XC SChooling at FENCE

So glad for Liz... got him forward mostly.. but still need more. And realized that my position is fine when he's in front of my leg.... because when he's behind my leg... I'm literally ahead of him and thus my position is such...

Friday Fun

Today was an exciting day. :) It's been LOVELY weather... nice and chill in the mornings and evenings and almost cold overnight! It's been glorious. Dan's coat is starting to get thicker and longer, which sucks... as it's going to heat back up again. But he looks amazing. And while it's still hot out later in the day, the mornings have been lovely. Today also had a wonderful breeze and the humidity is down. so YAY!!!! Luckily I was able to get my trailer back in time to get to my lesson today. (Unluckily, the trailer brakes still aren't working so I've got to take it back again.... ugh). 

We got to Silverthorn and got tacked up. Dan was a bit uppity. He was playing with floor mat when I caught him this morning although he wasn't being rowdy or gallopy. When I was getting him tacked up he was a little on edge and staring at the house and looking hard for something but never spooked. Even when the tractor started up. So we went in the arena and warmed up and he was just like normal. I had to smack him a few times with the crop because he was behind my leg. Kelly said he looked very even but... a few times I felt some funkyness (STILL!!!! UGH) but she said that's just because he was behind my leg. So she went and found the lunge whip and walked into the arena. She had me walk Dan but as soon as she came into the arena he got all buzzed up. He was vibrating and ready to go! She barely flicked it towards him and he was off!! Like a rocket!! So we attempted to harness that energy. But it was wild energy!! Then he started acting like he was going to spook at the tractor. He never did, but he was a bit hollow and staring towards the tractor. He had that high stepping springing trot that is darn near impossible to sit, so I had to post. Tracking to the left, he was falling out, so I had to ride his shoulder in. Which is extra hard when he's a grenade! (I'm reminding myself that I WANT this ride... and I do.. and it was fun.. just took some getting used to!). But then he felt like he was leaning in, so... Kelly wanted me to ride his shoulders in and keep the connection on the outside rein but get him to take the inside rein too. In order to accomplish that I had to think about getting my body straight and not leaning to the inside myself and pushing him into my outside rein and leg, but then really using my outside leg to guide him back in. And then he kept wanting to counterflex so I had to use a lot of inside rein, but... opening and back. Which is so hard for me. (And... hmmmm. maybe that's what Cindy kept trying to get me to fix... it was so hard for my brain to fight the instinct my body was desperately trying to do, but.... opening that rein did help immensely). BUT... holy cow!!! When I got him straight between his shoulder blades.. holy cow!!! We giggled about how often that brilliance comes on the edge of frantic and explosive... and yep! We walked that line today. But once we could get him to take a breath... supple into the connection... wow!! WOW!!! Like... no way I could sit that trot (at least in the jump saddle)...wow! He felt amazing!!  So going right... was the same, but opposite. Or exactly the same.. but not opposite! It was the same ride. I had to ride the right shoulder to the left (oh heeyyyyy.... that's the problem when we jump too!! interesting.... interrrrreeeeeesssstttttingggg..) So tracking right, it's inside leg to outside rein and pushing his shoulders out. Which was a little easier, but still equally brain frustrating. I kept wanting to over straighten him this way, but I need to allow the bend more because... he needs more bend. And again, once I got it.... ooooh lala!! That trot was so powerful and big and flamboyant. It was a 9 trot.. not just a 7 trot! But it was on the edge and we often went from oooh la la to holy crap to frantic! hee hee. But we settled and he really just hung in my soft even connection. It was awesome!! 

So then we let him take a breather and we were going to jump. He didn't give us long because he was still a fire breathing dragon and after a minute he was breaking into the trot on his own. So we basically just jumped one single vertical today. It was on the long side but close to the short wall on one end. So we started with a short approach on the right lead. Which, is easier... because I can leg yield him almost to the outside rein, which means I'm pushing his shoulders to the left, which is opposite of the way he wants to drift. So... it's what I've been practicing for a month or more, so it was easy for my brain. So we did manage to get it right after a few tries and he was jumping fairly straight and landing fairly straight. I was closing my right leg, pushing my right hand against his withers and opening my left hand to give him a place to go. Kelly wanted more.. she said I was doing "kindergarten" and she wanted "PhD". So I did. Then we came off the long side, but she had my cut my turn a little so it wasn't a super long approach (there was a jump in the way and we weren't doing the whole line so I had to go inside or outside of the fence, so I went inside, which made it a shorter line). This time we came off the left lead and it was the same thing. Jump straight! Again, it wasn't too difficult because it was still practicing preventing the right drift so I would almost leg yield right, pushing him into my outside/right rein and then close the door and he would go straight. Yay! It wasn't perfect everytime and it took a little longer this way but we were getting it. Then we had to jump off the left lead and land left. She had us basically leg yield in the air over the fence. It was a little confusing to my brain and I wasn't quite sure what she meant, but apparently I accomplished it. It's just the opening rein to the left and looking left and landing to the left. But THEN it got tricky! She had us come off the right lead again, on the short approach, but now she wanted us to jump the jump straight, but then land and go right! Which meant now I had to ask for the right drift. But not allow it before the fence or as we took off, only in the air. Sigh.. that was hard!! Super hard. My brain was like "Nooooo... we've worked so hard to NOT do this.....". It wouldn't cooperate. ;) ha ha! So then we just started jumping the fence at an angle/circle which was NOT the right answer. And then we started backing off of it a bit. And then we got behind the leg and it started to get icky. So... we went back to jumping it straight... and increasing the mph by 1 each stride as we came around the turn. And that got us back to jumping confidently out of stride. Phew! And then we were jumping straight again. So then... we jumped it straight and I PhD opened my right rein and moved my hands right and we got it! Yay. So then we finished with going left for confidence and then going right for ... whatever. And we got it perfect!!! So perfect that Kelly, who was standing on the landing side in a straight line, fell to her knees with her hands in the air saying "YES!!!!!! YOU GOT IT!"... hee hee.. It was awesome. It made me crack up that she was that excited for us. And damn it felt good too! We giggled that I was "Dabbing" with my reins. ha ha... So yep.. we quit with that. :) 

I decided to just get off instead of trail riding because Dan was lathered and still on edge and the tractor was still moving stuff and making noise. It was a good decision as Dan was just weird while I was untacking and putting stuff away. He was wild enough that I didn't even leave him tied to the trailer but instead put him in the trailer while I was finishing up. Goofy boy! But a super fun day. :) :) 

Now to just keep the momentum for schooling at Fence on Sunday! And then for the Novice HT schooling show at Chatt next weekend. :) 

Lesson with Beanie

Keep the right hand low, subtly wiggle the bit during transitions so he has nothing to hang on. in his upwards he must surge forward powerful... not go up and hover/hesitate

Grids with Beth

Bendy line grid with Beth... MUST keep coming forward, but in a short step. Still able to ride forward, one mph faster to the separate verticals. Very helpful. Did circles... then s turns...

fun and challenged Dan's brain and body. And.. I think the rehab is working as he feels much less lame/head bobby even posting on the true diagonal :)

Sassy Pants

Somebody was feeling his oats today! And it wasn't me! I am plumb tuckered out from this week! It's been so hot and I'm just tired. But I got up and adjusted one horse this morning at Ashland before I rode. I tied Dan to the trailer with his hay and he was being pretty good. But then Josh pulled his rig up next to ours and Dan used that as an excuse to break free and go running. And of course, because it was a nice cool cloudy day... everyone was here! So he ran up to a group of trailers and tried to climb into one..  so the girl caught him. And then he was fine. ;)

After I finished adjusting we went for a ride. We hacked around the small lake and then went into the arena and practiced some dressage. We worked on a bunch of things.  We had some really nice leg yields and he's really feeling straighter! Oh, and when I started my ride, I posted on the wrong diagonal tracking left and he felt better. He didn't feel quite as off when I was on the correct diagonal, but it's still there. (But... after the end of my ride when we were trotting out in the field, I could post on the correct diagonal and he felt the same as when I was on the wrong one.. ie sound!). We did some shoulder in and some haunches in and I feel like I'm starting to get true bend and not just neck in. We had some decent mediums and then we did some canter work. And ugh.. I've lost the left lead canter depart again. I think that if I actually sit BACK (in my mind, I"m sure I'm just straight) it was better but it's hard to say. We got it, but it wasn't as nice as it has been. We did some work on suppling and flexing in and out while cantering and that still needs work. We got some great canter serpentines and then when we tried to do our simples, we sort of lost it. We kept adding trot steps because he would break before I was ready. I know, I know.. MORE LEG! But at the end of our ride we got two beautiful simple changes, one in each direction!!! I let him canter down centerline after that and he was a happy camper :) So.. we quit with that. I was tempted to play more with some canter pirouettes and work on the suppling left and right more but.. after that, we quit.

Then we went for a hack and just chilled. Dan was sad though because there were so many people out there and we couldn't find anyone to hack with and he felt cheated since he had to do dressage while everyone else was out playing. We did manage to walk in with a few horses that had finished up in the XC field so that helped. And then, most of them had left so I let him graze after I hosed him off and was wiping down my tack. And I saw him look over towards the ones that were left and I said "Dan, just stay here and graze" and took a step out of the trailer and.... Off he went!! Tail up and zoomed across to the trailer! That poor woman, he tried to climb in her trailer again. Then he went trotting up to sniff noses with Laura's two horses, so she caught him. Luckily all three boys behaved and there was no squealing or pawing and I caught him and took him back to the trailer. Sassy pants!!

Then tonight after I fed him dinner, he went for his hay but then followed me back towards the house a bit! Sorry buddy!! We snuggled a bit but then went back to his hay. :)

Canter downwards

Lesson with Kelly...

suppling the canter.... flex in, flex out, but keep even contact on BOTH reins in both directions. Suppling him for the downwards is great.... but I'm doing it wrong. I'm thinking of dribbling him up into the downward and it's kind of working but on the left lead (the hard lead) he's bracing into it because he isn't supple first. It works much better on the right lead as he's much more supple.

The problem is that he's too smart! We were sort of working on simple changes when we started and then we moved to working on suppling for the downward, which he decided meant change. Not quite little buddy, but I appreciate your effort. :) So... yeah...

Fun ride though. And... funny enough, at the end of it... despite me feeling pretty good about it ... Kelly made the comment that I shouldn't worry about the fact that she still has to encourage Dan's forward with the whip and that I shouldn't get discouraged or "feel like a failure". THANK YOU!! Oh my how I needed to hear that. Not at that particular moment... but in general. She said the magic words. That is my F word.... and it demonizes me to no end. So the fact that she said that.. just made me feel so much better. And then I started to think.. you know, we really didn't accomplish that much in this lesson... but it was okay. Because... I know that we were fixing things that needed to be fixed, and at this point, most importantly, Dan and I were having fun. Yes it was hard. And yes it was tiring. And yes we were struggling, but.... we had fun and we were a team and we were making progress. And right now.. that's all I can do and what I really really need. I really needed to just take the pressure off me.... (Not me and Dan.... but me, my body... my position... me!!). I needed something to focus on and work towards in a very simplified dumbed down way really. And yes.. we may have spent our entire lesson working on one little thing (poor dan, that's a lot of cantering! but.. ha! Who are we kidding.. he wasn't even that tired!) and we may not have even made that much progress, but.. my brain was happy about it. So.... yay!

But anyways, so yeah...  I need to get the connection evenly in both reins and get him supple enough to where I can flip his crest/flip the flexion to both directions while cantering and have him stay balanced and supple so that he can then respond to my aids.

and... cause he's adorable! And we clearly haven't had rain in awhile...

Early ride

I wasn't going to get to ride this morning but my first appt cancelled so yay! I had to get up early... and I'm exhausted. I was ready for bed at 9:45 last night but then the fridge broke so... it was 11ish before I got to bed. And I got up at 3 am... 5 am... at least once more. But.. it's all good. I still got up at 6:30 and went and rode. It wasn't too terribly hot but the sweat was still dripping down my face and Dan was lathered. We only worked for like 30 minutes too!

He was good. We got normal halts on centerline, no more reining stops! We got decent leg yields, right is still better than left. We got good shoulder in and haunches in. Our left lead canter felt fantastic but the right lead is suffering a bit now. Interesting..... But we got all our leads and even did left lead on centerline from the walk to 10 meter circle to walk to right lead on centerline to 10 meter circle. Oh wait, we did miss one lead... when we changed to the left lead across the diagonal through the walk, but.. he held the counter canter on the short side, so... that's a win. We had nice counter canter loops both ways and had good mediums, not quite our usual ones, but not bad. So yeah, not too shabby at all!

We then went on a quick hack to the lake and back and that was it. Time to go to work!