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!

Slowly but surely

Making progress

jumping lesson... still drifting right but not as obvious to me.... better with my hands...

Just need to establish forward and keep it. Straightness slows him down. Encourage him to go forward and once I get straight to the fence...add one mile per hour each stride so that he's building and going forward. The video shows it. I know I'm chickening out and taking back. Don't.. give/soften and if he doesn't move forward, add leg to get the forward. Not running.. balanced... but more forward. Then he can decide what place to take off from but the forward gives us better options with better results.

Videos.

stills

Grid Morning

Today.... I had a cancellation and would have had time to ride, but I couldn't sleep last night, so I was cranky and slow this morning. Ended up riding at home and I'm glad I did.

Warmed up and still felt funky but definitely better when I sit, although it's really hard to sit in a jump saddle in the field! Got our left lead canter better! (Had the right draw rein and right hind bell boot on). Cantered the barrel a few times. Mostly straight. The first time he went over it he jumped hard left and I got madder than I should have. After that, he was GOING! I got his forward installed and while we got more forward, we also got a little bit straighter. Then went for the grid. The first time through he was soooooo not straight! He jumped the first two and then landed almost outside the grid so I pulled him out. Sigh... BUT... the second time through I focused and he was super straight. Then we came around on the other lead and he was also super straight. And the striding was right too!! So then we went to trot the barrel and had to do that twice and then we were done.

He was sooooo sweaty. So he got a rinse, as did Fleck.. because... ;)

And we laughed because... Dan tasted the rainbow!