Moving the shoulder and forward

It's been a while since I last posted, mostly due to the start of school, Joe's deploying, and all the craziness associated with it. Blech. Meanwhile, a TON of good stuff has been happening horse-wise with regards to training, so I'm going to try and be brief and condense it all into one post.

I've been to many, many trainers, who all preach "inside leg to outside rein", and have shown me various ways of actually riding this. Christan has added a new spin to it. She got on Ollie during one of our first lessons at Denny's, and immediately noticed that although Oliver moves away from the leg, he doesn't truly bend. I didn't know that, mostly because he tends to be a bit rubber-necked and a bit hot off the leg (gooses forward easily), so I think I've been concentrating on keeping him straight, not popping the outside shoulder, and keeping his tempo steady. Christan told me to open the outside rein, lift the inside rein a tad, and then use my inside leg to push the shoulder up and over until he bends and I connect with that outside rein. It took a few tries to really FEEL that shoulder lifting and moving over, but once we got it, he started to become more connected and the shoulder opened up, became freer, and his gaits got better and he felt more "in my hands". I also have to remember to keep my hands higher than I usually carry them, to maintain the connection, and NOT fiddle. Although I don't really move my hands/fingers all that much on Oliver, I DO tend to fiddle on Sam - mostly, it's a sponging the inside rein thing, but Christan pointed out that if I use my reins in this manner, I'm interrupting the connection and not truly riding him into my hands.

Sam - much of the same thing, although with him I can really feel the connection better, due to his not hiding behind the bit the way Ollie does. I've got to lift my hands, keep the outside rein slightly opened and connected, and most importantly on Sam - keep my pelvis slightly rotated down and back so that my lower back hollows and I'm not driving him. I didn't realize how much I tend to sit "on my pockets" and rotate my pelvis under - i.e. tuck my butt - and how much that was actually hollowing Sam out and driving him forward, so that he just curled his neck behind the bit instead of truly moving forward into my hands. Once I hollowed my back slightly, the connection became much steadier, he didn't drop the poll, and he seemed more through. I've had a bit of a time working with his canter departs, as I've been holding his head into them and not riding "up" into the canter. Keeping my hands up, instead of brace down (like Holly and Denise wanted me to do), allowed Sam to hollow and throw himself into the canter, which was incredibly frustrating. I've had to experiment with different ways of keeping the connection in the transition, and I've discovered that if I keep that outside rein connected, he doesn't hollow into the depart - at least, it's getting better. He still wants to hollow in the downward transition - gotta work on that.

For Oliver, today we had a jumping lesson. Christan rode him last week for me and told me that he didn't stop at a thing, and that he was cantering little BN courses for her. I have always thought he was spooky and nervous, so this was a revelation for me. I watched her ride him today before I got on, and sure enough, he doesn't look concerned about anything - his eye stays nice and quiet and he has a very good jump. The key to it was keeping him forward - over the first crossrail, Christan booted him in the ribs on takeoff, as he sucked behind her leg. She did canter him a few times over it, and then cantered onto a vertical, which he ran out on (he was surprised and wasn't focusing, so he thought he didn't have to do it). She quickly halted him, booted him in the ribs again, and cantered him over and I was surprised to see that he didn't get upset by the correction. She had quite a forward canter going around the arena, but after that initial naughtiness, he was an angel. She jumped a lot of stuff that I would have thought would occasion a gawk at the very least, but every time he started waving his head back and forth like he was looking for a way out, she legged him forward and he took the jump nicely. He doesn't know how to rock back and push yet, so he's taking a slightly long spot, but I am thrilled that he's jumping calmly and bravely. So, I got on, and immediately christan had me riding on a slightly loopy rein and booting him forward, especially when he started wavering on the approach (it was a crossrail that he had jumped before, so we knew he wasn't worried about it), and then jumped everything beautifully for me, too. It was really enlightening to see how calm he was about everything. Christan told me that he's really ready for a lot more stuff, and that my homework was to canter him around in a nice, forward frame in a two-point and really get him in front of my leg, and that when I jump him, just canter around over everything without stopping and keep the sessions short - she said he needs a lot of this.

Connection and balance

Had my first lesson with Christan on Sam, and we focused 1/2 on flat and 1/2 on jumping. Sam is still a bit out of shape due to his extended time off (since Lumber River), so we took it easy. The first thing Christan did was fix my hands. I have a tendency to carry them too low, with palms down - an apparently unfortunate legacy from many, many trainers along the way. Part of that legacy included fiddling with the reins, too, which Christan also nailed me for. I didn't realize just how much I fiddle with the inside rein until it was pointed out to me. So, I had to keep my elbows bent, my wrists straight, thumbs up, and the reins short enough so that I could carry them out in front of me. Leg stays on, and pushes him up into the contact. It was terribly hard not to give into the temptation of a fiddle when Sam hollowed when I put my leg on, and just sit and wait it out, keeping the leg there until he softened. Christan also warned me not to soften too much, or I'd be dropping him and inadvertently "punishing" him for taking the contact. I noticed that when I rode this way, Sam lifted through the wither, bringing his shoulders up, and reached out to the contact, instead of bending his neck right behind the poll and getting too low. I also, apparently, run him off his feet, because Christan said that when he slows his tempo down, he overtracks by quite a bit. She also said he was pretty fancy when he's put together, and that if I rode like that at a show, I'd be getting scores in the mid to high 20s. Hopefully, we'll get the chance to see if that's true!

For the canter transitions, I had to keep my hands up (resisting the urge to bury them into his withers), open up the outside rein and push him into it with my inside leg, and maintain the bend and ask for the transition. Sam's number one problem is that he isn't instantly obedient to the leg - he takes too long in responding to the canter cue. Obviously, we need to fix that problem first, but then Christan said that too many people try to ride "down" into the canter transition, by dropping their hands and tipping their upper bodies forward, instead of riding forward and "up" into the canter transition. This was very hard for me, as both Denise and Holly wanted me to sort of hold his head down into the transition. Argh. Christan's explanation made so much more sense to me, as it follows the classic principles of riding and training. Once in the canter, I have to remember to keep my hands up and ride him up in each stride, so he doesn't pull me forward and onto the forehand.

For the jumping, I realized that I have no idea how to jump a crossrail. Sam hasn't jumped in a bit, so his reaction was to charge at the crossrail and get flat. Christan's observation was that Sam doesn't "pop" off the ground and jump around the fence - he sort of drops on his forehand, and then heaves himself up over the jump. I allow him to do this, because I drop my hands on takeoff and lean at the fence and don't maintain that "up" quality of the trot or canter. Christan told me to pretend the fence wasn't there - easier said than done, even when it's a tiny crossrail - and keep the bend and the balance all the way to the jump. When we started cantering the little vertical, she put a placing pole out front so I knew when to soften and keep my leg on. She also wanted me to give him a little pop with my leg to encourage him to jump UP and around - next time I'm going to jump with a whip so that I don't have to take my leg off to pop him. The first few times it didn't work, probably because I didn't really get him with my leg, but the third time he pinged off the ground and it felt great. Christan said that it was a good start, which means that there is more to work on.

After this humbling realization that I've been running Sam at his fences and not really knowing how to bring him in balance to a jump, I decided that I cannot go Novice at any of the September shows until I can make this new feeling a habit, so I've decided to drop him back to BN for Five Points, since I have that coupon. I wanted to do the show at our place, but there isn't much time until the show, and Sam really isn't fit, and all this is new for us still. I don't want to encourage the "old" way at a show, because it isn't muscle memory yet.