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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.
I had another lesson today. While warming up I discovered the key to travers. I was playing around while walking and asked Sophie to move her butt over with my outside leg. Presto, haunches over. I tried it again on the next long side and same thing. So when Kim came out I showed her, and she told me that it was a good start, but I needed more bend. So I tried asking her to move her haunches over before we finished the turn (since she was already bent for the turn) and then using my inside leg to ask for bend. Worked like a charm. Suddenly we were doing travers.
So we did that a bit in both directions. Then we worked on shoulder in at the walk, and then trot. Which went ok, but when I prepare my aids to ask for shoulder in Sophie thinks I'm asking her to walk, which was frustrating.
We moved on to work on cantering one direction, which really frustrated me because I was in a not so good mood to begin with, and she kept breaking and flinging her head. The more frustrated I got the worse she got. After that we did some lengthenings, which went *really* well. So well I was able to start focusing on bringing her back to a more collected trot at the end of the lengthening. Then we cantered in the other direction, which was even worse, especially when we tried to go large off of a 20 meter circle. But she got it when we tried it a few more times. We finished up with working on turn on the haunches, which went pretty well. I just need to remember to half halt *every* step, to be able to do it. Granted, it needs a lot of work, we're going to have to work on it a lot, but it's a good start.
I have another lesson Sunday night. It was 15 degrees when I was driving home, it was 25 degrees when I looked at the barn thermometer. I was surprised Kim decided to teach in that weather, but glad, even if I was having trouble keeping my emotions under control.
I have a feeling this title might get used quite a bit in the next few days. I had another lesson today, it was 21 degrees when I drove home from the barn, but still 30 degrees in the barn/indoor arena. I got Sophie ready and all was well. Warmed her up while Kim finished her lesson with a little girl learning stake and bend. Sophie and I just free walked for a bit and then leg yielded at the walk a little. After that we started trotting. I did a few leg yields and circles, but I mainly tried to stay out of the way and give Sophie a chance to warm up her muscles.
Kim had us do some leg yields and then we walked some while she helped the little girl untack the lesson horse. Then we went straight to shoulder in, which went really, really well again. Sophie is picking it up soooo quickly. I'm working on not leaning too far to the side and getting my inside leg far enough forward. I asked Kim if we could work on travers a little, if she didn't think it'd confuse Sophie, since I haven't done shoulder in/travers since last winter, with Jessie.
So we tried travers, and it just confused Sophie, she kept trotting with my leg that far back and my inside leg asking for bend. We tried it a couple of times and she was still confused, so we gave that up, and instead started to work on renvers! I guess there's a movement in Second Level where you move from shoulder in to renvers on a long side. You have to do it in the trot for the test, but we did it at the walk. At first it was hard to visualize for me, especially since I've never ridden renvers before. So Kim stood at the halfway point against the wall, so that I could change Sophie's bend around Kim and then kind of "slide" over her. I probably can't explain why it worked so well in my head, but it did. It was amazing, Sophie is a renvers pro. Of course, after doing that she was wiggling her hind end all over the place, anticipating doing more renvers.
After that we picked up the trot and worked on getting Sophie up, since she kept getting too low. It's odd, because I have to make sure my reins are short enough, or she gets low and BTV. So after lots of half halts we were ready to try shoulder in at the trot. It went ok, I was having a lot of trouble with my left leg, it was shot after trying shoulder in for so long at the walk, then the shoulder in to renvers exercise made it worse. But we did pretty well overall.
Then we cantered, and that went ok, our transitions were much better at least. Sophie was very forward (though not rushy) so we tried lengthenings across the short diagonal and she did sooooo well. It was a little strung out, on the forehand, but she lengthened. She did even better the next two times we tried it. After that we had another walk break and cantered in the other direction.
Unless Kim decides it's too cold I should have another lesson tomorrow, and one on Sunday. I don't know if I'll have one next week, since I'm going to be having a D&C sometime next week and I'm not sure if I'm going to feel up to riding after. Kim's leaving on the 11th now, so I could have a lesson Monday/Tuesday depending on how things go.
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?
