Vet Trip, Ride 3, New Horse, and a Longe Lesson

Shamrock had a super busy week.  Friday I trailered him in to the vet, where he had his teeth done, a coggins pulled, and got his vaccinations.  His teeth were pretty bad, two big hooks and two ramps.  

I gave him a day off and went on a short bareback ride Sunday, looking for the halter he managed to lose his first day home.  He was a perfect gentleman and even allowed me to keep light contact with his mouth throughout the ride!

Then today I had a longe lesson.  It was my first longe lesson and I really enjoyed it!  We started out with lots of stretching and warmup exercises for me. 

Twist from side to side

Windmill each arm individually

Arms out, palms up, flip hands over until palms are up again and arms twisted
Turn with hands on horse's back, elbow straight, let shoulder move freely to follow horse's movement 

Toe circles 

Lift leg off horse, rotate back, put back on horse

 

Do each 8 times for maximum effect...any more than 8 times won't make you stretchier so it's pointless to go past 8 reps.  

After the warmup we did a lot of trotting, 7 strides posting, 7 strides 2-point, 7 strides sitting, and then repeat. 

And finally, this morning I went to look at a pony with my cousin, we liked him a lot and we're going to go pick him up tomorrow...hopefully he'll be Shamrock's buddy since Clifford still has the donkeys.  I'm also going to work with Cowboy to get him better trained, so I'm excited about that!

A Trail Ride and a Lesson

Sunday afternoon I went on a trailride with Shamrock, his older owner and her horse. It was *awesome*, though a little disconcerting with the steep hills we were going up and down. Shamrock did great on the actual trail portion, and even went into the water first whenever we had to go into or cross a stream. He got a little spooked by a deer when we were out in the open (it jumped straight out at us!) but was fine for the rest of the ride.

Then I had a lesson Tuesday evening, and it was *awesome*! I'd been having trouble with my Albion, it seemed like it was confining me and forcing me into somewhat of a chair seat. My new instructor helped me to discover that by changing the angle of my hip and actually leaning forward a little (so that I was actually upright instead of leaning back a little like I'm used to doing even though it looks and feels straight)gave me greater weight in my feet and allowed me to be sitting with a straight line from ear to hip to heel...I was even able to shorten my stirrups a couple of notches!

After this epiphany we worked on alternating between sitting trot and two point, so that I can get used to the "correct" feeling of those positions for repeating them on Shamrock. I'll have another lesson in two weeks and between now and then I'll work on building up my own strength in those positions.

The big breakthrough came after the lesson. While mounted my instructor discovered that the muscle running from my armpits down my side are incredibly tight...they felt more like bricks than loose muscle like they should have. So she had me do some stretching exercises to help release and relax those muscles. There's already a huge difference in them today and I'm going to keep doing the exercises over the next two weeks to improve them even more.

We're moving Shamrock to his new home on Sunday, so I should be able to get more and better pictures of him after that!

I Cried Tonight...

During my lesson. I didn't get Sophie completely loosened up in our warm up, she was a little looky and I just didn't focus on getting her warmed up so much because, I don't know. I guess I just thought we'd work on it more in the lesson. But the beginning of the lesson was working on trotting a 20 meter circle, walking at the walk, and then continuing down half the long side in shoulder in. Except Sophie was tense and braced the entire time, it wasn't fun and I didn't want to be doing it. I felt that to loosen her up we should work on something she's confirmed in rather than something we've only worked on a handful of times. Which was just making me even more frustrated, it was a terrible cycle.

Then I started thinking about how awful it was and how the one silver lining to losing the baby was that I would have longer to work with Sophie (and getting her going really well) before getting too big to ride. I'm going to take a break from riding until next week I think. We had a walk break and I had a good cry.

Then I picked up the trot again and we had much better work. Our canter work was really good tonight, I was able to get her to canter slower, but still maintaining the canter and it was a nice canter at that. Then I worked on riding off the 20 meter circle in the center of the ring to cantering down the long side and all the way around the arena. We were trying to lengthen the canter on the long sides and shorten it on the short sides. It worked pretty well the first direction, not quite as well the next, but decent, at least.

We worked on trot lengthenings and Sophie put forth her best effort ever. So that was pretty cool. Even Craig could see that she was extending her stride. We also did some spiral circles and Sophie was trotting really nicely and was very balanced even on the 10 meter circle portion, so that was great.

It was kind of funny, seeing Kim championing Sophie when I was frustrated with her. She seems to really, really like her. Like I said, the lesson ended really well, I just would have approached it differently in the beginning, until she was already soft and supple. Probably with leg yielding and spiral circles, and some serpentines. Then worked on the new stuff.

So it was a bittersweet lesson, seeing as how it's my last with Kim. I just need to relax and not put so much pressure on myself for my riding to be perfect to make up for other areas of my life sucking. We did get a lot of nice sitting trot work in as well.

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.

Losing It...

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.

Best Lesson Evah!

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.

Best Lesson Evah!

I went against my gut (which was reacting to the fact that it was 28 degrees, 18 with the wind chill) and ventured out for a lesson today. They were still bringing the horses in to eat so I checked the weather (30 degrees in the barn) and brought in my gear. Sophie was mildly happy to see me, once she was done with her grain. I got her ready, braided up her mane (4 minutes from walking to my cubby, getting my rubberband, braiding her mane, and leaving her stall for her boots!) We started warming up and I decided to try something different. Instead of just walking around for a bit, aimlessly, we leg yielded the long sides. First, just from the quarterline to the wall, and then, because she was leg yielding so well and her walk was so active, we would leg yield to the wall, away from the wall, and then back.

This went really well, and she started to come on the bit on her own. Then we trotted some circles and leg yielded in each direction to warm up. The trot leg yields were so much better after doing that warm up than they were in the middle of a lesson previously. We'd warmed up for about 20 minutes when Kim came out and the lesson started. I had Sophie a little too forward, so we did some half halts to bring her trot back a bit. We did some regular circles and worked on developing the trot after "A" while going straight ahead, and then developing the trot from the canter after a 20 meter circle while on the straightaway.

After that we made up a couple of Training Level tests and rode them. I know that they're similar to "real" tests in the movements. They went really well, a lot better than expected. Our transitions still need some work, especially the trot-canter. Our first canter-trot transition was *amazing*, completely seamless. The one in the other direction, not quite so much. The second "test" we rode was much better, though both were decent. My turn down centerline was horrible the first time, so we practiced it again before the second test and tried it with me looking at the judge's stand as I was making the turn that would lead to the turn down centerline.

While taking a walk break after the two practice tests we discussed where Sophie and I are. Other than our transitions we're solidly Training Level. Sitting trot for me isn't a problem, though I haven't done it much on Sophie because posting is easier on her back. Leg yielding is going really well. Lengthenings are ok, we've just started working on them. Counter canter isn't even a thought at this stage though. Maybe in a few more weeks we'll be ready.

On another note, we did start schooling Shoulder In today! It went sooooo well. We decided to try at the walk because she was doing so well with maintaining contact and staying forward while connected in the walk. We went to the left first, and she did incredible. We just walked and I maintained my position, with my leg forward, asking for a little bend with the inside rein but mainly using my leg and then pulling her over with the outside rein. Worked like a charm, she did great, stayed on the bit, though I could hear her working the bit with her mouth as we did it. We did it a few times to the left, and then tried it to the right, where she was even better. I was doing a better job of not sitting too far to the inside, so that may have helped. I was also able to give releases with the right rein much more often, almost like clockwork.

We decided to call it quits there because she was so good. And Kim isn't leaving until the 10th now, so we should get a couple more lessons in before she goes.

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.

The Most Amazing Horse in the World...

Sophie's new name is "The Most Amazing Horse in the World". Yes, that's right, she is now the most amazing horse in the world. I mentioned yesterday that she was very good after being longed when I tried my newly flocked saddle and I wasn't sure why. Well, today she was even better, and I have another possible reason, though can remove one from the list.

I warmed up while Kim was giving a lesson and the little girl was practicing barrels, Sophie didn't care. Kim's daughter was riding her young barrel horse, often cantering around the ring, Sophie didn't care. She didn't care about the clucking, she didn't care too much when the first horse left and she cared even less when the second horse left.

She was on the bit, round, soft, and wasn't tossing her head at all. We warmed up with 20 meter circles all over the ring, then went to leg yielding on the long sides, starting at less than the quarter line and moving further out from there. She was great, especially when I remembered to use my outside aids when turning for the quarterline.

She did really good leg yielding to the right and then we changed across the diagonal and cantered a 20 meter circle to the right, working on the upward and downward transitions as well as maintaining jump in the canter, keeping her round, and not asking for a bigger canter with my seat at the same time.

We had a break then and worked on leg yielding to the left, which didn't go so well, she wasn't nearly as responsive to my right leg though, and was very forward today, so I had some trouble with the leg yield to the left until I started utilizing the right rein, and then they got better. After that we reversed at the trot and I had my best change of whip ever. She stayed round and forward the entire time I switched it, then I fell forward after that and she walked, but it was a good sign. Then we cantered to the left and worked on transitions for a bit.

We ended the ride with sidepassing around the corners to work on her moving off my leg. We quickly learned that she gets a little anxious, so we can't do two corners in a row, instead we have to do a corner and then a lap, then do a corner again. After we did the exercise a few times she was much quieter though, and started to stay soft and round while leg yielding and we were able to use just a long side in between. We only did corners 6 or so times and she got much better about it, she also was trying to stop at the original corner when we passed it after just three times.

I couldn't believe how wonderful she was today though. There was one point during our warm up where I whacked her beind my leg with the whip because she was losing momentum, and after riding without a whip yesterday my legs were already tired and sore. After that, she was full steam ahead with no encouragement from me! But it also meant that when I tried to emphasize my right leg moving her left she sped up rather than sideways. So I plan to work more on the sidepassing to work on her sensitivity and my transitions.

Oh, and when the saddle fitter was here, looking at my saddle, she said "wow, you've really been taking good care of this", I thought it was funny, lol. I made sure to clean it tonight because I had to run yesterday after the saddle fitting was done and didn't have time to do anything but put Sophie away and get home to change for class. So, today was great, and I forgot that Sophie's been on Raspberry Leaves for just over a week, so who knows if they are a big contributing factor to her new attitude under saddle, but I'm not complaining!

First Kisses...

Today Sophie received her first nose kisses from me. I'm sure she was very, very excited, lol. I arrived at the barn a little later than planned, due to unexplained exhaustedness. The horses are now on day turnout, and my lesson was for basically bring in time, so I had to get Sophie. I was a little concerned, what with the stories about her ground manners, but I trekked out there anyway. I was amazed at the cuteness of every horse standing at its respective gate(s), waiting to be brought in for dinner. Then I realized that one horse was not standing in its respective paddock with its respective buddies at its respective gate...if you guessed that horse was Sophie then you guessed correctly!

My heart dropped, because in addition to the ground manners stories, there are the catching stories. I haven't heard them in a while (not since they changed to night turnout, really), but when Sophie first arrived she didn't want to be caught until after he pasturemates were taken in. So as I got closer and closer to her paddock (where she was all alone with Lonnie, since Maddie was sent away) I decided to call out her name in the sing-song voice I use when walking up the aisle to her (if I have a treat). Her head flew up (she's in a grass pasture now) and she looked at me, started walking, and then trotted halfway across the pasture. It was amazing and completely unexpected. Of course, she probably just wanted brought in for food, but until I try catching her *not* at feeding time I'll tell myself that she just likes me more than a little.

Of course, once we got inside, she was going to be the only one in her stall in the whole barn. I was a little worried, but she was just fine. I got her tacked up and was in the saddle at 6:28 (lesson at 6:30), I passed on braiding her mane, which was probably not a bad thing because I was a little concerned about how she was going to be with the horses being brought in and both end doors open so she could see everything. She was pretty good though, just two real moments and they weren't the worst she's ever had.

The lesson got started and went pretty well, we started with a couple of spiral circles and leg yielding on the long side. It really helped to keep half halting with the outside rein, it kept her more balanced, from overbending, and from leading with her shoulder. It was like magic, I kept my hands low (ie normal) as well. After that we worked on shoulder in! It was my first time working on shoulder in with Sophie.

We've realized that in order to help her with things like the shoulder in and the canter I need to work on keeping my outside hand steady and in one place. When she gets to head tossing I lose that steady connection with my outside hand because I'm I'm reacting to her. So we worked on me riding while holding on to the bight of my stirrup leather (pulled forward). It worked like a charm, suddenly we were able to do a few steps of decent shoulder in.

We tried it at the canter as well and she was much steadier, sometimes she would raise her head and I would ride her forward, into my hands, and she would come over the back onto the bit. After we did a couple of canters in each direction we stopped (it was a little early, but I was tired from our warm up). She was a very good girl though, and she got her first nose kiss after I hopped off of her. She got a couple in her stall too, while I was untacking her.

Also, my Happy Horse course arrived today! Woohooo! It's huge and overwhelming, but I'm not worried if I don't dig into it ASAP, since I'll be trainerless once winter hits anyway. Also, Sophie lost her bestest friend this week. Sophie had 2 bestest friends that left to move to Florida back in June or July, then she met Maddie, who was her new bestest friend. But Maddie had to leave for a new barn this week, so Sophie was moved into Maddie's stall and now she's just out with Lonnie. Poor girl. I think Maddie was the one that kept biting Sophie's neck though, so I'm not too sad that she's gone. She was also in heat 24/7 and would squeal and kick at the walls. Very annoying.

Another Good Lesson...

I had a lesson yesterday. It went really well. I discovered that Sophie really likes cats. I was standing next to Sophie in the ring, talking to my instructor and one of the barn cats decided to lay down on Sophie's front hooves. Sophie didn't do anything but bend her neck down to get a better look at the cat. Then Sophie watched the cat while we warmed up at the walk until the cat was shooed out of the ring.

We started on a regular 20 meter circle, developing a good connection and then moved on to changes of direction through the diagonal. We did that to keep her thinking, and distracted from being more comfortable in just one direction. After that we moved on to leg yielding on the long side of the arena. It went a lot better once I concentrated on keeping my hands low and wide. Though, my hands weren't actually wide and low, they were at the right height and I wasn't overbending her to the inside. When faced with something other than a 20 meter circle I sometimes revert back to what my old picture of a dressage rider is, at least my hands, even though I recognize that many dressage riders today *do* ride with high hands. So when I try something new or not completely familar I move into dressage hands frame.

After the leg yielding we did some 3 loop serpentines which went pretty well. We also did an exercise where we did half a 10 meter circle and then rode a diagonal line back to the same wall (but in the other direction) where we leg yielded the last 3 or so steps.

We then worked on some cantering, our transition to the canter was great, and very quick, but then she would throw her head up. So I worked on half halting with the outside rein and then giving with the inside rein, and it worked like a charm! It was crazy because it completely went against my instincts (we did this mostly going to the right, which is where she's the most crooked) but it worked. Then I could focus on asking for some jump in the canter with my inside leg.

Boy Can I Relate...

Sophie was in heat today. I thought something was up when I went to get her in her stall. Normally she turns toward the back of the stall when I get the halter off the hook, and then I walk into the stall where she stands and waits while I halter her. Today she didn't wait, she moved away, and away, and away. Hayley said that she thinks Sophie's in heat about that time, as she was walking down the aisle, and that Sophie had been pushy while being led the last couple of days.

She was very dirty, mainly just very dusty as we don't have any mud right now but she's getting her winter coat which of course holds in more dust. She did give me a wild eyed look when I went to saddle her, but otherwise, was just about normaly for tacking up. I walked her around longer than normal before mounting. I was a little worried about the ride because maybe she was so bad for my instructor due to being in heat. The timing would be right. I even left her mane unbraided so that I would have something to grab onto if I needed it.

I warmed Sophie up at the walk, just trying to keep a steady contact without her raising her head and keeping my elbows "loose" and allowing my hands to follow her mouth. To my surprise, she was fine, just walking around, looking at stuff a bit. It wasn't terribly pretty, but there were no tantrums. We picked up the trot and I was working on some baby spiral circles on a long rein when my instructor finished up watering and started the lesson.

We worked on a 20 meter circle to begin with and then changed direction. Sophie was definitely more head tossy than normal, but not nearly as bad as when my instructor rode her a few weeks ago. And there was no rearing, or stopping of forward motion. After we were sufficiently warmed up we tried going large and leg yielding on the long sides. It went ok, but not as good as she can do, she would start out against my leg and get rushy and braced. So we went back to a 20 meter circle and did spiral circles, trying to focus on leg yielding out evenly, not leading too much with the shoulders. That worked a lot better, but it still wasn't terrific and she was throwing a bit of a tantrum at one spot on the circle every time around.

So Kim set up a little pattern for us with 2 cones and 2 barrels. Once again I was surprised by how much Sophie looked at the barrels, Jessie never looked at everything like that, unless it was *really* different. But it's just something I have to get used to with a new horse, especially when she is in heat. The obstacles were to give us focus points on where to circle and leg yield to, without depending on the wall for it. And to give Sophie a focal point (in the form of barrels). I'll try to draw it up to explain with pictures.

I had to sit the trot for most of the lesson, I'm weird in that sitting is easier for me than posting. I'm sure that's due to some flaw in me, but I find it much harder to time my aids when I'm posting too. We had some great leg yields going to the left, the right was much tougher, though we did go straight sideways at canter speed for one of them, I almost fell off she scooted sideways so quickly.

We cantered twice, and it was nice. I worked on relaxing and following with my seat and sitting up and not staring at her head. It is still hard to develop contact with her at the canter, so I do lots of giving the inside rein to reward her for not fling her head in the air. I was also concentrating on sitting up for the actual transition, I think it went really well. After our last canter we did a stretchy circle and Sophie was trotting along with her nose practically on the ground.

One cool thing Kim said during the lesson, while we were going to the right even, was that we're lucky that I have good hands and a good seat, because if Sophie was owned by someone that didn't it'd be a disaster. So I took that as a compliment on me and not an insult toward Sophie, lol. I think she was impressed by how well Sophie did inspite of being in heat. She was definitely more reactive when I really sat deep on her, but she was very tolerant of the couple of times I accidentally tapped her with the whip. The worst she did was swish her tail fortunately.

Oh, one thing that we noticed was that as we got into the obstacle exercise Sophie became much more responsive to my outside aids. Her trot became a lot nicer once she started really listening to me as well. I need to find the chiropractor's number because I think she will benefit from a check up. She doesn't seem sore, but with the obvious difference between left and right when she's in heat I just want to check. I'm also going to start her on Mare Magic or some other mare supplement to see if that helps with her heat cycles. She's very quiet when in heat, but her behavior when handled is definitely different.

Lesson Warm Up...

These first couple of pictures are from when I was warming up on my own. I was focused on encouraging her to move out and reach for the bit. I was trying to ride on a longer rein and mainly paying attention to my position. I've noticed that my legs are always tense when I ride, so I'm trying to keep them relaxed and sit back and keep my head up. When I say I ride with my legs tense, it's not constantly squeezing her every stride, they're just not relaxed. Of course, I had a lot more trouble maintaining it during the "real" part of the lesson.

Oh, I'd also like to mention that I was wearing my shoulders back device for this lesson. I think it helped a lot, it was more of a reminder than anything, though I could feel it working. My shoulders ached the next day (along the top of them). I took a day off before riding again to give my shoulders a chance to recover. I plan to ride in it every ride, as it didn't limit my movement at all, I mean, it's made of cloth and velcro, if I *really* wanted my shoulders forward they would go forward!

And always, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.


And then warm up once my instructor entered the ring.






Drool...

The Meat of the Lesson...

These pictures are of the meat of the lesson. Once we got really working. We started on a 20 meter circle and then moved on to trotting around the ring, and then leg yielding down the long side.



Coming past our mandatory walk through the sunlight patch...

The was the worst BTV moment we had, there were very few pictures as BTV as this one was.



Around this time I started sitting the trot and was able to start producing better corners as a result. I have a lot of trouble with some things while posting (leg yielding specifically) so I did some sitting with Sophie. Which means I hunched my lower back a bit but it does seem to be better in some of the pictures.




Leg yielding...




Leg yielding again...using a lot more hand than needed...


Giving the inside rein while leg yielding. Something we worked on was giving both reins a little (not as much as pictured here) to give Sophie extra release as a reward. We already do a lot of giving the inside hand, but this is going to take a lot of muscle memory, because it's supposed to be quicker and a shorter release, I'm used to doing big releases.

Having just finished a leg yield I think...

I'm not sure why I have so many more pictures of us going to the left than the right, that may have been the time that Craig's kitten invited himself to the lesson and Craig stopped to visit.

Cool Down and "Spook" Pictures...

So that the posts are in order for viewers I'm starting with the end of the lesson and a couple of random pictures. First, our cooldown, ie, stretchy circles! Sophie loves stretchy circles, especially after she's been working hard.

Overall, I think that my position was better as far as sitting up straighter and looking up, but I kind of forgot about those things when doing stretchy circles, I was too busy watching her reach for the bit!







She really didn't want to go past the open door because not only was it open, but a truck was parked right there too! Oh my god, oh my god. The first two times she stopped to look and then walked on, and it slowly got better from there (we were trotting around the whole arena at this point). However, I'd like to point out that upon reversing I had to walk her the first time and then after that she trotted just fine, so she did learn something, lol. And after 7 or 8 laps she was trotting past it just fine in the first direction.

Barn Blindness...

That's what it's called, right? When you can't see your horse as anything but perfect? I'm trying to decide if I have that. I don't think I do, I mean, I don't think Sophie is perfect by any means, but sometimes my feelings get really hurt when at the barn. Like today. Today was Sophie's big lesson with Kim. Our last lesson went so well I thought that it'd be even better to have Kim ride Sophie for a lesson period so that I could watch and actually *see* what she was telling me to do.

Well, it was a disaster.

A complete and utter disaster. At some points I wanted to cry.

It started out ok, walking around and working on paying attention and focusing. They did lots of walking and giving and getting a better walk. Then they started trotting, and Sophie started flipping her head. Constantly. Flipping her head and trotting with her nose way high in the air. I don't know if Kim was just asking for more than I do or what, but Sophie was like a different horse. She's never been that bad for me, other than that very first lesson when she was in heat and not happy being in the indoor. She was flipping her head and hopping on her hind feet a little. It was awful. I'm still not sure what went wrong.

They did have a few good moments, but overall we had a nicer ride in my last lesson as far as doing nice circles. We leg yielded nicely then as well and worked on turns across the diagonal. Today they did circles and a little baby shoulder in. I was impressed with how well she did the baby shoulder in, but part of the problem was trying it to the right. To the left it was awesome, to the right it was harder, and she got frustrated and then another fight followed. Ugh.

And then listening to the lecture for 10 minutes after about how horrible Sophie is and how bad her attitude is and how mean she is and evil. How she's awful on the ground and is willing to do anything possible to get out of work. The only problem is, I don't have those problems with her. On the ground she has never tried to run me over or paw at me or been otherwise bad. Under saddle she has had a couple of bad moments where she would flip her head up fast, but I would sit deep, drive her forward with my legs and seat and then she'd be fine. It wouldn't be constant like it was today. It was hard to listen to, because on one hand, she was being bad today, I'm not sure why, but she was. But she isn't like that with me, but what can I say? So I mainly listened since there wasn't anything else I could do.

Ugh. Poor Sophie was sooooo sweaty and bewildered by the end of the ride. Kim wasn't mean or anything, never jerked on her or smacked her out of anger or anything like that. But she was very hard on Sophie as far as expectations and results and I just think it was a little too much for Sophie. It will be interesting to see how she is tomorrow. I hosed her off and rubbed liniment on her neck, she seemed content by the time I was done with her. I felt so torn. I've never felt so torn. I wish I knew what had happened.

And another thing that was mentioned that I thought was odd was that Kim said that once Sophie was "finished" she would be very soft mouthed and light to the hand and that it would make her harder to sell. Not that I have any intention of selling her, but I just thought it was odd that being responsive would make a horse *harder* to sell, you'd think it'd be the opposite! At least I would. I guess another part of what bothered me about today was that I pointed out that Sophie doesn't act that bad with me and Kim said that she has stronger legs/seat and I couldn't help but wonder, why she would ride Sophie like she would ride one of her horses and expect her to react the same. Maybe I'm just off base, but I would think it'd be best to ride the horse in a way that gets the reaction you want, not ride the horse with the aids you think it should take and then make her give the reaction you want. But I don't know, I've only been taking lessons regularly for four months last year and then a handful this year. Maybe I'm just too nice. I do know that I could never be a horse trainer based on today's experience. Ugh, that's all I can really say.

I suck...

Finals week kicked my butt and I have just recovered. I had two lessons on Sophie, one Friday and one Monday. We made great progress and I got over my fear of deep and got Sophie moving into the bridle and carrying herself with her neck straight. Don't get me wrong, I'm not riding her deep, but without Kim pushing from the ground and the mirror to verify for myself I would have thought she was BTV or very close to it. But she's not, instead she's tracking up, pushing from behind, her neck is straight (she has a bad habit of bending her neck and not through the ribcage, she can also kind of make her neck look like an S, she's very talented!).

I discovered that I need to tighten up a *lot* with the outside rein to keep her neck from getting wormy. But we made a lot of progress in our last lesson and that hollow between her crest and the underside of her neck will start to fill in with more consistent work. Kim was very impressed by the end of our lesson and Sophie was going like a superstar! We're just doing 30 minutes lessons at a discounted price so we can do 2 per week. Our next lesson is Thursday and this one Kim is going to ride her for that lesson so that I can *see* what she's talking about.