Oh gymnastics, how I used to loathe thee

When Melissa told me that my next lesson would consist of gymnastics, I was likeGymnastics are not my friend. Actually, anything with a related distance is not my friend - I like to keep my friends at a comfortable distance away, and usually gymnastics are set at fewer than two strides apart (um, bounces, anybody?) and that's too close for comfort, in my book. I have also thought of gymnastics as being for starting babies (equine and human) over jumps, to get the feel of jumping out of rhythm. So, it's been a while since we did them, the last time being at G's when she had a xrail, one stride, oxer, one stride, oxer set up, and told us to go through them without taking anything down or building up first, and that was Not Good. Oliver skidded out when he saw the "sea of poles" and I was leaning forward (as usual) and nearly popped off, which of course did not add to my confidence level.

However, Melissa must have seen my face when she mentioned gymnastics because when I got out there, she asked me what was a comfortable distance for me - one, two, three, or four strides? I told her that two was ok - one was too tight and made me clench up inside, and anything more than two was too easy.

I'm still getting the hang of warming Oliver up - I still have trouble remembering that he's not lazy, just needs a long, leisurely warmup, because I tend to think that if I warm up too much, my quarter will run out that much sooner. In the canter, Melissa noted that it was interesting that he snorted and blew to the right, but not to the left - that indicated that the left side needed a bit more time to stretch and relax.

We started over an X, with a pole two out from the landing, where the second jump would be. Melissa wanted me to go over the X from both directions, and to be sure to sit lightly a few strides before so I don't influence the lead that he lands on, and not push or do anything - let him figure it out. That was hard to do - my instinct is to squeeze/kick if I feel that he's a bit sluggish going in, and Melissa said not to because all that meant was that he's still warming up. Sure enough, Oliver was a bit too quiet over the crossrail, which meant that he barfed over the pole on the landing side. After a few more times over the pole, Melissa rolled it in and had me cluck on the landing to encourage him to stretch over the pole. The pole then became a little vertical. The first time through, he barfed it big-time - came in under pace, didn't stretch to make up the lost distance, and then chipped it from practically a standstill. I, of course, slipped my reins and it was Awful. Well, at least to me, it was awful. M said no, not to think like that, it was the short chippy distance that he gets to a jump sometimes and wasn't he a good boy for jumping it, and wasn't I a good girl for staying with him and slipping the reins? Hm. Next time, he was great and stretched a little, because he was still coming in underpowered over the X. After one more time, he was stretching and the 2nd vertical was riding a bit short, so Melissa rolled it out and we went over that a few times, and finally the vertical ended up where it should have been, and he stretched over that beautifully. That, M said, was the longer reachy distance.

This was the whole point behind the exercise. To learn to deal with the choppy and reachy distances and find out that they're ok. I KNOW this in my head, but when it happens on course, it feels like this is going to happen:











Which it sometimes does when Oliver has gotten his fill of me being up his neck with no leg on.

We have decided to not go to the Pipe Opener in a couple of weeks, mostly due to the fact that I really don't need to jump yet another BN round the exact, same way, and the stuff that I'm addressing now hasn't been ingrained in my head and body as habit. We will be doing the gymnastic again this weekend, but making it higher and more complicated, and I'm actually looking forward to this!

Glorious start to 2012!

This is going to be a good year - I can feel it in my bones. According to the ancient Mayans, this is also going to be our last year on earth, so why not make it a good one? Lol - I subscribe to the theory that the ancient Mayan who created the calendar just ran out of space after 2012.

I've taken two lessons with Melissa Andersen. After a long discussion with her about confidence issues and fear, and how your subconscious is actually telling you something, I decided to give her a try. The first lesson went pretty well, although she made a few adjustments to my position that were hard to get used to (elbows in front of body, outside leg back in the turn and keep ticking away with it, sit lighter in the saddle), the jumps themselves stayed very small. Then I had a lesson with Gina and it went pretty well, but again, the jumps weren't very big (a little under Novice height).

I had another lesson with Melissa today and it was fantastic. We went for a hack afterwards, which was the perfect ending to the first day of the New Year. So many things to remember that I must write them down. So, here they are:

~ Lots of counter-bending in the warmup. Get the bend off the leg and not the hand. Be sure to keep the size of the circle the same, no matter if you are on true bend or counter bend. Stay off his back in the canter and work long and low to stretch him out, even in the counterbending exercise.

~ Oliver is not lazy - he needs a lot of warmup so that he feels comfortable using both sides of his body equally. If he was lazy, he would get worse as the lesson progressed, not better. Since he gets better and better, he is probably just stiffer on one side and needs more time to settle in. Time spent on suppling and trot poles is time worth spent.

~ Trot poles are your bestest friend! Use even number of trot poles, so that they must use both sides of their body evenly. Odd number of trot poles allows them to be uneven in the use of their body. Everything they would do in front of a jump, they do to some small degree over a trot pole. For instance, Oliver will suck back over trot poles the first few times if I let him, because he isn't warmed up yet. That is the same as him sucking back over a jump. Fix it now and add both legs, staying tall, and riding a straight line over the poles. After you have done both sides evenly, start to angle your poles. That will show you which side is stiffer than the other, and which side he is favoring today.

~ With the idea that everything that happens in trot, happens in canter - Melissa noticed that Oliver shortened his stride just slightly when I sat to change diagonals. He also shortens his stride when I sit through a turn, to a greater degree. In the warmup, stand a beat to change diagonals, instead of sitting. Be aware that his right side, although more "connected", also steps just a bit shorter, so that in a turn, I need to keep opening the step to the right. The left is a tad too open and not connected enough, so I need to keep my left side lifted (because I drop it), and step into the outside stirrup to keep him from falling in.

~ Always work both sides evenly. If you work the stiffer side more than the other side, you run the risk of forcing the horse to relax, which is an oxymoron. Working both sides evenly will encourage the horse to relax, as opposed to forcing it.

~ Over a small cavaletti, crossrail, or vertical, sit the trot a few steps out and just notice what he does. That will tell me if he needs more time in the warmup. Be sure my focus is where it needs to be - if I'm going to land and turn right, I need to be looking right, and vice versa. When he lands evenly on both leads (again, work both sides evenly), I can canter the same jump.

~ In canter, start off in the direction that seemed easier for him when trotting the jump. Today, I felt like I could get more success to the right. In the turn, I have to keep the step open, my seat light, but shoulders back and tall. Look where I'm going. To the left, it's much harder for me, so I have to think of keeping my right left slightly back to keep the haunches from falling out, left hand shorter and slightly raised, step into my outside stirrup to help lift the left side of my body, and voila' - the jump just happens. Lots more to remember cantering a jump off a left turn.

We raised the jump incrementally, and the thing I noticed most was that as long as I kept my seat close to the saddle, but not sitting in it, through the turn, and my shoulders back, my elbows in front of me, I didn't have to a) drive, b) "kick and pick" his head up (like Gina wants me to), and no matter what the distance was to the jump, Oliver just flowed over it like a hunter. I also noticed that everything seemed to happen much more slowly, so I had time to think "push my heels down and forward" over the fence, and actually accomplish this. I told Melissa that I felt like I had more "control", and she said, "not control - awareness". Saying that you have more control implies that when things go wrong, you lose control, which is a negative thing and induces fear. Saying you have awareness is neutral. Gina and I have talked about how horrible it feels for me when I don't know where I am on the way to a jump, and I think what this really means is that I don't have awareness of what's going on and therefore, I don't know what to do to help it be better. Oliver and I know each other so well that we can practically read what the other is going to do. When Oliver stops at a jump, it's because I probably came in with too closed a stride and when he got to the jump, he didn't think he could push off from such a deep distance, so he stops. Melissa says a dishonest horse, a stopper, will come through the turn looking for a way out of jumping. Oliver doesn't do that. He just needs to be presented to the jump in a canter that has adjustability - if I ask him to compress and get in deep, he needs the confidence that he can do something to push off. When I get that feeling that I am not liking what is about to happen to the fence, it's probably Oliver telling me that his balance is not where it needs to be - I'm reading those little body signals he's giving me. When I'm not sure where I am regarding the fence, or balance, I tell him that I'm not sure, and I quit riding. Melissa is giving me some very valuable tools to help me get past this mental block I have about briding the gap between BN and Novice.

This was probably the first lesson I have had in a long time where I feel supremely confident that I am going to get over this!