Brain overload!

 Today was fun! We had a Rana lesson and... it's been a few rides since we've dressaged. My stirrups felt so long. Ha ha! 

We rode in the outdoor arena because the indoor is under construction. Dan was fine with all the dirt piles and bulldozers parked in there. Because... of course he is. He's Dan. We talked about what we wanted to do today and I told her that I felt like we had gotten to the point where we were getting all the "tricks" and movements, but we were losing the quality. We can do the half pass to the counter canter, but the quality of the halfpass and counter canter were struggling. And not that they were great and we lost them... but now that we can actually do the movements at all... now I want to do them with quality. We also discussed how I went to ride through the 3rd level test and realized... Oh crap! I have to do collected work throughout the test....  I don't know what I was thinking... maybe that it was just a working trot and working canter... with the movements??? I forgot that it wasn't just a more collected frame (more sit, more uphill) but an actual more collected gait too. Whoops! Guess it's time to start focusing more on that. Which, to be honest, we kind of have been.... I think we practiced collecting and then going bigger then collecting etc with just seat and weight aids the last time we rode. So yay us! But anyways.. so Rana set up some cavalettis' today for us. 

So many birds too!

She put 3 cavaletti's 5 boot steps apart. (for future reference for me. I measured!). We started out okay but he kept cheating, so she added a 4th cavaletti and he was like "oh.. okay" and stopped cheating over the last one. Granted, he still tried to cheat, but it wasn't the same. With only 3, he'd come in nicely, and then just basically jump out over the last one. ha ha. We started on the right rein and then switched to the left, but the process was the same. 

• Avoid using the spur every stride. If he's behind my leg, whomp him with both legs at the same time and DO NOT let go of the contact when I do it. The point is to get him to go into the contact. The less I use my spur, the more reactive he'll be. Plus he braces against the spur. I can use my upper calves, but not my spur. 
• Keep my elbows at my side and keep the elasticity. Ride from my shoulder blades, not from my wrists. 
• In order to get him bouncy, think of posting how I want his stride to be.. ie, higher instead of more forward, and hold at the top for a split second
• tickle him with the whip to engage that hind end
• try to ride the same ride around back to the cavaletti's vs just through the cavaletti's. That's the trot I want the entire ride. 

So then... she asked if I wanted to do more and I was like "YES PLEASE!". Because... I didn't think we had done that much, although I realize now it was hard work for both of us. So we did the same thing, but after the cavaletti, we did a 15 ish meter half circle and half passed back to the rail. And... tough, but man!!! We tore into the nitty gritty with it and it finally makes sense! My body is such a disaster but we figured something out!!! I'm such a weirdo in how I have to learn. Good gravy!

For the half pass at the trot (And probably the canter too)

• Keep my outside elbow at my side. It must stay back there. It is the half halt that creates the lateral/sideways movement. I was throwing it forward because I was so afraid that I wouldn't be leading with the shoulders then. But that just weakens everything. 
• Then, my inside shoulder should be leading. But I was so intent on keeping the inside bend that I kept either crossing the rein over his neck or pulling back. Which meant my inside shoulder couldn't push forward. So I had to literally push my hand forward and basically throw that rein away. Which, for now, loses the bend a little bit, but I can wiggle the rein contact still, and/or shorten my inside rein, and still get an effect. This also allows my inside shoulder to come forward AND totally unlocks my entire inside part of my body which means that my hips can then move and ask his haunches to move over and I can do all the other things my body should be doing.
• Use my inside weight/seat aids for bend too! Not just the inside rein. Shift my weight over so he follows my weight. 
• Lateral and/or supple can't happen without forward, so if he starts stiffening, whomp him with both legs! Not just the outside leg. This will instill forward again. But whomp and get out. No spurring and no just digging into him and not releasing. 
• The outside leg asks for the lateral movement in pulses. Ask and give, ask and give. Don't just dig in and hold. 
• Look where I'm going. For some reason I keep wanting to look the opposite side of the arena. 

So we quit with that! I was so tempted to do it a few more times to burn it into my body memory. Especially because I definitely won't get to ride tomorrow and Saturday we're leaving for the beach. YAY! But... I'll forget by the time I get back to it. So hopefully I'll remember to reread this again. :) And.. I'll set up the cavaletti's and that way I can do them a bunch... then do some other work and come back to them to help get him gathered up again. We also talked about how I can trot through high grassy pastures to help get him to sit and bend his hocks. And then later Kelli mentioned that he gets slow going uphill so I should really focus on getting him to march and push up the hill and maybe even do transitions from walk to trot to walk up the hill. So yay! Lots of fun things to add to our routine now!

What a good boy he is!

"The outside rein keeps the horse straight, it controls the outside shoulder, it helps in the halts, it must always be a connecting feel. If the connection is too strong it blocks the inside hind leg. The contact must be elastic in both reins." ~ Gill Rolton

And some cuteness from the other day and today!