Fun Day

Had a quick jump around with Peri and then a short hack before heading to Fence.

Someone had set up a grid with a bounce to a one stride with a very wide vertical to a one stride. Dan did it without giving it a second glance but chipped in the one stride. I misheard Peri and thought she was saying that I needed to get him to lengthen. I think she meant the complete opposite but they way she phrased I heard lengthen. And... I was thinking he put in too short of a stride (But I swear I was thinking it was a two stride he put in and it was supposed to be a one). So anyways... I pushed on landing and he bounced the one stride after the wide oxer. Twice. Oops.. Once I figured out what she meant, I was able to collect him and compress him and we got a tight one stride but a one stride. Doh!

We also worked on preventing the right drift but WHISPER HOLLY!!!! He doesn't drift to the right IF I just think heavy left stirrup and close my right leg. I do NOT need to hold that darn left rein and prevent him from basculing. It's the same problem I have on the flat. Sigh... I've got to remember to ask Kelly, Cindy, and Beth how to fix it... I guess focus on the supple elastic connection and not hanging on it. ;)

Dressage ahas

Good lesson!

Danny was way more forward. Yay! I might like the big spurs. :)

Getting better at moving my upper body separately..... good canters. Still having troubles turning right... I feel the lean and try to hold the left side upright but need to let go. Also my right knee comes up because my right foot pushes down. When I focus on lifting my right toe it helps. It's muscle memory from driving.... so don't get so frustrated with myself. Fix it but know it's habit. Then fixing that allows Dan to bend around my leg.

Weekend ahhhhhs

I love the weekends!!
Danny and I were able to get in a ride on Saturday after a quick lake trip with Mike. Yet again, no wind. We did some dressage and then went for a hack. I tried Fleck's bit with Danny, but I don't think he particularly liked it. So I switched back. We had an okay ride but I was getting frustrated. I hate when I get frustrated. He was good and he was trying. We had some actual full 3 loop serpentine counter canters without breaking and without getting too off kilter. :) And we ran through our dressage test and I thought it was quite nice. :) Then we just went for a short leisurely hack. Although we did some trotting and some cantering. We cantered up the hill and there was a thick branch in the path. Not big enough to jump, but not a twig. He made me giggle cause he came up on it and almost spooked at it and then hopped over it like it was a bigger stick. hee hee. It was a nice day though.

 So then today we had a lesson with Kelly. I was a little sad that I didn't go XC schooling with Liz but I had a lot to get done and felt like I was getting stuck in dressage, so I was glad for the lesson. And it was so helpful!

We started with a warm up and Kelly said that she could tell I had been doing my homework. We did some trotting, down quarterline, leg yield to the rail and then shoulder in at the rail. Kelly said that it was great how forward he was and how quiet in the bridle and that our connection was good. But that he wasn't crossing very well. He was cheating. Yep... Cindy and I had figured that out too. He was doing the motions but not really pushing and going laterally. So then we went on a 15 meter circle and worked on getting him latitudinally supple, not just longitudinally... (Or maybe I have them flipped... I don't know!). Anyways, we started off by doing the 15 meter circle and I mentioned  that I felt like he was leaning in and maybe I needed more weight in my left stirrup...  Kelly said that my leg position was decent, and perhaps a bit of a chair seat. Sigh.... hmmm.... I can't win! Cindy thinks my leg is too far back, Kelly thinks it's too far forward.. I suppose it's possibly that I have overcompensated but... I don't know. Anyways... Kelly did mention that I should swap to a longer spur to make my aids more effective so that I didn't have to contort my leg so much. It was very relieving to hear that my leg wasn't going to do what I was wanting it to do.. not without thousands of dollars spent on yoga. ;) I sort of felt like with his body shape and my body shape, I was risking breaking my ankle to get the perfect position. I mean, I'll still aim for improvement, but it was a bit nice to have the longer spur. I could get the reaction I wanted without having to really push and move my leg. Like in my jump lesson. Anyways... we changed spurs and then went back to work. The goal is to get Danny soft and round and over his back and to keep his shoulders moving freely. We had a most lovely and soft and beautiful trot tracking to the left. Dan was over and through and my position and contact was decent. But then going to the right... it all falls apart. I panic and have a "thought tornado" and it gets all wonky. It feels to me like Danny is leaning to the inside, throwing his shoulders out to the left and just turning his nose into the right. And his hind end feels like it's haunches in. In other words, the exact opposite of what we should be doing..  So it definitely helped when I stopped holding so tightly with the outside rein, in an effort to keep his shoulders in. But I was then blocking his left side and not allowing him to open that shoulder and swing it forward and around. Plus I was blocking his ribs from going to the left because my outside rein was so stiff. So... if I allowed some more stretch, he got rounder. Sure, there were times he swung out but it was almost because I had too much inside leg. I need to keep the connection but make sure it was ELASTIC! So... it got much nicer at the end. Now to figure out how to keep it.  :) 

So then I went for a little hack to cool him off. We did a tiny little bit of cantering, just because we didn't canter in our lesson. Granted, it was very much a hunter canter and not a dressage canter. So on our little trek we found a huge tree that had fallen down. We cantered along the path leading up to and past it and Dan eyed it. Nope!! Not yet little buddy.. not yet. So then as we continued on, we found another downed tree. This one was MUCH more appropriately sized and was next to the fence so the landing and take off were perfect. I couldn't resist. We cantered it. Even in the dressage saddle... :) It was a hoot. I had to do it again and this time I took a video. Wheee!!! One handed jumping trees in the dressage saddle. But you can't NOT take advantage of a fallen tree. :) Such a good kid. 

 Nope... not that one little buddy!!

But this one.... :) Downed Tree

Right Drift Dangers

I had a great lesson with Beth again today. And I'm sooooo proud of Danomite!

We've had terrible weather the past few days... a legitimate earthquake in south Georgia, tornado sightings and lots of storm and storm damage. We had no trees come down during the last two days worth of weather, but there was a TON of lightning and some pretty gusty winds and a ton of rain. So Danny and Fleck stayed in all day yesterday. I turned them out for about 2 hours and then they were back in again until this morning. I tossed them out for about an hour and then we went to our lesson. And the temps have dropped to about 55 degrees from 75 and it was WINDY this morning.

When we got there, Dan was fine at first but then the neighbors were hammering on the roof and that freaked him out. He started shaking and nervous pooping. And he got tall! I could barely get the bridle on him. So we headed out to the XC field to do some "suicide reps" to get him breathing and thinking. He was good. We walked (on tippy toes!) the whole way there and then we trotted way down the hill before we cantered. And we only cantered, not galloped. We went up and down the hill twice and then Beth arrived. He was actually pretty good in the arena but despite being "Up" he was still behind my leg so the spurs went on. We had a great lesson and figured some stuff out.

There is a significant right drift and my attempts to correct it with my hand are not working and screwing me up. He will respond to my right leg/spur, so that is important. And Beth mentioned that she wanted me to put more weight in my left stirrup and thought that my right lean may be contributing.Aha! I thought so... even on the flat. So to correct the right drift... lots of right leg and sink more weight into my left stirrup. And I don't usually need the hands after that.

We also figured out that Dan jumps pretty when he can get the slightly long spot. However, when he has to get deep, he tends to roll over his shoulder. So we'll do a lot more of the grid type lessons to work on showing him how to open up through his shoulders and scapulas. (And I"m going to try to adjust/electro/acupuncture)

Anyways... we had a lot of fun and did some good courses :)

I had to laugh because at the end, Beth's other students showed up to watch and Dan was scared of them! hee he... But he did good.
Course work

Then Beth wanted to work on his form so we did the rails on the fences in the grid to help sharpen him up and correct the drift. And I learned what happens when you don't correct the drift! Baby horse drifts and then decides he cannot jump the placing pole diagonally and runs out from under you. ;)

But then we fixed it... by making sure my shoulders stayed up, I was in the back seat, my hands were following and giving and NOT crossing the neck, and away we went.  It did get better. :)
Fixed it!

Another fixed ride

one more time

Upping the ante

Dressage today was interesting. It wasn't a bad ride but it wasn't easy. Basically Cindy said that his warm up looked fairly blah. Kind of like she imagines how our dressage test at Paradise was. He wasn't bad, he wasn't horrible, he wasn't even that incorrect, he just wasn't lovely. And because he wasn't lovely that meant he was flat and straight and not very supple. 

So... we kind of dug into him today. We wanted fancy and supple and lovely! Not just "good baby horse.. you're not killing me today". We specifically hit the issue into the canter transition. And shockingly enough ;) that really helped transform the canter. So basically, he's not allowed to throw his head up into the canter anymore. He has to sit into it and push into it and canter like a proper dressage horse. It was a battle! We fought and fussed and had tantrums. But in the end, we got some LOVELY canter departs and some seriously nice lovely canters. He was supple, he was hanging his head, he was round and UP in his back, and there was lift and bounce and sproing! It felt amazing! 

So the trick is.... when we're trotting along.. his head must be in the center of his neck, which must be in the center of his shoulders. I do want his shoulders slightly in, in a shoulder fore or even shoulder in. (Especially since it was blatantly obvious that he likes to go haunches in). BUT... I can't just pull his nose in.... He's got to be straight in his body, but shoulder in. That made a huge difference!!! Because when I would turn his nose in, his shoulders would still be pointing to the outside of the arena. I could feel it and would panic and pull his nose in even more. So... if I focused on keeping his nose in between his shoulders, then I could tell that it was his shoulders that were out and needed to come in. :) Aha!

So yep.. I'll keep working on that too. I also have to remember to not throw myself at him when I ask for the canter. And then when he is cantering, to let my butt slide and stay in the saddle and to keep my right leg forward. Cindy said that every time I sat I should think about turning my heel out laterally. Not sure how, but that helped!

Oh and we also worked on our counter canter. It was tricky, and funny enough, harder to the left with this new canter. But we did manage it a time or two. :)

So yep.. fun fun fun! Not easy though. 

 

I so needed that!

Ahhhh.... too busy to ride until today.... Working working working... then continuing ed all gorgeous beautiful weekend... But I managed to sneak one in Sunday night :)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Such a peaceful evening

Good for the soul

 
 We went to splash in the lake.... Danny thought about going for a swim! He got up to mid barrel before he turned around. Luckily I was able to pull my feet up and I stayed dry. ;)