Today was just a day for hard lessons. But at least this one was more fun. ;)
Danny and I rode with Liz today. I put the peter horrobin saddle on because I figured I'd have to ride in a saddle for the show. Although I am hopefully going to use Kaitlyn's DP western saddle instead of my english saddle. Which, sadness that it won't be my western saddle. I'll pick up Kaitlyns Monday. Although, supposedly our (me and Sharon's) saddles will arrive on Monday and then all Mark has to do is oil, add conchos' and get my fender stamped. So... not sure I'll have mine by Saturday but maybe???? Although not sure I'll get to ride in it before Saturday. So.. we'll get Kaitlyn's Monday and then I can ride in it Mon, Tues, and hopefully Friday. Then show Sat. But... maybe, just maybe I can get mine Friday and ride in it Friday and then show in it Saturday???
Anyways... I rode in the PH dressage saddle with long stirrups and my bosal. And he was good. We walked around a bit and did a tiny bit of trot and then we started practicing test movements. We didn't play with the leg yield but started with the serpentine. Oh my gosh I have such a mental block on it! Although, in my brain, I think Liz was screwing me up. She kept telling me to do a ten meter circle, change bend to the other 20 meter circle, then back to another 10 meter circle. But... that meant I went from quarter line to quarterline but then to the rail and then back to quarterline. And the drawing shows more of a flattened circle in the middle. So I was trying to do what she said but couldn't wrap my brain around it. And then add in the fact that I'm trying to ride it quarter line to quarter line vs off the rail... and add in the fact that my arena is too big so I'm just sort of winging it with the dimensions and don't have rails for half of my arena... So it was extra hard. THEN... I'm so dumb.. .we had a pole to mark the end of the arena near C, but not centered in the "large arena" but instead centered in my whole arena and my brain kept making that C instead of where C actually was. Once we moved the pole down, it helped me way more than it should have. Ha ha. I'm so spatially challenged. Anyways... once I started thinking of changing the flexion/bend to the same flexion/bend as I would on a 10 and 20 meter circle, but rode the pattern I had in my head that helped. And Liz also told me to make sure that I kept the bend the whole way around from A to the quarterline and then to centerline, then change my bend at centerline and keep that bend the whole way back to the other half of my circle on centerline before changing the bend again. I was riding too much of a straight line with a straight horse instead of a bend to a bend to a bend. Ahhhh. And by focusing on my bend changes being at centerline helped immensely. But good golly that pattern has taken me so long to figure out. We had to run through it about 20 times before I got it. Ha ha. BUT... once I got it, we got some really good ones. Although Dan was not really wanting to bend today. I had to use more inside rein than I wanted. And really step to the outside stirrup. AND.. keep my head turned to the outside (really straight but feels like to the outside). But then it was pretty good! Oh, and I have to keep him slightly slower paced so he doesn't fall on his forehand.
So phew... once we got that under control we talked about the canter. Liz pointed out that this test really set you up for success but that you had to ride it properly or else it would be easy to "fail". The serpentine really put you on a nice inside bend for the canter depart but if you didn't ride to the outside, your horse would fall in and you'd get the wrong lead. Ooof... good point! And then, we realized that it's a 15 meter canter circle not a 20 meter circle. Ooof! That's gonna be hard on the right lead for Dan. Whooops! I may have been a bit too optimistic on this test. Kind of like T-3 with Funny. But oh well. It is really showing the holes and things we need to work on. So we decided I would cheat a little and aim for a 18 meter circle to the right and aim for a 15 meter circle to the left. But I had to very much ride my serpentine almost to a leg yield coming back to the rail for the canter depart. I need to sit very much on the outside hind and make darn sure I'm looking to the outside! So that I can help him lift that inside shoulder instead of falling in on it. But it worked and we got our leads every time. Then I need to make sure that I support him the whole way around the circle and really sit back and up before the downward. Then sit the downward (not post) so that I can support him into the nice trot. And, stay slow. The right lope (hee hee... I keep saying canter but technically now I should be saying lope) is harder especially as we start to get towards the final quarter as he starts to fatigue, so I really need to support him and almost leg yield him out at that point. We practiced it a few times but not too many cause he was getting tired.
So then we realized that the trot lengthen was right after the canter. Luckily after the left lead canter because I'm not sure we could have done it after the right lead. Dang... how did I not realize how hard this test was?! ha ha. Anyways, and technically it's nice because it has you do a downward, then go straight for a tiny bit, then turn across the diagonal and lengthen. Which... seems helpful at first because you have time to get them back to a balanced trot, but... harder because you have to go straight then turn. We played with it but Dan was getting tired and either didn't lengthen or broke into the canter. Ooof. I miss bareback. So we decided that I needed to sit the downward from the canter, stay sitting, and then get him back and balanced and collect the trot, then start across the diagonal and get him straight and the allow the lengthening once we hit the quarterline. If I ask/allow before that he's going to fatigue and dump on his forehand around X, whereas if I'm a little later in the ask, he'll stay in a good lengthen until I can start bringing him back down. And the way I ask is to keep my hips swinging but ask for more with my hips and slightly push BOTH hands forward. Don't use one leg (which is hard if he starts to drift or tip), but squeeze with both slightly. And probably not even... just swing and ask with my hips. But I'll play with it again when he's not so tired. We did do it sitting because I felt like he's been doing it well when I'm bareback, but... I may play with sitting vs posting next ride and see.
Anyways... after that we let him be done because he was pretty tired. It was hot today and he was breathing pretty hard. Not terribly, and he caught his breath quick, but he was tired. And he was trying. He really did all the things I asked, even though sometimes I asked wrong. We chilled and then hacked home and I let him snack on the grass while Liz and I said our goodbyes. Then he got a little rinse. She did think he was a little muscle fatigued today. And... he probably should be. We ended up trotting for about 20 minutes which is more than he's been doing I think. (Ok, I looked.. not really a ton more, but definitely the most trotting he's done by a few minutes. And it's only been a few rides of more than 15 minutes, so... still getting back to his fitness level).
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