I'm afraid there are going to be far too many posts titled like the one above, but it is soooo incredibly true. I haven't had time to ride since my last so-so lesson Tuesday until my lesson today. Faren had to pick me up due to the fact that my trailer is STILL in the freakin' shop - latest scoop is that the body shop isn't entirely sure they want to handle putting on the awning to my trailer, because of the fiberglass roof. Risa (from Happy Trails) shipped them the brackets, but I think that right now, the bodyshop is running scared about liability with the awning. Argh! How difficult it is to get an awning put on my trailer? Anyway, I digress. Faren came and picked me up for the lesson because she was sharing it with me, and since she hasn't ridden her mare in a month, the jumps were on the lower side. Part of me was disappointed as I REALLY need to practice jumping Novice sized fences, but the other part of me was relieved as I'm still prone to panicking when I meet a bad distance at a three foot jump.
We warmed up on our own, and he felt fantastic. Greg Wilder (the magic bodywork guy) had adjusted him right after my lesson on Tuesday, and said he was steadily improving. I could definitely tell when he lifted into cater from the walk - very light, balanced, rhythmic, and in front of my leg. He was also wearing his Micklem with the slow-twist french-link full-cheek, and felt very solid in the bridle. Those clips let me use that particular bit without him being afraid of it, so I can use it and have breaks. Gina had us start the same way I did on Tuesday - placing pole on either side and trot in over an X. Again, Gina had to admonish me for letting me get my shoulders ahead of his withers when I felt him fall behind my leg, instead of staying behind his withers and pressing him on. I was carrying a dressage whip instead of a regular jumping bat so that I could flick him behind my leg when I felt him drop behind, instead of having to go one-handed to tap him. So, I went over it again, and then when I felt him falter over the first placing pole, I flicked him and he had a very nice jump, and from then on he was very responsive to my leg and I didn't have to touch him with the whip afterwards. Gina put it up to a 2'6 vertical, we trotted it both ways, and then rolled out the poles so we could canter over it. I found that after I approached the placing pole, and didn't meet it perfectly, I would either not do anything at all, or I would try and hold for a better distance, which inevitably led to burying him at the base and resulting in an awkward jump. After realizing this, I tried pressing him forward when I felt that icky feeling - I had overheard Gina telling Trish (who had her lesson before me) to keep "riding his hind legs to the jump" and I kept that in mind - and what do you know - instead of reaching over and jumping weakly, it turned out that it pressed his hindquarters to take a bigger step underneath him, and the pole and jump compressed him, so that we had a great jump. It took a leap of faith to do this, to soften the rein, sit a little deeper, and close my leg, but it worked. Oliver has gotten so careful about jumping that he backs himself off the jump, so all I have to do is keep my leg on and let the jump rebalance him. Gina then put it up to three feet, a little bigger perhaps, and we jumped it both ways - perfect! The first time was perfect, and then I came around the corner and didn't straighten him, nor did I ride him forward out of the jump, so we had a sticky jump. Since I knew what I had done, I came around the corner, straightened him and kicked him on, and we had a brilliant jump. I heard Gina turn to Faren and say to her, "isn't it amazing how careful he's gotten over a jump?". I also found something else interesting: before, when I would ride forward out of a turn and then try to sit on him before the jump, I found that I couldn't - his balance was so downhill that he would pull me forward so that I couldn't sit down. Today, after I made sure that he was straight coming out of the turn, I put my leg on, he stayed in front of my leg, and then I tried to sit down and found that I could - that there was a place for me sit for the first time, ever. That carried over to jumping courses - I'm not saying that I had a perfect distance to every jump, but I didn't bury him and he jumped beautifully over everything, which led me to be more confident in him so I could ride him more positively, which led him to being more confident in me. Yay! I guess this is what they call the "spiral of increasing ease" vs. the "spiral of increasing tension".
Faren didn't have such a good go of it - Dharma was giving her the same sort of ride that Oliver gave me on Tuesday, and she was getting similar results, with Dharma skidding to a stop in front of a jump if she wasn't completely straight, or got buried, or Faren pulled. Gina told us that since we were riding horses that could, and would, stop, we had to make double sure that we never, EVER got in front of their withers - we had to sit behind them at all times. Not a heavy, driving seat, but making sure to keep our upper bodies backwards of the withers so we could press on if needed. Since I'm more comfortable back there anyway, it wasn't hard for me to do, but I do have to remember that when I feel that icky feeling that I don't like my distance, I need to soften my hand and press him forward instead of trying to pick for a better spot or better balance.
Gina had me jump just a few more fences to finish, testing me by ending with a tight rollback turn downhill to a 3 foot white gate that I usually bury Oliver to. Also, Joe was sitting next to it with his camera and tripod, so Gina told me that I had to keep Oliver's attention on the jump and not gawking at Joe. She said that if I finished and didn't bury him at the jump, I could stop on that. I cantered up over the oxer, bending line to the blue oxer on the fenceline, turned downhill sharply to the right around the mounting block and jumped the sailboat vertical, and then left inside turn downhill to the white gate - nailed it. As a matter of fact, I yelled, "I got it! I can stop now!" as I was leaving the ground, and luckily Gina thought that was funny and agreed with me, so we ended on that. So, even though we didn't jump a whole course of Novice sized fences like Tuesday, we did do a few and nailed them, so my confidence (and obviously Oliver's) is soaring high now. I also think that Greg's bodywork helped to make him feel a lot better, too.
I have a dressage show next Sunday. It's at Antares, and it's a schooling show, but they do something funky by lumping all the Training level/Beginner Novice/Novice tests together, including some first level, and then give out ribbons according to the scores, but at least you get a scored test back. I also found out that at Foxtrackd, I had the second lowest score (35) - the lowest was a 32, so even without any warmup, I was doing quite well. The judge was a hard one. I think she's going to be at Five Points as well.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
In which a former hunter rider-turned eventer learns to ride like a hunter again.
It turned out that maybe scratching from Foxtrack wasn't such a bad thing after all. To recap, we had a monsoon that Saturday so I did dressage and scratched from the rest. I had a lesson with Gina today, and it started off pretty shaky. Gina had us start over a crossrail with placing poles on either side, and Oliver was quite blase' about it, especially when it came to jumping it as a vertical. Gina told me not to "help" him over it by kicking, so he basically crashed through it. He jumped the snot out of it the next time, which shows that he is, at least, a quick learner. We cantered over it next, and Gina knows how much I hate doing an exercise like this because of the "sea of poles" feeling I get. What I need to do is to keep my leg on to the placing pole, instead of trying to hold him to the placing pole. After jumping it out of a forward stride, Gina told me to jump it "normally", which meant not to ride it like a XC jump. This worked on the first try because he was in front of my leg and straight to the jump.
Gina then set a little course for me. Start by cantering over the vertical/placing pole exercise, turn left and go down over the black barrel vertical, then canter aaaaalll the way down the field and then back up over the rolltop, right bending line over the blue oxer set parallel along the fenceline, back down to the right over the white 3' panel, gallop down and circle back to a 3' gate, bending line to the right (about 3-4 strides) up over another Novice size vertical, and then another 3-4 strides to a funky looking oxer (a diagonal pole set behind and in front, at a different angle), also Novice sized. That line made me nervous. From where I was standing near the mounting block, that line looked huge. I knew then that Gina was trying to stretch my comfort zone. So, the vertical was fine, of course, and then he was uncharacteristically spooky over the black vertical barrel - Gina said that the horses had been spooking at it all day - and then was fine over the rolltop, got buried at the blue oxer, and then then ran out over the panel. Gina asked me why I was pulling on the left rein, and I realized it was because I was holding on to the neckstrap with my left hand. Either I had to hold on with either my right hand or with both hands, or I had to just let go. Holding on with the right hand felt awkward, and with both hands even more so, so I let go. It worked. He jumped it beautifully, and even rode the bending line well - the first one at least, because I didn't realize that the vertical came up that quickly, so I missed it. I came around again, jumped the first two, and then got a little too deep to the last oxer and got a sticky jump. Gina said that i was going right-left-right-left to it because there was a tree in the way, which confused poor Oliver and caused him to be crooked. She told me to go left around the tree and to try it again. This time, I focused on keeping the rein soft and light, keeping my leg on, and not fuss with the balance too much, and then it rode perfectly and he jumped it very well. A lightbulb went off in my head. I have been so focused on riding the balance that I haven't been riding forward to the jump. It worked fine when the jumps were BN size, but not at Novice size. I have to ride him like a hunter- I have to float the rein and ride him forward. If I am insecure about the distance, I need to ride forward to it instead of trying to compress his stride in an effort to get a better distance. Kicking him forward helps him get more confidence in me, and when he jumps better as a result, I gain confidence in him. We had such a great ride up the line once I figured this out that I went on and finished off over the blue oxer on the fenceline. We did it several more times, doing it better and better each time, so I quit on that.
I thought that I was being soft in the rein, but I think that I wasn't comfortable with riding forward to the fence and mistaking it for being on the forehand, so I tried to fix it by holding the canter smaller and smaller and then I would bury Oliver at the jump. He would get sick of being put in an impossible place to jump and then start stopping, because he was getting scared with me. His canter is so much better and balanced than it used to be, more like a Warmblood who just ticks along, so I can just let him jump and not micro-manage everything. Can't wait until my next lesson!
Gina then set a little course for me. Start by cantering over the vertical/placing pole exercise, turn left and go down over the black barrel vertical, then canter aaaaalll the way down the field and then back up over the rolltop, right bending line over the blue oxer set parallel along the fenceline, back down to the right over the white 3' panel, gallop down and circle back to a 3' gate, bending line to the right (about 3-4 strides) up over another Novice size vertical, and then another 3-4 strides to a funky looking oxer (a diagonal pole set behind and in front, at a different angle), also Novice sized. That line made me nervous. From where I was standing near the mounting block, that line looked huge. I knew then that Gina was trying to stretch my comfort zone. So, the vertical was fine, of course, and then he was uncharacteristically spooky over the black vertical barrel - Gina said that the horses had been spooking at it all day - and then was fine over the rolltop, got buried at the blue oxer, and then then ran out over the panel. Gina asked me why I was pulling on the left rein, and I realized it was because I was holding on to the neckstrap with my left hand. Either I had to hold on with either my right hand or with both hands, or I had to just let go. Holding on with the right hand felt awkward, and with both hands even more so, so I let go. It worked. He jumped it beautifully, and even rode the bending line well - the first one at least, because I didn't realize that the vertical came up that quickly, so I missed it. I came around again, jumped the first two, and then got a little too deep to the last oxer and got a sticky jump. Gina said that i was going right-left-right-left to it because there was a tree in the way, which confused poor Oliver and caused him to be crooked. She told me to go left around the tree and to try it again. This time, I focused on keeping the rein soft and light, keeping my leg on, and not fuss with the balance too much, and then it rode perfectly and he jumped it very well. A lightbulb went off in my head. I have been so focused on riding the balance that I haven't been riding forward to the jump. It worked fine when the jumps were BN size, but not at Novice size. I have to ride him like a hunter- I have to float the rein and ride him forward. If I am insecure about the distance, I need to ride forward to it instead of trying to compress his stride in an effort to get a better distance. Kicking him forward helps him get more confidence in me, and when he jumps better as a result, I gain confidence in him. We had such a great ride up the line once I figured this out that I went on and finished off over the blue oxer on the fenceline. We did it several more times, doing it better and better each time, so I quit on that.
I thought that I was being soft in the rein, but I think that I wasn't comfortable with riding forward to the fence and mistaking it for being on the forehand, so I tried to fix it by holding the canter smaller and smaller and then I would bury Oliver at the jump. He would get sick of being put in an impossible place to jump and then start stopping, because he was getting scared with me. His canter is so much better and balanced than it used to be, more like a Warmblood who just ticks along, so I can just let him jump and not micro-manage everything. Can't wait until my next lesson!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
In which Kim finally learns what "ride every stride" means...right before a move-up and a show.
Oliver and I are moving up to Novice at Foxtract this weekend. I know, I know - it's FOXTRACK, so the XC will be on the easy side but the stadium will be regular Novice height. For some reason, I get a little nervous thinking about it, which makes no sense as I regularly school Novice at Gina's with absolutely no issues.
I've jacked the jumps up in the field to Novice height (well, one I think was actually Training height) to practice for the weekend to come. We've been jumping quite well these days, so I thought I was safe practicing on my own. Plus, Gina was supposed to come and give me a lesson, but she spaced it and left me hanging out there in the sun, so I decided to jump anyway. Couldn't hurt, right? Wrong. For some reason, I tend to start worrying about all sorts of stupid things. Yesterday, Oliver was in his Micklem bridle, which is giving me a fabulous feel in the rein (for once!) but with the clips, it seems to be too little bit for him. He was tanking around, getting all sorts of stupid spots and either getting too deep to the base or going for the long one, which left him standing on his head (leaning on the bit and falling on the forehand) on the landing side. A tug of war ensues, which I lose, and today I can feel the strain in my shoulders and biceps - not good. In fact, I kept buying him to the base because I couldn't seem to get a good balance to the fence, and the one I jacked up accidentally to 3'3 is the one he stopped. Three times in all, I think. I probably should have just quit while I was behind, but being the mule-headed idiot that I am, I plugged away and we finally had some good fences over that damn gate, but we were both quite unhappy about it, and not liking each other too terribly much. Poor Oliver. I know that I wasn't giving him the best ride to the jump, but to be fair to me, he wasn't trying terribly hard, either.
Enter Gina, the WonderWorker. Because she was feeling sorry that she had forgotten about me and I begged, she consented to give me a lesson today (thank God it was cooler - only - ONLY! - 95, but there was a nice breeze blowing) before she headed off to Maryland with Caroline. She found the problem immediately - I wasn't riding him when we got to the base - I was sort of giving up. I have this issue that when I get him to the base and I dig my spurs in and make him go over it, we have this horribly awkward jump and then I feel that that is taking away his confidence in me. Of course, the alternative is to either 1) be perfect so that doesn't happen, ever, or 2) let him stop or run out. Option 1 is never, ever going to happen unless I can somehow channel Mark Todd in my riding, and Option 2 will make me lose confidence in him and him in me. Of course, I couldn't figure this out on my own- Gina had to be my sounding board for this. So, as I rode, I had to count out loud, and I mean LOUD (counting softly to myself really doesn't work for some weird reason), and then when I saw an icky spot, I had to sit back, dig in, and really ride him over the jump. Gina said that when I did that, he would know that he would always get to the other side and gain confidence in me when he did safely, however awkward it may be. That worked fairly well, but the distances still stucked, until Gina started yelling at me for not riding him through the turn. Ah-ha! I was letting him fall behind my leg in the turn, and not really turning him so that he was straight to the jump, which is why we had such weird distances. Gina said that I can't allow him to get his head down in the turn, because he pinwheels then on his head and he's still turning as we get to the jump, which throws off our distance. I have to turn, and raise my hands and kick him up, and then I can soften and ride forward to the jump. At last, success. I have to set up the turn early enough so that I can put my hands back down (another weakness of mine - high hands to the jump), and then use my hand to grab the neckstrap and then kick him to the fence, and then, even if he gets a long spot, he still lands in balance because he approached in balance and then jumped in balance.
So, what seemed to happen yesterday was that I was allowing him to pinwheel through the turn, which caused him to run toward the fence on his head (and in my hands), and because I didn't fix it soon enough, he would pull and I would pull to the jump, and because I was worried about giving him an awkward jump, I wouldn't ride assertively enough ACROSS the fence, which resulted in terrible spots. Gina said that because Oliver has gotten so careful he doesn't want to hit the jump, so that if I get to a bad distance (read: deep) and don't ride my way across, he freezes and reverts back to thinking that I'm going to pull, and then doesn't want anymore of it and opts out. Gina says that we know each other too well, and don't entirely trust each other to do the right thing, so it tends to snowball downhill. She says that she and Errol are the same way, so I feel a bit better about that. Maybe, after Five Points, it might be nice to have Gina ride Oliver for me for a couple of weeks so that we can break this cycle. I hate to do it, because I like to do the work myself, but I also know how busy the beginning of the school year can be and it won't do to have Oliver sitting around, getting fat (a visitor at the barn today thought he was a pregnant brood mare! :^O).
I've jacked the jumps up in the field to Novice height (well, one I think was actually Training height) to practice for the weekend to come. We've been jumping quite well these days, so I thought I was safe practicing on my own. Plus, Gina was supposed to come and give me a lesson, but she spaced it and left me hanging out there in the sun, so I decided to jump anyway. Couldn't hurt, right? Wrong. For some reason, I tend to start worrying about all sorts of stupid things. Yesterday, Oliver was in his Micklem bridle, which is giving me a fabulous feel in the rein (for once!) but with the clips, it seems to be too little bit for him. He was tanking around, getting all sorts of stupid spots and either getting too deep to the base or going for the long one, which left him standing on his head (leaning on the bit and falling on the forehand) on the landing side. A tug of war ensues, which I lose, and today I can feel the strain in my shoulders and biceps - not good. In fact, I kept buying him to the base because I couldn't seem to get a good balance to the fence, and the one I jacked up accidentally to 3'3 is the one he stopped. Three times in all, I think. I probably should have just quit while I was behind, but being the mule-headed idiot that I am, I plugged away and we finally had some good fences over that damn gate, but we were both quite unhappy about it, and not liking each other too terribly much. Poor Oliver. I know that I wasn't giving him the best ride to the jump, but to be fair to me, he wasn't trying terribly hard, either.
Enter Gina, the WonderWorker. Because she was feeling sorry that she had forgotten about me and I begged, she consented to give me a lesson today (thank God it was cooler - only - ONLY! - 95, but there was a nice breeze blowing) before she headed off to Maryland with Caroline. She found the problem immediately - I wasn't riding him when we got to the base - I was sort of giving up. I have this issue that when I get him to the base and I dig my spurs in and make him go over it, we have this horribly awkward jump and then I feel that that is taking away his confidence in me. Of course, the alternative is to either 1) be perfect so that doesn't happen, ever, or 2) let him stop or run out. Option 1 is never, ever going to happen unless I can somehow channel Mark Todd in my riding, and Option 2 will make me lose confidence in him and him in me. Of course, I couldn't figure this out on my own- Gina had to be my sounding board for this. So, as I rode, I had to count out loud, and I mean LOUD (counting softly to myself really doesn't work for some weird reason), and then when I saw an icky spot, I had to sit back, dig in, and really ride him over the jump. Gina said that when I did that, he would know that he would always get to the other side and gain confidence in me when he did safely, however awkward it may be. That worked fairly well, but the distances still stucked, until Gina started yelling at me for not riding him through the turn. Ah-ha! I was letting him fall behind my leg in the turn, and not really turning him so that he was straight to the jump, which is why we had such weird distances. Gina said that I can't allow him to get his head down in the turn, because he pinwheels then on his head and he's still turning as we get to the jump, which throws off our distance. I have to turn, and raise my hands and kick him up, and then I can soften and ride forward to the jump. At last, success. I have to set up the turn early enough so that I can put my hands back down (another weakness of mine - high hands to the jump), and then use my hand to grab the neckstrap and then kick him to the fence, and then, even if he gets a long spot, he still lands in balance because he approached in balance and then jumped in balance.
So, what seemed to happen yesterday was that I was allowing him to pinwheel through the turn, which caused him to run toward the fence on his head (and in my hands), and because I didn't fix it soon enough, he would pull and I would pull to the jump, and because I was worried about giving him an awkward jump, I wouldn't ride assertively enough ACROSS the fence, which resulted in terrible spots. Gina said that because Oliver has gotten so careful he doesn't want to hit the jump, so that if I get to a bad distance (read: deep) and don't ride my way across, he freezes and reverts back to thinking that I'm going to pull, and then doesn't want anymore of it and opts out. Gina says that we know each other too well, and don't entirely trust each other to do the right thing, so it tends to snowball downhill. She says that she and Errol are the same way, so I feel a bit better about that. Maybe, after Five Points, it might be nice to have Gina ride Oliver for me for a couple of weeks so that we can break this cycle. I hate to do it, because I like to do the work myself, but I also know how busy the beginning of the school year can be and it won't do to have Oliver sitting around, getting fat (a visitor at the barn today thought he was a pregnant brood mare! :^O).
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