Upping the dressage ante

So... it's time for baby horse to start growing up. :)

Today in our lesson we worked on connection. Cindy kept reminding me that when I feel wiggles in the bridle, to focus on the hindquarters. If the hindquarters are straight and there is impulsion, the front end will also go straight.
To help with that, we're adding connection. I'm NOT asking him to go into a frame with the reins... but I am riding him up into that connection and asking him to go there, rather than pull me around. I need to remember that my elbows belong to me and I need to use my core to remain stable. He tends to pull me out of my position and then I collapse on him. But I also can't just hang on him because then he will hang right back. So.. if I feel like he's hanging on the right rein, it's because he's bracing on it and not supple. In order to create suppleness I need to soften and shorten that outside. So.. inside leg to a more connected outside rein. I need to think of shortening the outside of his body so that he is up underneath himself. He can do it. And he did. :)

And we had a most lovely canter at one point in one direction. Cindy said it was a 9!! Whoo hooo. I just need to remember to ride the front of my saddle and not drive, but keep my seat cantering. That's also important in the downwards. I can't just stop my seat from moving.

So a good lesson! I swear, this horse just gets better and better with every ride. :) 
Apparently Tess thinks he's hot stuff, because she was shunning Fleck and even Guardian!

Chatt Hills.... Money in the bank!

Oh what a weekend!!

So.. I had been feeling bad about jumping Dan and feeling like I was overfacing him. So I was a little worried about taking him to Chatt. But I'm sooooo glad I did! It was such a great experience for us both, despite being quite the exciting weekend. ;)

We loaded up Saturday morning with me barely managing to get everything done in time. We got to Chatt hills and I took him straight to the wash rack for his bath. I got him all sparkling clean and let him hang out in his stall while I went and got my packet. He didn't even have shavings in his stall yet. But there was no time so I took him to the trailer and tacked him up. I hopped on and dropped my video camera off at the stall. Then we headed down to the arenas. Oh dear!! From the barn down to the jump arena Dan was on springs!! Springs!!!! We were passaging and piaffing like fools. Some kind person even yelled "Nice Springs". hee hee. Great, but we were attempting to walk. Somebody was NOT as chill as he was at Rolling Hills. But... I asked for it. ;) I had said that he was a little too blase at Chatt. hee hee. When will I learn?! ;) So then I managed to get him down to the jump arena, with all the flags, and went past to get to the dressage arenas. That was super exciting so we did about 16 porpoise jumps and crow hops and spins and mini bolts. We got about halfway through and came up on a woman with a stroller with a baby in it. Uh oh! She was super nice and just stopped. I managed to get Dan to go past her, partly in thanks to another horse on the other side of the fence in the arena heading the same direction as us. Unfortunately right as I passed the stroller and woman we came upon a giant pile of poles. Well, Dan spooked, spun and ran a few steps back towards the barns. I managed to wrangle him in before we ran into the stroller. (Not that close, but I was terrified it was going to be that close). I noted that he was spooking at the poles and not the stroller so I mentioned to the woman that she may be better off calmly walking ahead a bit since he wasn't scared of her. She gratefully did so and then I was a little less worried about clobbering them. We then managed to get past the poles and hopped our way into the warm up arena. We managed to walk around a bit, while leaping and shying and then help arrived! Elisa Wallace was on KC and walked up and said "hey...let me help you!". THANK YOU!! She basically had me put him to work. Forward march baby! No sight seeing, no antics, just in a frame in a forward trot. So we managed to get him focused and like typical Dan, he settled after about 10 minutes. He was still naughty but he was manageable now.

Elisa continued to help me and finally it was our turn to go in. They were running about 20 minutes late. Dan walked down to other arenas without a care in the world and went in and did his test. He was actually quite nice and it was probably our best test. We still flopped the right lead. He picked it up correctly in front but was on the left lead behind. About 4 strides in he swapped in front and then I knew for sure we were off and broke to the trot. He picked it right up on the second attempt and we cantered around. I was quite proud of him. We ended up scoring a 61.4, which put us in 6th out of 8 or 9. I was really proud! Not a great score, but not horrid. And I knew he wasn't really ready for training level just yet frame wise, but I liked that test better for him than trying to cram in a tiny canter. So for where he's at, I was quite pleased. Our comments were that his hindquarters were out behind him. And yep. I agree. That's why he's not quite ready for training level, but we're working on it. The goof seemed to enjoy being in the ring by himself, getting to show off. He wasn't worried about being alone or anything. He's such a show off. Then we headed back and he was still full of it, bouncing some more.

 

 Here is our dressage test on video. In pieces because poor Liz couldn't find my camera so she stole some sweet ladies phone and took them in pieces so she could email me! Awesome!! :)
 Halt, Salute, Trot on
Right lead Canter
Crazy walk pattern 2/5
 Left Lead Canter
Stretchy trot: 4/5
Halt and Salute 5/5
He got some carrots and was rinsed and then sent back to his stall so I could go watch Liz. She was rushed because she was watching me so her test was a little hurried but it wasn't bad at all. We headed back and let the ponies graze for a little bit and then they got shavings, fresh water and hay. We hung out and watched friends and then went for dinner, letting the ponies enjoy the fans. At dinner, we convinced our waiter to put the Belmont on. And we saw it!! We saw American Pharoah win the Triple Crown. It was awesome. He wasn't even trying. So neat :) :)

We walked the ponies some and had a good time chatting. Dan was NOT cooperative for pictures. ;) Then we put the ponies to bed and went to bed ourselves.
 

 

 The next morning we took our time a bit and got the ponies fed. Then it was time to school XC. I was nervous! Luckily we were smart and stayed Sat and Sun instead of Fri and Sat so we were pretty much the only ones there. I'm so glad because I think it was a MUCH better experience for me and Dan than if we had tried to school while it was busy and hectic out on the field.

 (PS... Dan CLEARLY needs his breastplate in the future! Or some sort of fancy girth. Or both!)

 I told Liz that I was sort of tempted to go back to the arenas past the flags to prove that it wasn't scary but I wasn't sure I wanted to get him agitated before being out in the giant 400 acre field. She smiled and turned Party for the arena and flags. Ha! But we did go back into the arena and worked on some flat work to get his kicks out first. Smart! Not cheating, smart. :) And I'm glad we did. He wasn't horrible but he was definitely excited so it was good to let him burn off some steam before we hit the open field. AND... Liz helped me with the right lead canter. She told me an old hunter trick. Somehow I was asking at the wrong moment so he was almost having to pick up his right hind first, which put him on the left lead. So she had me sit a stride, then pick up the wrong diagonal for one post, then ask for the canter. And sure enough, it worked like a charm. He picked up the right lead 3 times in a row. Yay!! I'm so glad because he was getting frustrated with not getting the right lead too. Then the fourth time I asked, he picked it up as soon as I sat the post. Hee hee. Smart baby horse, but no... that's not when I asked. She joked that they would do that but to ignore it because eventually they get the hang of it and eventually my body learns to ask for the right lead at the right time and I wont' have to do the funky diagonal change. Yay

After that we went over to the jump arena and went it. The jumps were set at prelim height but it's such a big atmosphere that we figured we would take advantage of the situation and show them around. So we went in and weaved around and then took a "victory canter" around. Dan didn't seem to mind anything.

So then we headed out to the XC field. We started over the first tadpole jump and it was awful. Dan jumped awkwardly, jumping me out of the saddle, and then we both landed on the forehand and felt like we were going to plow into the ground. We tried a few times and it was just as awful. So then we tried the beginner novice jump, thinking maybe size would help. Nope! I was getting very frustrated because I felt like I wasn't doing anything to help him at all. Liz said that he had to figure it out on his own essentially. So fine, but what could I do to not make it worse? I felt like I was making things worse. She had me grab my "oh crap" strap a few times and it helped but I was so afraid of us landing on his nose that I was pushing myself up and away and ended up getting left behind and being popped in the air. It felt like he was porpoising or crow hopping over the jump and landing the same way, back up and nose down. At one point I swear I thought we were going to go ass over teakettle. So then she did a few in a row and Dan didn't care that she was cantering away from us. Bonus! So I thought I would use it to my advantage thinking he'd be more inclined to stay upright. Hmm... he was more upright.. with all four feet! He took to bucking and crow hopping like a fool. But we got him over one and then I made him canter on til he settled and he did. So then Liz told me to grab my neck strap more like I would on Fleck. In my brain I decided that I was just going to get into jumping position and ride him like I would Fleck. I knew it was a little fence and I didn't need to "jump" it, but I thought perhaps that would help. And thank goodness!! I'm not sure what I was doing before, but once I actually rode it like a jump, shockers... it helped. I also had to kick him on upon landing and not fall on his face. But riding in jump position helped that. And by riding on after, he didn't fall on his face and picked himself up. Phew! We actually had some decent fences at that point, although I feel apart a bit more on the bigger fences. So we moved it along and did a few more tadpoles, one even with a little uphill and downhill landing. And yay! It became FUN. I let Dan canter on some and was laughing at how quickly he was covering ground.

We then went to the banks. They were a bit large so we just went up and down the giant mound, which was scary. Then we jumped another little jump and Liz jumped a faux trakehner. I wanted to also so I took Dan to it. Instead of trotting he broke into the canter. So I circled and made him trot. A few strides out he decided he was a big shot and cantered. He took the long spot and porpoised a few times on landing. Goober!
Dan thinks he's ready for Rolex!
So we then walked up to the next tadpole jump and I walked him right up to it and then let him hop over it. Then we came right back to the one next to it and did the same thing. Liz said this was a good way of "punishing" them for being too exuberant, without punishing them. So then we headed to the water. Dan played in it a bit and splashed while we watched Liz. Then we decided to trot into and out of the water and out over a cute little tadpole cabin. Well, again, Dan thought he was a big shot and cantered into the water. But he cantered happily in and stayed cantering til about half way in and then he broke to the trot. I let him and we trotted out and politely trotted over the cabin and cantered off. I made a BIG FUSS about how awesome he was and we quit with that. :)

I decided that this was a great weekend. We survived!! Ha. No, we did, but really, we accomplished a lot. He learned that the big exciting show atmosphere was doable. He was a gentleman in the arena and put in a respectable test. He stayed overnight in a stall. He went and schooled XC and we both learned how to jump politely and happily. But most importantly... he thought it was SUPER FUN. He was having a blast and came away thinking he was a big shot and ready for Rolex. That's all I wanted! I know he needs more time to grow before we jump again. But I didn't want to end with his frustrating grid jump session. I think that took money out of his bank. He's never felt like he was having to "work" and never said no. I'd like to keep it that way. So I'm glad this weekend. This reinforced that jumping is fun and I felt like I put a WHOLE lot of money in the bank. :)

We did go looking for some ditches and didn't find any but walked back by the lake. We had to pass a small stream running over some concrete that Party didn't like. Dan was goofy. He was so clueless. But he walked over it happily enough once Party got through it and then we saw a cool little meandering natural ditch. So I popped him over that a handful of times and he casually and happily popped over it.

So much fun!!! What a great weekend. And now Dan can take the summer off and just chill for a bit and grow some more. We'll do our Cindy lessons and play, but we probably won't do any more jumping other than occasional things in the field until this Fall. He deserves a little break. :)

Grids with Beth

Let me start off by saying that I was in a bad place this week. I'm just feeling frustrated and like a failure. In everything I do. So... this was a bad day for both me and the baby horse. I was already a little frustrated by our grid session last week. He was good and trying but clearly not really understanding. And I felt like it was my fault for not knowing how to train a baby horse.
 
So... luckily Beth was late and I was actually early so Dan and I went for a little hack. I felt like he was getting a little fried and needed some time off, so I was hoping to be able to add in a little hack to help his brain. So we went for a quick hack through the woods and to the XC field and then back into the ring. 

Beth had changed the grid a bit and she had us trot through poles. No big deal as he had done this. So then she started putting the fences up. Just cross rails. Nothing major. But Dan was having problems. I was having problems. I was trying to not get too into jumping position and not hindering Dan. But in effect, I was. Beth was trying to get me to give with my elbows, but not fall onto his neck. And she was having me accomplish it by straightening my elbows and pushing away. But I couldn't accomplish it. Not effectively, so I was getting popped out of the tack. And Dan was not really jumping. He was rolling over his shoulder, which was making it harder for me. 

So at one point, Beth said that he wasn't really trying and asked me to use my whip over the fences to wake him up and sharpen him up. It didn't really work. So, she said that she would normally never do this, but just once, she was going to get him with the crop as he jumped over. So she did. And it surprised him! He bucked but he jumped. So the next time through he was ready for it and jumped better. The third time through he just avoided it completely by bouncing the one stride. Doh!! But he actually jumped it well. Go figure. We praised him profusely and told him how smart he was and quit with that.

I was feeling a bit down about it because... I know he's a nice horse and I know I have plenty of time, but... I was worried about his jumping ability. And normally I would have not been worried, because he's a baby still. But given my mental state that week, I couldn't help it. I asked Beth if she thought he'd learn to jump and she said that she was a bit disheartened by the fact that he wasn't picking it up very quickly and didn't seem to care. She said "We'll get him there, it's just going to take longer". But in my disheartened state I heard "yeah.... he may not make a jumper". And she said that he just doesn't know how to collect himself to be able to jump, so he's flinging himself. That was because I haven't been collecting him on the flat. So again, in my disheartened state I didn't hear "he just needs more flatwork to learn how to collect before we jump again" and instead heard "You failed... you didn't teach him how to collect, so you ruined him for jumping". Sigh...

So I gave him cookies and hosed him off and went to ride Fleck. And I cried. Yes.. I admit it. I just needed a good cry. And it didn't really help. :( 

But deep down I know that Dan will be just fine. He's just a goofy awkward gangly baby still and he needs to grow up some more before he figures it out. And I know his little baby brain has been working hard lately, so we'll take the summer off to do trail riding and lake splashing and occasionally hop over little logs in the field. And of course, our weekly dressage lessons. But he'll get a little vacation and in the Fall, we will try again. And I need to have faith. I know he's going to be an awesome jumper. I watched him jump my electric fence in beautiful form. Repeatedly. For fun! So... we'll carry on. I know he's a fancy talented athletic boy.

 

Retraining the Brain

So.. very interesting day. Kathryn came to teach us lessons. And it was a riding lesson but incorporated a lot of biomechanics. Which is awesome. But totally crazy and difficult! 
It's like the backwards bike. Crazyness. (so the backwards bike... there's this video on youtube of a bike that has a swivel so that when you turn the handlebars to the left, the bike turns right. And vice versa. And because you learned to ride a bike one way, you created this pathway in your brain. And it's there. It's the reason you can not ride a bike in 20 years, hop on and go. But when you get on the backwards bike, your brain cannot process the change and you cannot ride the bike. You can tell your brain, fine.. it just turns backwards.. so turn left to go right. But the pathways in your brain are stubborn and refuse to believe you. So this guy keeps at it and it takes him 8 months, but he succeeds in retraining his brain to ride the backwards bike. His son, who is 6ish.. learned it in 3 weeks. And then the guy can't ride a real bike when he gets back on a normal one. Only it only takes him a few minutes or days to relearn on the regular bike.). So yeah... I'm basically having to retrain my brain. Which is SOOO Frustrating!! I KNOW how dressage is supposed to work. And yet somehow, my brain and my body keep doing it wrong. Sigh... And I've convinced my brain that my body is correct, yet it's so not. Lies!!

So yes.. it was very cool and interesting. Here's what I learned via Kathryn.

Danny tends to lock in his lower back, so I need to make sure to keep his back moving. Especially during transitions. And to do this, I need to keep my back moving. It's the whole swing right and left while swinging forward with my pelvis trick. And when I ask for the upward transitions, I do want them promptly, but I need to give him time. It's not necessarily him being lazy in the transitions sometimes. Sometimes, he's just figuring out where to put his feet. So I need to give him that time to get to the proper gait.

When tracking to the right, I need to not focus so much on the right rein/right bend, because it's too much. I need to retrain my brain that straight is straight, not counter flexed like I think. I need to lengthen my right leg, which means opening it up at the hip and lengthening my femur almost. That puts him where his ribs need to be. Then I can support with the left rein and let him lead with the right shoulder. When I open up my right side, it allows him to lead with the right shoulder. Kathryn equated it to the hunter riders who have flowing hunter rounds. It's not necessarily that the gather it all up and restrict it. They let the right shoulder flow and lead and the rest of the body follows. But he has to be straight and up on all four legs. And it works. We got an AMAZING right lead canter. He got straight and then his body was able to come up and round. It was Awesome! (Unfortunately Peri had left to go tack up Sunny so no video).

Tracking left is much harder for my brain. I want to pull that right shoulder in because I feel it flying out, but instead I need to think about pushing it forward and around. That is NOT accomplished by crossing the right rein over, or even half halting on the right rein. It's by contracting the left side of his body, and allowing the right shoulder to lead. So I have to almost open my outside rein, look to the right to allow my right hip to come back. But not just my right hip, also my right shoulder. Support with the left rein again. It's totally the opposite of what my head is screaming at me to do, but holy crud, if I can make myself do it, it totally works. We got a few steps of nice canter! It's much harder on this side for him. And for me. (And looking back while editing this, my brain is still screaming... wait? That can't be right... Didn't I just type in an earlier blog about how I need to shorten that outside... well yes, but that is done by creating straightness. I think in my brain I feel that outside shoulder fly out and I want to fix it by shoulder in. So then I put my outside leg on and start crossing my reins. And in reality, I need to fix it in the hind end. And that is done by bringing my outside leg slightly back, bringing my outside hip and shoulder slightly back, and support his weak left side.)....(I think! Egads.. this is tough!).

For his halt and walk transitions: Dan tends to wiggle and fall to the right. So to help keep him straight, I need to ride him forward and up. I can think about almost lifting his back with my seat into the walk and think about going forward so he doesn't fall back. I use the same thought process with the stepping out into the walk. I need to support that right side so he doesn't fall, but still focus more on the straightness and forward.

During the leg yields, Kathryn really wants him to slow it down during the leg yields so he has to contract his abdominal muscles and lift that inside hind, rather than just flinging it. She said to slow it down, ask almost the same as I was asking for the walk to halt transitions, so he has to contract those abdominals, and then ask. I only want/need a step or two at the beginning because he will be using his core. Then I can gradually build. That way he's actually using his hind leg rather than just flinging it around.

So yep.. it was a very challenging and brain occupying lesson. But Danny felt pretty darn good and we had some good moments.

Baby Jumps

So.... since baby horse is 4, we get to start jumping! Liz and I all got together and set up the first grid from Jimmy Woffords grid book. And then we got started. Liz rode Party and I rode Dan. We started out okay, trotting over poles. I'm going to have to work on straightness with Danny some. And then we started setting up the cross rails.

Oh, clutzy baby. He's still not quite ready to be jumping. It was funny because he was jumping but it was like each crossrail was a surprise. He was like "la la la la...oh, jump...la la..oh, another jump, la, huh...another jump... la la... oh wow, another jump". Oh silly baby. But he did the grid willingly and happily. It was just that he was a little surprised by each pole. Towards the end he was figuring it out a little better. I was having a hard time staying with him and keeping him straight. Liz pointed out that I needed to squeeze the toothpaste out through the entire line. Doh! Grab mine a stride out and then keep my legs on all the way through. He is not self propelled like Fleck. :) Oh, and I need to finish my line. I tended to drift to the left or the right afterwards and fall into the downward transition. I'm not letting him learn that icky downwards are okay. We will finish with fancy downwards and straightness! :)

So after we got through the full grid a few times we kept cantering on and tried a line.
It was a single line of two jumps - a vertical and then a small little coop. Cantering in was not a smart move. He couldn't figure it out. But he was brave, and despite me landing in a heap on the backside, he was good and didn't buck me off. Trotting it was much smarter for him. So we trotted the second time and our in was better but our out was icky again. He just couldn't compress or expand himself to get the distance. But he was at least heaving himself over it rather than not jumping it. So there is that. ;)

So...the plan is to back off, do another year of hacking and dressage because he'll get it, but he's just too gawky now. Liz said he's going to be SUPER NICE and is super scopey, so just wait him out. :) It's going to be hard though because he is fun. :)

Just some cute pics, cause he's cute!

Good lesson

So... now that Danny is officially 4, it's time to start being a man! hee hee. Cindy worked us hard. We worked on more connection and just overall improving things. She was very complimentary though and said that each ride he seems to be better and better. :) Yay!

 Did I do good Mom?? :)

 

I know his head is hidden, but it was a good confo shot of him at 4 years and 1 day. :) 

And besides.. this was what I started with!!! (So... I hit the gate with the trailer on my way out and had to unload the boys because I couldn't use the trailer with the fender smooshed into the tire. I managed to bang it out enough to come, so I went to reload the boys and in that short time Danny had rolled... Or more accurately wallowed! So.. this is what I had to deal with before my Cindy lesson.... 

 

Happy 4th Birthday Danny!

 

Baby boy turns 4 today!!! Such a cutie pie :) I'm so proud of this little rug rat! He measuered 16.2 to 16.3 and a half, depending on how I was holding the stick. So he's not really a little squirt anymore. He's really turning into quite the superstar. I'm so lucky to have him. Despite his antics, he really is a GOOD kid with a bright future. I just hope I do right by him. 

 

He got some treats for breakfast and snuggles. And then we went for a short dressage ride. He was a good boy. I wanted to go for a long hack but I didn't have time. Besides, he got to celebrate yesterday really. :) 

And he rolled as soon as he got home. Wallowed I should say. He was filthy! But it's his birthday, so..