Humorous Sidenote (this rider had said that she needs help with her half passes, and Courtney had a great sense of humor and was very witty).

Courtney: "Now lets see that horrendous half pass"

Rider half passes

Courtney: "It's not horrendous, but it's boring"

Grand Prix-the horse's understanding...

Leg=collect and sit

Hand=extend

Miscellaneous

In dressage, you should always ride shoulder fore, it encourages the inside hind to track between the front legs; weights the inside hind leg while keeping the haunches from being toward the center of the ring

Half Pass

-go into it with extra bend

-use inside leg to prevent too much sideways

-need to keep the horse from falling onto the shoulder, keep her upright with the inside leg

• will help with rushing the sidepass when walk-trot transitions within it don't

-if your half pass is honest and in self carriage the inside rein will become loose

-if horse leads with its haunches go straight while in shoulder fore and then half pass again

• don't wait until the haunches lead though, shoulder fore *before* the haunches lead, if you do it before there's a problem you might only need to do it for a stride or so, if you wait, it'll take a few strides before you can go back to half pass

Training-do a movement with precision and quality for a few strides and then change when quality deteriorates to improve the movement--then try again

• don't just keep going while doing it badly, horses learn through muscle memory and they'll learn it wrong if you do

Canter Half Pass

-if losing it *push* the horse straight, don't just allow the horse to stop going sideways

-make sure the horse keeps reaching

-do it on the 3/4 line because you'll already have the horse balanced on your outside leg, rather than beginning from the wall

General

-if the horse gets too up play a little with the reins, don't hold it in; up is what allows the horse to be expressive

-after doing canter work make sure you get a good trot before stopping for a break

• make sure the horse is supple and loose in a way that encourages expression because horses are trained on muscle memory, so don't throw the trot away on the way to the walk

-if the horse picks up the wrong gait when you are asking for something correct it right away because otherwise next time the horse will think "I was right, that is what she wanted" and will be more likely to repeat the incorrect reaction

Horse 2-Danish Gelding

Lendon Gray's #1 rule for riding--Learn to do nothing (be part of the horse); until you can do that you have no right to ask the horse to conform to your body

Sidenote

Courtney would give the horses 3 or 4 walk breaks during each 45 minutes session, I found that interesting because quite a few on the internet seem to think that the horse should never be allowed to walk and rest during a schooling session

Light hand is not because you give it; it's your ability to react

• Some horses want a heavier connection, which is ok, as long as it's consistent

"Don't do anything artificial with your hands, let the horse have control"

Shoulder In

-can be corrected when you're not in the shoulder in; do a volte halway through

-start it when the horse is already good

Collected Canter

-move the bit a little

-sit a little deeper

-sometimes just need to relax and stop focusing on being perfect

-the horse has got to pull your arms, you don't push it's mouth

Other

Low hands look nicer, are more elegant and effortless (not to mention that the two riders prone to holding their hands too high had much nicer rides when they lowered their hands so that there was a straight line from elbow to mouth). Another thing I noticed was that the two riders that tended to ride mainly off the curb were the two that held their hands too high. Almost everyone was told shorten the snaffles (those two to lengthen the curbs too) at some point, a couple because the snaffle rein seemed to slip through their fingers; the other two were told to lengthen the curb and shorten the snaffle (sometimes the curb would be taught for them and the snaffle rein loose). Courtney got very tired of telling one person to get off the curb.