Super Dressage School

 Fancy pants in his new bit. Ran through BN B, also got some legit (or at least our best yet, I think) canter half pass. 

Then went for a hack. Almost got dumped because of the geese. 

New bit?

Ride at ashland.... kelli did bit fitting. NOT a fan of drings or eggbutts. Quick hack to lake and back.

Lessoning.... and lessoning without the pony

Today was hot! And humid! And fairly miserable! Ugh... summer's almost over right?! 

Anyways, we had a 10 am lesson. Luckily in the covered arena. We were not as early getting there as usual so we didn't warm up as much as I had wanted, but oh well. And he was in a mood too. Grooming and tacking up was met with more than the usual snark faces.  Anyways, we decided to work on the canter half pass, since.. it's a struggle. And yeah... it's still a struggle! Sigh.

We started off doing some tiny trot getting him collected and using his hind end... quick hind legs! Unfortunately Dan was in a mood and fired out at Rana a few times! DANIEL FLOYD BREAUX!! We DON'T do that!!! But it did get his hind feet moving quickly and him thinking forward. We had some good "super baby thinking of piaffe" type trot and then some nice forward moving trot. So then we went to the canter and did a very small bit of the same thing. Then we did the half pass. Rana wanted us to circle just in front of her to start it so she could help encourage. Except... Dan kept counterbending away from her, which makes it really hard! Doh. But we eventually managed to do it. Kind of. It was a hot mess! 

We managed to screw it all up multiple times. Mostly me. But he's not really helping me at all either. Then at one point we sort of got it and ended up on the rail and I panicked. And stopped riding. So Dan threw in a change... popped me out of the saddle a little and then before I could figure out what happened.. he threw in another.... then another... then another....  I think we did about 7 one tempis! I was just like "What is happening?!?!" and Rana was laughing at me and trying to tell me what to do but Dan kept flipping, so... we eventually just stopped and had to laugh. But YAY!!!! Dan can do it! And I have a feeling, once we figure out how... he's going to LOVE doing them. :) Anyways... so after that we tried again and then again... And then Dan got all cranky and wouldn't go into my outside rein. I booted him and he got all pissy so then we both got irritated and it spiraled quickly into an irish bar fight. Honestly, I wasn't mad. I was just insistent that he MUST GO FORWARD without me giving the outside rein. He can't win. I always give up the rein to get him to go forward but not today.... NOT today! So we rodeo-ed a bit. Maybe a 3 minute rodeo involving bucks, bolts, running backwards, threatening to rear, and lots of boot thumps and whip smacks. BUT.. he went forward. And then we actually had a decent half pass. And then... I asked Rana if we should be done, since he acquiesced and we accomplished it or... have another go to prove my point. She said if I had it in me... do it again. So we did. A few more times. And it got a little bit better. We sort of figured it out. The tough part is that he starts out bending but then gets straighter the longer we go. And I start tilting to the outside instead of staying on my inside seat bone, and I can't put my inside leg on to get the bend because I end up using my lower leg instead of just my upper thigh and then he uses that as an excuse to prop and swap, and I bring my inside hand across his neck instead of just using it properly. SO.... I had to really think of sitting to the inside, really think of using the outside rein and outside leg to bring him over, and then keep the inside rein jiggling almost non stop to keep him round. I felt like a games kid hanging half off the side of my horse! ha ha. 

Anyways... after my lesson I stayed and watched Kelli's and then we were all talking and somehow we started talking about body position. We talked through the half pass and my shoulders and I basically did it hobby horse style. OHHHHH... well that's a lot easier to make my body cooperate now. Hopefully I can mimic it tomorrow and see if it helps. I just had to slow it down and get my brain to comprehend. Of course I'm sure that when Dan throws things at me, my body will start fighting it and get all confused and discombobulated again.... but... 

So the plan is to get a nice forward but collected canter... keep my inside rein extra short, so I'm not tempted to overuse my hand. If it's short... I can just use my elbow vs having to pull my hand so far back when he bends that way. Then ride haunches in. Ride all the haunches in. Practice haunches in all the time and even spiral in and out. So... start the half pass with a haunches in. Think of pulling his hiney over with my weight aids, like I do in the haunches in... and keep the inside bend at all costs! And then.. go from there. Then once he gets a few steps, circle to the inside... 10 meter circle... so we don't lose the inside bend. 

So.. fingers crossed I can sneak in a ride in the morning! 

After I got home I turned him out and 30 minutes later found him like this! Maybe we finally wore him out! ha. Except 10 minutes later he was up and in his stall. Although it may have been because it was 9000 degrees out there. 

Full Gallop: Novice

Whooo hooo!!! Today was our first recognized novice this year. It's also a good prep before AEC's. I figured that running novice would help the BN championship course not seem so big. So... we went! Jacel was supposed to be coming too but she ended up having to cancel because of Covid so it was just us. It was a one day, so we got up early and headed to Aiken. 

 

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

We got there and had enough time to check in and get tacked up and warm up for dressage. But then we had a long break so I figured I would walk XC and stadium after dressage. We had a good warm up with very little shenanigans. In fact, he was really quite tame. He did make me laugh though because he was making snarky faces at everyone but then suddenly he pricked his ears at this medicine hat mare and kept trying to make a beeline for her. I laughed and told the girl that my horse thought he was friends with her horse. And then I added "Or he recognized a fellow heather". She laughed and said that was definitely the case. And sure enough, later I saw her rearing in warm up. Ha ha.. Oh Dan! Luckily he didn't do any rearing and then it was our turn. We had a pretty good dressage test. It felt quite nice and didn't really have any bobbles. We ended up with a 27.6! Whoo hooo! And that put us in first place out of 13 people. Heck yeah Dan! Good boy. 

photo credits to Chris Quinn

So then he sat in the trailer munching while I walked XC and stadium. It was a pretty fun course. Nothing too crazy or scary. (And yes!!! It was super exciting that novice XC wasn't scary!). There was a few big fences... a few that had some good terrain questions, but... nothing that I thought would be a big problem or made me clench up my cheeks. 

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

I then was grooming Dan and waiting around for our time when Ainsley walked up! YAY! It was good to see a friend and we chatted and hung out. She got some awesome photos of Dan too! So then it was time to get tacked up and get ready. I ended up getting on too early but we were hanging out a bit. We finally started warming up and Dan trotted around on the buckle a few laps. Then suddenly he lost his brain and went bouncy and reary. He was trying to buck and bolt. Good gravy. We sat a few minutes and tried again. Same thing. So then I sat him a few minutes and tried to jump. He jumped the tar out of the vertical, landed in a buck, then threw his head up at my face. Twice he almost gave me a bloody lip. Daniel! So then we sat in "time out" again. He kept making faces at the other horses. To the point that people were laughing at him. One girl on a chestnut mare even commented that his faces were ridiculous and her chestnut TB mare was happy and polite. ha ha. Well... yeah... So then he was fine and warmed up fairly politely after that. Then it was our turn and in we went. It was a great course! We jumped nicely I thought! There was only one fence I jumped up his neck a stride early but he went anyways. (Of course my photos were awful... he was hanging his knees. Poo!). We jumped double clear. Yay!

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

So then we headed over to XC. We jumped two jumps and the ditch and then there was a hold on course for about 20 minutes. We chatted with the other riders and just sat and caught our breath. It wasn't hot at all because of the storm. And it didn't rain luckily, but it was overcast and muggy as all get out. I was soaked in sweat just from the humidity. We did the warm up combination line when they started sending riders again and then off we went. Unfortunately I forgot my helmet, but luckily had my navy show helmet. But that meant no helmet cam. Oh well. He was SUPER! He jumped that course like a rockstar. No hesitations anywhere and he jumped everything well I thought. Except.. the one fence. Ha ha. It was the second to last fence and was a mini corner. It was an option. I saw that Ainsley was sitting there ready to take a photo. And... Dan came up to it and then shot sideways. I threw my leg and managed to hold my line but he twisted over the corner like a fool. I was laughing at him for ruining my photo. ugh. We cantered politely over the finish line well within time. And so we had finished double clear again! Which means we should have held onto first. Yahoo!  I dropped the reins a little to let him know we were done and the goober took off again! Not a bolt, but a strong gallop! So we did a few circles in the finish area before I could get him to trot and then he power trotted another few circles. Goofy! 

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Ainsley was nice and chatted and hung out while we untacked and then she sat with him while I went and got my ribbon and test. :) Yahooo! Good boy. She got some amazing photos of him too. Such a fun day!

photo credits to Chris Quinn

photo credits to Chris Quinn

photo credits to Chris Quinn

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

Photo credits to Ainsley Jacobs

So Alike... and so Close!

 Today I finished early enough to sneak in a ride! Extra yay because I have a feeling I won't get to ride tomorrow, as tomorrow is "get ALL the supplies for the bathroom" day. I ended up riding at home for time saving. Plus, my arena really is better after a hard rain. We had a good ride! We had some legit cross over on the canter half pass!!! I have to really use my weight and seat aids... not as much leg. We also had some good canter to walks both directions. And he was making me giggle because he got all fired up. And then he was acting like he wanted to do a change! I decided to try one over a pole. And he got it!!!!! And it was right to left too, which I believe is the hard direction!! So then we tried again and didn't get it. And he was getting frustrated. So we did some other things and I told him how amazing he was. And then he was still all fired up and so we jumped through the grid twice. Then he finally took a breath and settled. I told him how amazing he was and he we were so close to getting the change and not to worry or stress about it. Heck, we didn't even need it til after Kentucky! So hopefully he won't be like me... stressing over making every little thing perfect, frustrated when he doesn't get it right, annoyed that it's taking longer than he thinks, mad that he can't do what he wants to do. I told him it was my fault and I was throwing his body off, so... cut me some slack and we'd figure it out soon! hee hee.

Then we went on a walk about around the bottom of Jean's property and the side of Eddie's and then the gate to the dog pen pasture was open since Mike was mowing, so we walked around there a little bit. 

Good pony!