Today was a good lesson. It wasn't anything exciting. Heck, we didn't even work on the canter half pass. BUT... we had good moments and we were able to make progress on things. :)
We started off our ride by working on just getting him to use his back muscles and elongate and let go. She told me to watch his WAM and make sure it wasn't bulging. Wait...what?! Oh yeah!!! I know this. The Wing of the Atlas and the Mandible.. that space between the two. They say if you can fit two fingers, you'll have a nice dressage horse. Well.. when Dan is tight and tense, he doesn't open that up. But when he does.. he's reaching for the contact and opening up his throatlatch. Aha! That I can see. Well, only on the right side tracking right because of how his mane lies. haha. So we worked on that at the trot. Getting him to reach for the bridle, let go in his back and underneck and be forward. And it worked. He felt much looser, more forward, and even got springier. It's a tough balancing act though. I'm trying hard to keep him connected but not hanging. And I can't just wiggle waggle him there. And he can't twist in his poll to evade. So it took some skills. Which, I'm kind of proud of because it felt like, some of the times at least, I was actually feeling and reacting appropriately to get him back to the good spot. We didn't stay there. We weren't consistent. And everytime I changed direction, I had to reboot my brain. But basically... we did manage to get a nice pretty trot. Oh, and... big revelation. I know.. I've been told repeatedly.. for years... to keep my right leg out of his stifle. And I'm sure I've even been told why... but today... I GOT IT! Aha! Rana pointed out that when we're tracking right... my right leg keeps coming back. Which is asking him to go haunches out. Which he likes to do anyways. Which is creating a whole slew of issues.. he's flinging out in the haunches, he's not up underneath himself, an and that's making it easy for him to fall in. So she had me do a change of direction and OHHHHHH.... it was dramatically obvious how far back my right leg was tracking right in comparison to how far forward my left leg was tracking left. So once I fixed that.. it made a big difference. Sorry Dan. I know I've been asking you to go haunches out inadvertantly for a really long time, but.... now, now you have to go straight. Which means I feel like I'm riding a little haunches in, but.. it helps. So I must focus on keeping my right leg forward at the girth, especially trackign right, but also tracking left to help keep his shoulder in. So that helped. And I had to make sure to hold the outside rein to keep his haunches straight but not hang on it. So I would occasionally test him and drop the connection. On both reins. If I dropped the inside rein and he lost the bend.. he's not self carrying or truly on the aids. If I drop the outside rein and he falls in or inverts.. he's not self carrying. Then we went to the left and that's a whole other way to ride. That way I have to counter bend him to get that barrel moving. And this was where the juggling really kicked in. He throws me left. So I have to think of shifting back to the right. Even while going left. But that means I'm tempted to sit on my right seat bone, instead of my left seat bone. So I had to almost roll my hips to allow his spine to roll out, but still sit right.. but weight my left seat bone. Which meant some flip flopping around to balance him. And add in counter bend to get his barrel back to bending... and all the other things. Ugh! Tough!
So then we did some changes of directions via serpentines. She told me to make it smooth by really riding the change of bend with my leg. Push him into that outside rein with the inside leg through the turns but don't lose the outside leg or inside rein. And it did help. He stayed more connected when I could do it right.
Then we cantered. When we went right, I almost had to lift the right rein to get him off of it, while also using my right leg AT THE GIRTH. Then drop the rein back to neutral/supporting.. then lift and leg.. Watch the WAM. It didn't get as pretty as the trot, but we did get it. She also told me to remember to sit right. But then I ended up lifting my right leg and collapsing my right shoulder, so... she told me to think of lifting my right shoulder... which just doesn't seem to compute for me. She also told me to lengthen my right leg and sink into it. OH!! Lightbulb! I remembered what Kimberley had told me about the stepping into the stirrup. And when I did it, I asked Rana if that accomplished what she was trying to get me to do and she said yes. So yay... Stepping into the Stirrup.. or the Stirrup Stomp... helped me sit on that seat bone. Cool. And then keep that shoulder tall. So then we did a little haunches in. And... when his body was straight and he wasn't hanging on the reins, it was easier than in our last lesson. She also said that I was tending to lose the outside rein. The outside rein is what moves the haunches over. So when I'm cantering right... and coming down the rail... the outside rein is what keeps him straight and adding the outside leg and outside rein half halt, moves the haunches over in the half pass. And I could see it. His haunches would swing out if I didn't have that outside rein. The trick with Dan is that if he gets too straight.. ie loses the inside bend.. he tends to brace the underside of his neck and then props. So I panic and pull the inside rein for bend, but I soften too much on the outside rein and lose that connection. So I have to remember to hold a supportive (not hanging) outside rein but still keeping inside bend. If he has inside bend, he can't brace and invert and the outside rein becomes effective. We didn't do a real halfpass, but... we sort of got a few steps when I sort of tried to do it while mostly trying to do haunches in. Yay!
So yeah.. after we got a semi-decent canter both ways we did some downwards. She pointed out that he's not allowed to fall into it and do his "reiner" downwards. We have to float into it. And right now.. the best way to do that is to throw him off balance so that he has to use his hind end to balance. So, as I go into the downward, I do it through a turn on the forehand. Which for now means that Dan spins as we downward... vs stopping straight. BUT.. he's sooooo much better in his body for it. And soon enough I'll figure out my aids and be able to finesse it so that he's not spinning but not slamming either. :) And we've worked on that before but I forgot to keep practicing it.
So yep.. some good homework. And back to basics, but this will make the tricks easier.
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