..and it is a BIG ONE. Seems that all the gymnastic work with Gina (and getting him straight in the bridle and between the legs) is really paying off!
After riding like total crap in my group lesson with Faren and Caroline in Marty's wonderful jump field, I realized that I had better do something quickly with being able to stay with him and keep my leg on or else my honest, game little pony will start stopping with me. So, I unearthed an old Stubben hunting breastplate, cleaned it off and oiled it (gotta love Stubben leatherwork), and voila - it fits. It also provides me with a very handy neck strap to grab in case of emergency. I guess what is happening is that when I see a funny stride and I'm a bit nervous about the fence, I tend to take my leg off completely and then Oliver bunny hops over it. It is this bunny hopping, in fact, that showed us what a good jumper he really is, because he really tucks his hind end under him over the jump in a gigantic effort to clear it. It's also this effort he's making that is unnerving to me on the landing side if I'm not "with" him, as it feels like a huge buck. Of course, the way to solve the problem is to ride him up to the jump with leg if he's looking or on a weird stride, and keep the leg, but for some reason if I manage to keep the leg, I lose the hand, and if I keep the hand, I lose the leg. Hence, the neck strap. I did ride some of the fences well, though, and that proved to all watching what a game and good jumper he really is.
So, I've been experimenting with a bit change for him, because in spite of his teeth being done by one of the best (Hubert Davy), he still seems uncomfortable with his bit and tries to spit it out. His tongue does seems a little thick and oozes out the sides of his mouth if you lift his lip and peek inside, so I thought a thin Myler would work. Gina also thought a loose ring would make him happier, so I found my loose ring Myler and put it in. That, combined with the breastplate, made for a VERY successful (though short) jump school on Saturday. He boinged over the little crossrail warmup fence with lots of zest, surprising me and making me very glad I had one hand in the neck strap (not that I thought I needed it over a crossrail, but I was practicing holding on to it). We cantered a few fences and for the first two, he sucked back like he was expecting an uncomfortable jump (don't blame him a bit for being nervous) and once I grabbed the neck strap and added leg, they jumped beautifully and from that point on, he was wonderful. Lots of spring, stayed straight and balanced, and really rounded up over the jump. Totally different feeling than he used to give me even a few months ago, when the jump was rather flat.
So, yesterday I took him for a flat school in my dressage saddle, which I've sadly neglected. I forgot how much I love my dressage saddle, cheapie though it is (Toulouse Aachen). It really opens up my hips and allows me to sit deep, with a much longer leg than my Prestige. I had his new french-link Myler loose ring on, saving the other loose ring for jumping (with bit guards), and he seems so much happier in it. He's frothing gently at the mouth, more on the left than the right, but is softer in it. He doesn't try and spit the bit out nearly as much, and is much more biddable when it comes to half-halts and downwards transitions. His canter work is really coming along. All I have to to is to remember to HOLD MY POSITION, no matter what he's doing, and keep my legs there until he takes the canter, which is coming faster and faster and smoother and smoother. His trot has really opened up and is springier than it was before, too. I'm really excited about Longleaf!
We have a xc school planned for the 27th at CHP. Meagan is coming along and so is Faren, and we're going to see if Gina is free to school us there.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Love it when the trainer rides...
I love having Gina sit on Oliver for me. In about 15 minutes, she's able to put him very straight and even in the reins, which helps me remember exactly what I'm supposed to be feeling when I'm on board. Yesterday was a very quick lesson, since my head felt like the Good Year Blimp due to allergies and I was sneezing every second and couldn't breathe properly. Riding did help clear my lungs, though, so I wish the lesson went longer, but I think Gina was afraid that I was going to pass out. I had a lesson that lasted an hour and a half last week, so I guess that made up for this. While G was up top, Oliver did try a little wiggliness which she nipped in the bid rather quickly, and then he was all business from there. She mentioned that he wasn't trying to "pinwheel" as much, and gave me kudos for riding him much straighter, and when she cantered him, she said, "he finally has a canter!" It was lovely to watch, and even more fun to sit - I don't feel like I have to work quite as hard at the canter and can just sit up there and enjoy myself. Before, I always felt like I was working way too hard and was pretty tired after just a few minutes in canter. She popped him over a few little jumps for me as I mentioned to her that I felt like he was taking off with me on the landing side. Of course, this was all kind of residual from last week's lesson where Oliver was quite fresh and took some time to settle down.
Once on board, I walked him around a little to make sure that I had him evenly in both reins, and then picked up the trot, making sure that he felt very straight and was listening to my leg. G said that if he starts to lean on a rein and get very heavy, to correct it with my leg. If he doesn't listen to my leg, then it's okay to bump him (sort of slap him with my calf) to get him to pay attention. She re-emphasized how important it was NOT to take off my leg when I kicked him, so that I didn't lose my balance and upset him. Since he's so sensitive, all I needed was a little bump with my leg. We ran into a little issue at the canter. On Sunday, I asked for canter and he tried to buck into it, so I lifted the bit in his mouth and gave him a kick with both legs and he stopped it. Yesterday, when I asked him to canter, he protested by kicking out to the leg. G said that I had to use my ENTIRE leg to ask him to canter, not just my heel or my spur, which I think I was doing. She emphasized how important it was that I was sitting properly, with my weight slightly over my outside hip, and to bring the entire leg back and squeeze him into canter. There was that moment where it felt like he was stuck and I had to fight the impulse to urge him on with my leg or my seat - Gina said to wait it out, make sure I was straight and that I didn't do anything extra, and sure enough, he picked up the canter easily. He takes a second longer than I think he will to canter, but I just have to be patient and wait it out, not letting my body start to kink up in an effort to get the canter right away. Once in canter, Gina said that I needed to work on sitting softer with my lower body through my midsection and allowing my hips to just move with him - she said that I was sort of stiff through the hips, soft through the mid section, and then stiff up top - I tended to brace my neck and jut my jaw out. Of course, this caused Oliver to lock his jaw, so when I softened he softened with me.
MacNair's is coming up shortly - I have another lesson with Gina this Friday (hopefully jumping, so I can practice over small courses at the height I need to jump)and then a dressage lesson, in an actual arena, next week before the show.
Once on board, I walked him around a little to make sure that I had him evenly in both reins, and then picked up the trot, making sure that he felt very straight and was listening to my leg. G said that if he starts to lean on a rein and get very heavy, to correct it with my leg. If he doesn't listen to my leg, then it's okay to bump him (sort of slap him with my calf) to get him to pay attention. She re-emphasized how important it was NOT to take off my leg when I kicked him, so that I didn't lose my balance and upset him. Since he's so sensitive, all I needed was a little bump with my leg. We ran into a little issue at the canter. On Sunday, I asked for canter and he tried to buck into it, so I lifted the bit in his mouth and gave him a kick with both legs and he stopped it. Yesterday, when I asked him to canter, he protested by kicking out to the leg. G said that I had to use my ENTIRE leg to ask him to canter, not just my heel or my spur, which I think I was doing. She emphasized how important it was that I was sitting properly, with my weight slightly over my outside hip, and to bring the entire leg back and squeeze him into canter. There was that moment where it felt like he was stuck and I had to fight the impulse to urge him on with my leg or my seat - Gina said to wait it out, make sure I was straight and that I didn't do anything extra, and sure enough, he picked up the canter easily. He takes a second longer than I think he will to canter, but I just have to be patient and wait it out, not letting my body start to kink up in an effort to get the canter right away. Once in canter, Gina said that I needed to work on sitting softer with my lower body through my midsection and allowing my hips to just move with him - she said that I was sort of stiff through the hips, soft through the mid section, and then stiff up top - I tended to brace my neck and jut my jaw out. Of course, this caused Oliver to lock his jaw, so when I softened he softened with me.
MacNair's is coming up shortly - I have another lesson with Gina this Friday (hopefully jumping, so I can practice over small courses at the height I need to jump)and then a dressage lesson, in an actual arena, next week before the show.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Oliver manages to jump a full round in months...
Gina had me going over to the neighbor's beeyootiful jump field today for a jump school, which was unexpected and a pleasant surprise. We've been doing nothing but trotting jumps and going through gymnastics, so I wondered what we were doing over there with all the colorful stadium jumps.
Oliver was a bit spooky on the hack over, being very silly about a rolltop in the fenceline (but I guarantee if we had been cantering at it to jump it, he wouldn't have spooked at it) and then spooking at Cathy (I think that's her name - she owns the field) working a lovely bay horse in-hand at the top by the barn, and then spooking one last time at a bright neon green hose coiled up by the entry gate to the field. He hasn't spooked this much in months. I think it's a combination of Gina feeding him more and him being almost completely naked (I think I stripped too much hair off him when I clipped him). He started his warmup by going too quickly in his tempo, wanting to run downhill and not stay soft, and I could tell his neck was elevated and curled in. I halted him and then asked him to bend his neck around to touch my toes, and then asked him to walk off in a straight line with his neck still being bent around, and then asked him to make small circles and push his haunches out. After a few minutes of that, he started to soften and listen to me instead of bulling onto the bit and hauling me around. When Gina finished up her lesson, she had me trot endlessly over a single pole on the ground - I say endlessly because Oliver wasn't paying the least bit of attention to it and was sort of wobbling over it and tripping over it during a few passes. Finally, when I was able to keep him straight, get him to step OVER the pole and lift his feet, and keep him straight on the landing side, Gina had me canter over the pole. Again, I was to keep the same rhythm, keep the canter smaller and contained, and canter over the center of the pole. Gina explained that Oliver wants the canter to get long and quick because then he doesn't have to use his butt. Keeping things slower for him when he wants to run off like that helps keep his body parts in alignment, which in turn keeps him pushing from behind onto the bit.
Gina also told me that I should never, ever start jumping this horse, even out of a trot, until I've done this exercise and kept him straight, or else he'll just push through the reins to the jump or get squiggly. Once we did a few good passes over the fence, all done on a big circle, she had me canter random jumps in the arena. Gina wanted me to really hold him together and not allow him to waggle his head up and down and back and forth, and for the first time in a long time I was able to see just how MUCH he loves to bounce around in the bridle at the canter. If I kept my weight distributed evenly between my feet and my thighs, I could sit down, really TAKE that outside rein (even if he's counterbent in the neck), and then regulate the canter through that. Keeping my weight evenly distributed also helped keep my left foot from falling asleep. Gina and I both think that I tend to put too much weight in my feet, pushing down too hard through the heel, which causes it to fall numb. Supporting myself through my entire leg and concentrating on keeping my thigh closed (not gripped, just closed) enabled me to ride without pain - always a good thing. I also really focused on riding the outside of his body - outside rein to regulate speed, outside rein to turn. I got yelled at once because I turned toward a blue gate too soon - I was heading down a slight inclince, and I thought I gave myself enough room to straighten before the fence, but Gina told me that with Oliver (for now), I had to really give myself at least 5-6 strides of being completely straight before I jumped anything. Keeping him straight helped with seeing a spot.
There were a couple of times I saw a long spot and resisted (somewhat successfully) my inclination to gun at it, which of course makes Oliver leap over it inverted like a stag and then run afterwards. Since I didn't make that bid, I also didn't do anything else, so we sort of barfed over the fence. I got chastised for that by Gina, and I told her that I knew what I was supposed to do, but couldn't seem to make myself do it in time. The next time that happened, I really focused on sitting up but keeping my hips back, hands closed around the reins, and adding leg to support him and we took the jump out of a shortened stride, but no barfing.
Gina said that the reason why he's barfing over the fence when I do nothing is because he is no longer making a bid towards the jump, so he doesn't know WHAT to do when I don't help him. This is progress, because before he'd just grab the bit and run. NOw that he's waiting for me and jumping very quietly (YES!), I have to help him and support him. Very cool. Lucky for me, he's quite honest and willing. G says that he still has to push off more at the base of the fence, since he's "drapey" (good with his knees but hangs below them), but these fences are also only 2ish feet high. He's also fairly new to getting to the base and pushing off, so hopefully the more we do this, and the stronger his canter gets, and the more gymnastic time we spend, he'll push off and round more. Right now, I'm thrilled that he's waiting for me at the fences.
Now, I just have to get into that dressage ring and practice the new, weird tests...
Oliver was a bit spooky on the hack over, being very silly about a rolltop in the fenceline (but I guarantee if we had been cantering at it to jump it, he wouldn't have spooked at it) and then spooking at Cathy (I think that's her name - she owns the field) working a lovely bay horse in-hand at the top by the barn, and then spooking one last time at a bright neon green hose coiled up by the entry gate to the field. He hasn't spooked this much in months. I think it's a combination of Gina feeding him more and him being almost completely naked (I think I stripped too much hair off him when I clipped him). He started his warmup by going too quickly in his tempo, wanting to run downhill and not stay soft, and I could tell his neck was elevated and curled in. I halted him and then asked him to bend his neck around to touch my toes, and then asked him to walk off in a straight line with his neck still being bent around, and then asked him to make small circles and push his haunches out. After a few minutes of that, he started to soften and listen to me instead of bulling onto the bit and hauling me around. When Gina finished up her lesson, she had me trot endlessly over a single pole on the ground - I say endlessly because Oliver wasn't paying the least bit of attention to it and was sort of wobbling over it and tripping over it during a few passes. Finally, when I was able to keep him straight, get him to step OVER the pole and lift his feet, and keep him straight on the landing side, Gina had me canter over the pole. Again, I was to keep the same rhythm, keep the canter smaller and contained, and canter over the center of the pole. Gina explained that Oliver wants the canter to get long and quick because then he doesn't have to use his butt. Keeping things slower for him when he wants to run off like that helps keep his body parts in alignment, which in turn keeps him pushing from behind onto the bit.
Gina also told me that I should never, ever start jumping this horse, even out of a trot, until I've done this exercise and kept him straight, or else he'll just push through the reins to the jump or get squiggly. Once we did a few good passes over the fence, all done on a big circle, she had me canter random jumps in the arena. Gina wanted me to really hold him together and not allow him to waggle his head up and down and back and forth, and for the first time in a long time I was able to see just how MUCH he loves to bounce around in the bridle at the canter. If I kept my weight distributed evenly between my feet and my thighs, I could sit down, really TAKE that outside rein (even if he's counterbent in the neck), and then regulate the canter through that. Keeping my weight evenly distributed also helped keep my left foot from falling asleep. Gina and I both think that I tend to put too much weight in my feet, pushing down too hard through the heel, which causes it to fall numb. Supporting myself through my entire leg and concentrating on keeping my thigh closed (not gripped, just closed) enabled me to ride without pain - always a good thing. I also really focused on riding the outside of his body - outside rein to regulate speed, outside rein to turn. I got yelled at once because I turned toward a blue gate too soon - I was heading down a slight inclince, and I thought I gave myself enough room to straighten before the fence, but Gina told me that with Oliver (for now), I had to really give myself at least 5-6 strides of being completely straight before I jumped anything. Keeping him straight helped with seeing a spot.
There were a couple of times I saw a long spot and resisted (somewhat successfully) my inclination to gun at it, which of course makes Oliver leap over it inverted like a stag and then run afterwards. Since I didn't make that bid, I also didn't do anything else, so we sort of barfed over the fence. I got chastised for that by Gina, and I told her that I knew what I was supposed to do, but couldn't seem to make myself do it in time. The next time that happened, I really focused on sitting up but keeping my hips back, hands closed around the reins, and adding leg to support him and we took the jump out of a shortened stride, but no barfing.
Gina said that the reason why he's barfing over the fence when I do nothing is because he is no longer making a bid towards the jump, so he doesn't know WHAT to do when I don't help him. This is progress, because before he'd just grab the bit and run. NOw that he's waiting for me and jumping very quietly (YES!), I have to help him and support him. Very cool. Lucky for me, he's quite honest and willing. G says that he still has to push off more at the base of the fence, since he's "drapey" (good with his knees but hangs below them), but these fences are also only 2ish feet high. He's also fairly new to getting to the base and pushing off, so hopefully the more we do this, and the stronger his canter gets, and the more gymnastic time we spend, he'll push off and round more. Right now, I'm thrilled that he's waiting for me at the fences.
Now, I just have to get into that dressage ring and practice the new, weird tests...
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Gymnastic day!!!
I have this mortal fear of any kind of combination. It's very silly, but I envision crashing through a sea of poles and things flying everywhere, including myself. You may call it irrational - I call it self-preservation. Of course, I have never been on a horse that's so supremely talented that they make it seem easy. I tend to ride the uber-green, squirrely ones that wiggle and waggle through anything less than a bounce, which makes it doubly-hard to stay straight through a gymnastic.
Gina knows this. And, she also knows that Oliver's best friend is gymnastics, so she decided that today was Gymnastic Day. We started off by warming up as usual, with Gina warning me to keep feel of both sides of his mouth and keep him absolutely straight, and NOT to let him fuss. Oliver likes to woggle his head up and down and bounce off the bit, which enables him to pop his shoulders one way and then the other, thereby avoiding coming through from behind and pushing evenly into the reins. I have been, up until now, actually TOO quiet with my hands, and G is always after me to "ride both sides of his mouth" so that I can keep him steadier in his neck and head, which allows me to keep him straighter in his body. Today, I was apparently locking my elbows in an attemp to keep my hands low and wide, and G reminded me to bend them - she said that I should think about any rein aids I give coming from the elbow, and not the hand. If I keep my elbows too straight, she said that Oliver will feel it as a jerk in the mouth, rather than a soft, gentle reminder. So, I focused on any time I wanted to do something with my fingers (like flex him right), I did it from the elbow bending and not just my hand squeezing the rein. This seemed to keep him much quieter in front. G also reminded me to take the outside rein, even if it meant that he was counter bent, because O doesn't quite understand yet what stepping into the outside reins means - he simply thinks that when I take the outside rein, I'm just pullling on him. With constant repetition, he'll start to understand that the outside rein means "come back to me" or "straighten your body". The reason for this became crystal clear when I cantered. The canter strike-off was wobbly, as usual, and G said to me, "I don't let him do that, so you shouldn't." She told me to think about everything he did and ask myself, "Would Gina allow this?" and if the answer was "no" (which it always is), not to let him do it, either. So, I had to take that outside rein, sit back, and ask him to canter. Once in the canter, she said that I had to be a bit more "floppy" with my upper body and relax and just go with him - I was working too hard in the canter to maitain it. I'm still trying to find that fine line between just sitting there and being dead weight, and just flowing with the motion. My legs have gotten better in the canter in that I'm no longer pushing with every stride to keep him there, and G said that the I seemed much more comfortable in the new saddle and that I looked more down and around him with my legs, instead of just perched on top. I adore that new saddle, but then, I tend to adore all of them at first - time will tell. At one point, I was feeling myself being pulled slightly forward in the canter. G said that what Oliver was doing was to hollow his back, so that I dropped into it, like a hammock, and then he dropped his head and pulled me out of position, which allowed his hindquarters to trail out behind him. She said that if I felt like he was pulling me, I was to take that outside rein and not let go until he gave in (of course, keeping the leg on). Only then would he figure out how to compress himself in the canter and bring his back up.
Gina put up a simple placing pole, crossrail, then another placing pole, then another crossrail, and a landing pole. This was similar to what we had been doing all week long, except that instead of a whole stride in between each placing pole/crossrail set, there was none - it was placing pole, jump, placing pole, jump, placing pole. The hard work of the week before paid off as he stayed fairly straight over the jumps and landed straight. I'm getting much better about riding every stride to the fence, instead of just taking that first step over the placing pole and then quit riding. It's also ridiculously easy to fold my hips back in this new saddle - all I have to do is think about it and it happens. I didn't realize how much I had to think about and work on this before. G put a pole perpendicular to the first crossrail, one end resting on it, to keep Oliver from even thinking about drifting left. She also turned the second crossrail into a vertical, and put a wide "V" of poles to channel him in, so all I had to do was release over the fence and just keep riding him forwards. Gina wanted me to release much more than I had been doing - she said to think about pushing my hands halfway up his neck over the jump, to give him something to jump up into. The first time through with the vertical, he jumped around the vertical so much that his withers knocked me right in the sternum - it was great! Gina laughed and said, "Well, THAT got his attention!" and we went through several more times, each time with Oliver jumping around the fence with his knees up around his ears. I did get a bit of praise in that the third time through, Oliver let his attention wander (typical of him) and I gave him a quick kick with my leg to get him focused on the crossrail - Gina said that if I hadn't been on top of it and quick to get him back to the job at hand, he would have splatted through the first fence and then scared himself by trying to fix the next two. That felt good, knowing that i'm getting better about staying on top of him and keeping his attention.
Now, Gina wanted to focus on me a bit more. She said that I was opening up too early on the landing side, which prevented him from kicking his back legs free of the jump. She also said that I was allowing my leg to drift slightly backwards over the last, which was easily corrected by shortening my stirrups one hole. She added one last jump to the series, set at about 2'9-3'0, and she said that I was fine with my upper body over the first two, but I opened up too early on the landing from the last, bigger vertical. G said to think about "riding the neck down" and pressing my knuckles into his crest over the first crossrail and just keeping them there throughout the rest of the exercise. So, I went through, jumped the first two perfectly, jumped the last one, concentrated on riding the neck down, and felt totally out of whack on the landing, like I was getting pitched forward. Not in a bad way, like I was going to come off, but in a weird, uncomfortable, "this isn't what I'm used to" kind of way. G said I was staying closed for about two strides after the jump, which was okay for now. I'm sure that eventually I'll want to get back after one stride, but until I get this feeling of going with my horse, I'll have to exaggerate the landing. She explained that while he was very, very good up front now, he was still trailing his hind legs over the fence because he still didn't know how to curl himself up over a jump - he was so used to flinging himself over it with a high head.
Gina turned the last jump into an oxer, which was a bit intimidating for me and immediately triggered my instinct to boot him through the exercise, but I swallowed and rode him straight into it, keeping my eyes focused on a pine tree in the distance, and what do you know - keeping my upper more closed on landing resulted in me feeling him kick his hind legs over the jump. I mentioned this to Gina and she said that he even flipped his tail, which is a good sign that he's using himself. She even yelled to me "see, he isn't a piece of crap over a fence!" and told me that he had a very good jump. He may not be the best jumper in the world, but he was certainly capable - he just didn't know HOW to jump. Gina says that Oliver doesn't know how to go up to a jump, size it up, coil himself, and push off the ground and jump around the fence. She said next time we do this exercise, she will turn it into an oxer to another oxer, to a vertical, to teach him that even he opens up over a spread fence, he's still got to land, compress himself, and then open up again.
Gina said that the biggest mistake she sees people making with greenies is to open up too much distance between jumping efforts - like a crossrail to a vertical, and then two strides to an oxer, which is a really common exercise. She said that the two strides in between gives the greenie too much room to wander, and Oliver too much time to fall back into his old, bad habits. She also mentioned that doing bounces was counterproductive as well because it doesn't teach him to land and then canter and then jump - all he has to do over bounces is yank his feet up out of the way. Once he starts to understand completely how to focus and keep himself straight, she'll open up the distances between the jumps (possibly by removing the placing poles) and then when he figures that out, he can start to canter fences around a course and hold himself together and still jump up and around the fence.
Such a great feeling he's giving me over jumps now. I wish I had a video camera, as Gina said that he's unrecognizable as the same horse who came to her two months ago. I'm glad that I have no money to compete in March, as I'd like to really get this solid before entering our first competition, riding in our "new" way. It all seems so simple, now. First we slow him down and get him straight on the flat, and his gaits immediately improve and he becomes less worried. Now, we slow things down in our jumping,keeping him straight and giving him lots of freedom with his head and neck over a fence, so he learns to push off and jump up and around the fence. It's all starting to make sense to me now!
Gina knows this. And, she also knows that Oliver's best friend is gymnastics, so she decided that today was Gymnastic Day. We started off by warming up as usual, with Gina warning me to keep feel of both sides of his mouth and keep him absolutely straight, and NOT to let him fuss. Oliver likes to woggle his head up and down and bounce off the bit, which enables him to pop his shoulders one way and then the other, thereby avoiding coming through from behind and pushing evenly into the reins. I have been, up until now, actually TOO quiet with my hands, and G is always after me to "ride both sides of his mouth" so that I can keep him steadier in his neck and head, which allows me to keep him straighter in his body. Today, I was apparently locking my elbows in an attemp to keep my hands low and wide, and G reminded me to bend them - she said that I should think about any rein aids I give coming from the elbow, and not the hand. If I keep my elbows too straight, she said that Oliver will feel it as a jerk in the mouth, rather than a soft, gentle reminder. So, I focused on any time I wanted to do something with my fingers (like flex him right), I did it from the elbow bending and not just my hand squeezing the rein. This seemed to keep him much quieter in front. G also reminded me to take the outside rein, even if it meant that he was counter bent, because O doesn't quite understand yet what stepping into the outside reins means - he simply thinks that when I take the outside rein, I'm just pullling on him. With constant repetition, he'll start to understand that the outside rein means "come back to me" or "straighten your body". The reason for this became crystal clear when I cantered. The canter strike-off was wobbly, as usual, and G said to me, "I don't let him do that, so you shouldn't." She told me to think about everything he did and ask myself, "Would Gina allow this?" and if the answer was "no" (which it always is), not to let him do it, either. So, I had to take that outside rein, sit back, and ask him to canter. Once in the canter, she said that I had to be a bit more "floppy" with my upper body and relax and just go with him - I was working too hard in the canter to maitain it. I'm still trying to find that fine line between just sitting there and being dead weight, and just flowing with the motion. My legs have gotten better in the canter in that I'm no longer pushing with every stride to keep him there, and G said that the I seemed much more comfortable in the new saddle and that I looked more down and around him with my legs, instead of just perched on top. I adore that new saddle, but then, I tend to adore all of them at first - time will tell. At one point, I was feeling myself being pulled slightly forward in the canter. G said that what Oliver was doing was to hollow his back, so that I dropped into it, like a hammock, and then he dropped his head and pulled me out of position, which allowed his hindquarters to trail out behind him. She said that if I felt like he was pulling me, I was to take that outside rein and not let go until he gave in (of course, keeping the leg on). Only then would he figure out how to compress himself in the canter and bring his back up.
Gina put up a simple placing pole, crossrail, then another placing pole, then another crossrail, and a landing pole. This was similar to what we had been doing all week long, except that instead of a whole stride in between each placing pole/crossrail set, there was none - it was placing pole, jump, placing pole, jump, placing pole. The hard work of the week before paid off as he stayed fairly straight over the jumps and landed straight. I'm getting much better about riding every stride to the fence, instead of just taking that first step over the placing pole and then quit riding. It's also ridiculously easy to fold my hips back in this new saddle - all I have to do is think about it and it happens. I didn't realize how much I had to think about and work on this before. G put a pole perpendicular to the first crossrail, one end resting on it, to keep Oliver from even thinking about drifting left. She also turned the second crossrail into a vertical, and put a wide "V" of poles to channel him in, so all I had to do was release over the fence and just keep riding him forwards. Gina wanted me to release much more than I had been doing - she said to think about pushing my hands halfway up his neck over the jump, to give him something to jump up into. The first time through with the vertical, he jumped around the vertical so much that his withers knocked me right in the sternum - it was great! Gina laughed and said, "Well, THAT got his attention!" and we went through several more times, each time with Oliver jumping around the fence with his knees up around his ears. I did get a bit of praise in that the third time through, Oliver let his attention wander (typical of him) and I gave him a quick kick with my leg to get him focused on the crossrail - Gina said that if I hadn't been on top of it and quick to get him back to the job at hand, he would have splatted through the first fence and then scared himself by trying to fix the next two. That felt good, knowing that i'm getting better about staying on top of him and keeping his attention.
Now, Gina wanted to focus on me a bit more. She said that I was opening up too early on the landing side, which prevented him from kicking his back legs free of the jump. She also said that I was allowing my leg to drift slightly backwards over the last, which was easily corrected by shortening my stirrups one hole. She added one last jump to the series, set at about 2'9-3'0, and she said that I was fine with my upper body over the first two, but I opened up too early on the landing from the last, bigger vertical. G said to think about "riding the neck down" and pressing my knuckles into his crest over the first crossrail and just keeping them there throughout the rest of the exercise. So, I went through, jumped the first two perfectly, jumped the last one, concentrated on riding the neck down, and felt totally out of whack on the landing, like I was getting pitched forward. Not in a bad way, like I was going to come off, but in a weird, uncomfortable, "this isn't what I'm used to" kind of way. G said I was staying closed for about two strides after the jump, which was okay for now. I'm sure that eventually I'll want to get back after one stride, but until I get this feeling of going with my horse, I'll have to exaggerate the landing. She explained that while he was very, very good up front now, he was still trailing his hind legs over the fence because he still didn't know how to curl himself up over a jump - he was so used to flinging himself over it with a high head.
Gina turned the last jump into an oxer, which was a bit intimidating for me and immediately triggered my instinct to boot him through the exercise, but I swallowed and rode him straight into it, keeping my eyes focused on a pine tree in the distance, and what do you know - keeping my upper more closed on landing resulted in me feeling him kick his hind legs over the jump. I mentioned this to Gina and she said that he even flipped his tail, which is a good sign that he's using himself. She even yelled to me "see, he isn't a piece of crap over a fence!" and told me that he had a very good jump. He may not be the best jumper in the world, but he was certainly capable - he just didn't know HOW to jump. Gina says that Oliver doesn't know how to go up to a jump, size it up, coil himself, and push off the ground and jump around the fence. She said next time we do this exercise, she will turn it into an oxer to another oxer, to a vertical, to teach him that even he opens up over a spread fence, he's still got to land, compress himself, and then open up again.
Gina said that the biggest mistake she sees people making with greenies is to open up too much distance between jumping efforts - like a crossrail to a vertical, and then two strides to an oxer, which is a really common exercise. She said that the two strides in between gives the greenie too much room to wander, and Oliver too much time to fall back into his old, bad habits. She also mentioned that doing bounces was counterproductive as well because it doesn't teach him to land and then canter and then jump - all he has to do over bounces is yank his feet up out of the way. Once he starts to understand completely how to focus and keep himself straight, she'll open up the distances between the jumps (possibly by removing the placing poles) and then when he figures that out, he can start to canter fences around a course and hold himself together and still jump up and around the fence.
Such a great feeling he's giving me over jumps now. I wish I had a video camera, as Gina said that he's unrecognizable as the same horse who came to her two months ago. I'm glad that I have no money to compete in March, as I'd like to really get this solid before entering our first competition, riding in our "new" way. It all seems so simple, now. First we slow him down and get him straight on the flat, and his gaits immediately improve and he becomes less worried. Now, we slow things down in our jumping,keeping him straight and giving him lots of freedom with his head and neck over a fence, so he learns to push off and jump up and around the fence. It's all starting to make sense to me now!
Friday, February 12, 2010
New barn, new trainer, new results!
It's been forever since I posted anything (not that anybody is actually reading this), but so much has changed that it's hard to wrap my mind around it all. I've moved Oliver to Gina Fiore's place, further in town, and I've been thrilled with the changes.
Gina is wonderful. She's no nonsense, straightforward, and is very quiet withe ponies - I think Oliver loves her. Here are some of the things that we're working on:
GAP: straightness, not coming through
STRATEGIES: Oliver seems to be one of the squiggliest horses I've ever ridden. He's by Oskar, out of a mostly Trak mare who was successful at Intermediate. He's got his daddy's long, long legs and mother's compact body, so that makes him feel like Bambi on ice. He doesn't have one consistent trick to get out of work - he has many, and they all involve various body parts popping all over the place. I get one shoved in, and another falls out, and that results in him not coming through and over the back. My former trainer blamed a lot of this on some old injury that he must have sustained while a baby (falling in the pasture with his back legs out behind him is the best guess), but we also tried to solve it by really pushing him forward to get him to engage his hindquarters. All that seemed to do was to worry him, and make the body parts fly faster out of line. I had come to the acceptance that he just wasn't as good a mover as his daddy and probably would never be all that great a jumper as well.
SOLUTION: Gina has me changing quite a few things. Keep the shoulders straight by keeping a feel of both reins, especially the outside rein. My hands are apparently TOO quiet and "dead" and that just let Oliver hover on the bit, faking it, which he can do very well as he has a lovely neck and it's set high on his withers. I need to keep the rein moving slightly so that he's constantly searching for the bit and not allowed to curl his chin in. The legs are also apparently doing too much, and not enough - I'm holding him up too much, especially in the canter, so that he's learned to rely on the constant leg, leg, leg, which makes me exhausted and makes him dull. Gina tells me to just keep the leg lightly there and just SIT there, enjoying the ride. Once he breaks, ask him to canter on again. You'd think that this would mean a lot of breaking and a lot of fixing at first, but no,it has the opposite effect. Because I'm quietly fixing the break and asking him to canter on, he doesn't get upset (as opposed to whacking him or booting him as before), so he stays rounder. Now he can canter quietly and when he feels like breaking, a subtle reminder with the leg keeps him on, and I get to enjoy it and just concentrate on keeping him straight in the reins, so I no longer feel like I'm juggling too many balls in the air.
GAP: no balance in his gaits
STRATEGIES: previously, they involved a lot of pushing him with the leg and whip to get him to come into the reins, with a slightly higher hand to elevate his balance. This resulted in a slightly frantic, unbalanced horse (see above) that would not be straight and not be truly pushing through from behind.
SOLUTION: sloooooow things down so that he can balance. Keep him straight while he's slower, so he can relax through the rhythm of the gait. Keeping him straight, even in the slower pace, helped him come through from behind so that his gaits have actually improved, and he's quite a cute mover now. Also, Gina has me keep my hands lower and wider to get him to come into the rein. Once he's stronger through his back, we can elevate the hands to match the elevated carriage. Keeping them higher before just resulted in a horse that faked it. Also, she has me ride the neck down to a fence, at the trot, so that he jumps up and around instead of jumping with a high head land reaching front legs. SUCH a difference in the jump, now, which makes me quieter as I feel like I can be pushed into place, instead of trying to make things happen.
So, I think I might have the horse I've been looking for all this time! Oliver has always been a total sweetheart, so it's wonderful to see more talent and ability there than I thought there was. It's very exciting to see the progression in the short time I've been with Gina (since late December of 2009), and to see what's to come! Probably going to go to MacNair's CT in March, since I can't afford to go to Southern Pines HT, but definitely Longleaf is going to be our recognized debut.
Gina is wonderful. She's no nonsense, straightforward, and is very quiet withe ponies - I think Oliver loves her. Here are some of the things that we're working on:
GAP: straightness, not coming through
STRATEGIES: Oliver seems to be one of the squiggliest horses I've ever ridden. He's by Oskar, out of a mostly Trak mare who was successful at Intermediate. He's got his daddy's long, long legs and mother's compact body, so that makes him feel like Bambi on ice. He doesn't have one consistent trick to get out of work - he has many, and they all involve various body parts popping all over the place. I get one shoved in, and another falls out, and that results in him not coming through and over the back. My former trainer blamed a lot of this on some old injury that he must have sustained while a baby (falling in the pasture with his back legs out behind him is the best guess), but we also tried to solve it by really pushing him forward to get him to engage his hindquarters. All that seemed to do was to worry him, and make the body parts fly faster out of line. I had come to the acceptance that he just wasn't as good a mover as his daddy and probably would never be all that great a jumper as well.
SOLUTION: Gina has me changing quite a few things. Keep the shoulders straight by keeping a feel of both reins, especially the outside rein. My hands are apparently TOO quiet and "dead" and that just let Oliver hover on the bit, faking it, which he can do very well as he has a lovely neck and it's set high on his withers. I need to keep the rein moving slightly so that he's constantly searching for the bit and not allowed to curl his chin in. The legs are also apparently doing too much, and not enough - I'm holding him up too much, especially in the canter, so that he's learned to rely on the constant leg, leg, leg, which makes me exhausted and makes him dull. Gina tells me to just keep the leg lightly there and just SIT there, enjoying the ride. Once he breaks, ask him to canter on again. You'd think that this would mean a lot of breaking and a lot of fixing at first, but no,it has the opposite effect. Because I'm quietly fixing the break and asking him to canter on, he doesn't get upset (as opposed to whacking him or booting him as before), so he stays rounder. Now he can canter quietly and when he feels like breaking, a subtle reminder with the leg keeps him on, and I get to enjoy it and just concentrate on keeping him straight in the reins, so I no longer feel like I'm juggling too many balls in the air.
GAP: no balance in his gaits
STRATEGIES: previously, they involved a lot of pushing him with the leg and whip to get him to come into the reins, with a slightly higher hand to elevate his balance. This resulted in a slightly frantic, unbalanced horse (see above) that would not be straight and not be truly pushing through from behind.
SOLUTION: sloooooow things down so that he can balance. Keep him straight while he's slower, so he can relax through the rhythm of the gait. Keeping him straight, even in the slower pace, helped him come through from behind so that his gaits have actually improved, and he's quite a cute mover now. Also, Gina has me keep my hands lower and wider to get him to come into the rein. Once he's stronger through his back, we can elevate the hands to match the elevated carriage. Keeping them higher before just resulted in a horse that faked it. Also, she has me ride the neck down to a fence, at the trot, so that he jumps up and around instead of jumping with a high head land reaching front legs. SUCH a difference in the jump, now, which makes me quieter as I feel like I can be pushed into place, instead of trying to make things happen.
So, I think I might have the horse I've been looking for all this time! Oliver has always been a total sweetheart, so it's wonderful to see more talent and ability there than I thought there was. It's very exciting to see the progression in the short time I've been with Gina (since late December of 2009), and to see what's to come! Probably going to go to MacNair's CT in March, since I can't afford to go to Southern Pines HT, but definitely Longleaf is going to be our recognized debut.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Oliver rocks his division at FenRidge!
We won our division, with a 27.9. That’s including a missed lead. What I’m most thrilled about, though, is how Oliver went stadium and xc. He was a blast to ride and barely looked at a thing, and took everything out of stride.
We got mostly 7s and 8s on our test. We did get a 4 on our canter lead, so if you think about it, I probably would have gotten at least a 7 on our lead, so that would mean that I would have gotten a 24 on our test if I hadn’t screwed up. Unbelievable. The only negative comment the judge made was that she thought the test was a bit rushed, but she did give me lots of “very active” comments, and mentioned that I needed to slow the tempo down so that I could develop more swing. However, after talking it over with Christan (who saw the test as she was warming up and said that the score was well-deserved), she said that if I slowed him down at this point, he would just mince along and then I’d get comments of “not enough push from behind”. So, that’s what we’re working on – getting him to push from behind, and THEN we can slow it down and see if we can maintain it. Still, I’m thrilled, and that just means that I have something to look forward to. The weather was miserable. It was spitting rain and about 45 degrees, even though the forecast said “sunny in the 60s”. I was extremely tempted to go home after dressage, since there was a long wait before xc (dressage was at 8:50, xc was at 12:45, and I had been up at 4am to get there). I didn’t bring any cover and didn’t relish the idea of going xc in the pouring rain, which is what the sky was threatening to do, and plus Oliver didn’t have studs and the xc course was full of clover, so I was worried about him slipping. I stuck around for some perverse reason – I guess I was fearing the wrath of Christan if I didn’t – and I’m glad I did, because even though it didn’t warm up a lot (the wind was really blowing), the sun did start to peek out and it warmed up to about 55 or so. Perfect xc weather. Plus, I had the benefit of riding Oliver, who was a bit fresh but definitely manageable.
Stadium was next – it was a bit hilly. First jump was a birch oxer, which he peeked at, but rode well and then a bending line left to an orange vertical. Then, about a 90 degree turn to a largish pink oxer, very bright, and then downhill and to the left at about 7 o’clock over fence 3, uphill and to the right for a bending line that rode about 3 strides, vertical to oxer, going downhill, and then back around to the right to a domino jump, which was getting a lot of horses. Oliver didn’t care at all – he was in a good, solid rhythm. Back around to another oxer, downhill over the Liverpool, and then back over the Nemo jump. It rode incredibly well, if you balanced them through it. That was his best stadium round ever. I was so excited with his progress. On to xc from stadium.
I swore I wasn’t going to do it, but I peeked at the scores (I had nothing else to do). Since I was sitting in first place, Christan told me to play it safe xc and not take the harder ditch option in the woods. XC was pretty long – 17 jumps, which is on the long side for BN. Right out of the starting box there was a hay bale jump, so you didn’t really have a lot of time to get them in front of your leg. Oliver gawked at it but I took it from the canter and he landed galloping, so that he took a longish spot at the next, which was a steeplechase sort of brush fence side perpendicular to a slope, so that you had to jump it at a slight uphill angle. The footing wasn’t good until after the second fence, which was a long gallop into the woods, downhill to a skinny log, and then, quick left to avoid the spooky ditch and go over the log option to the left. Oliver slid twice in the woods, even though I had him balanced, so I was thinking about studs for sure at Novice. He didn’t seem rattled by it, so we galloped out of the woods, down the woodline, left over a cabin with stuffed scarecrows to either side, and then still along the fenceline, swoop left and over a cutout rampy thing going uphill. Back into the opposite side of the woods for a largish cordwood pile with pine brush in front, which rode beautifully, then back down to the water. He peeked at the water but you can see from the pictures that he had no issue with it. If only he could trot in the dressage like he did in the water! Check out that engagement behind! Out of the water, downhill a ways to a cabin. That rode well – Oliver has gotten to the point of where all I do is sit up, close my entire leg, especially my upper thigh, and he just comes right back to me and balances himself on a soft rein. From the cabin, back uphill over the required ditch. Back uphill and a 180 to a narrow green cabin with orange fall leaves. Then, downhill again and a right turn to the drop – I went over the smaller one just because I wasn’t sure how it was flagged and didn’t want to risk a technical elimination for jumping the wrong side, although Oliver would have had no problem with it – he likes drops, and so do I. About 6 strides to a ramp, then uphill again to a bench, and then a long gallop around to the picture frame jump, bending line to a couple of logs, and back to the start box for the final table. He was a bit tired towards the end, but we only trotted the drop and the ditch, so I felt like we made good time, even though I wasn’t wearing my watch. That was a deliberate choice, since this was really his first BN (I don’t count Foxtrack as they’re so tiny and short).
Then there was a LONG wait for the scores. For some stupid reason, they waited until the ENTIRE BN division was finished before placing anybody. Half of the show was doing BN, so that meant that we waited about 2 hours for scores. I didn’t know if I had any time penalties or not, so I stuck around. When they finally posted them, I had 10 time penalties for going too slow! 2nd place had 8.8, and the rest of the division had higher penalties than I did. That wasn’t right, so Christan went to investigate. Turns out that Patricia had forgotten a section of the course when she wheeled it, so you had to be going Training speed to make the time. She (Christan) actually lost her 1st place on Bella’s sister, Das Belladonna, because the girl who got 1st actually MADE the time. That girl must have been going like a bat out of hell. Everybody else in BN didn’t make the time. However, since Patricia had already given out some ribbons (namely, to the girl who placed above Christan and already took hers and went home), Patricia said that the scores would stay. Grrrr. Still, I consider myself going double-clear as it was obviously a stupid mistake. That meant that Trainor Eventing (myself, Christan, and Marissa) all won our divisions on our horses. All of us scored below a 30,too, which is even more impressive. First place was a very nice ribbon, with a blue bucket filled with a over-the-wall tack hook, a body brush (blue), a sponge (also blue), a leadrope (yup, blue again), and a few gift certificates to a feed store and such.
The one thing I regretted during the show was wearing those damn Sit Tight breeches with my long johns – I felt like I was sliding in my own skin. I haven’t felt that insecure going xc in a long, long time. You’d think that with the rubber seat on the Sit Tights, I’d be stuck like glue, but I slid INSIDE the breeches – I didn’t even know that was possible! I’m tempted to burn the damn thing, since I hate them.
So, the show photographer must have loved Oliver (everybody else did – I got compliments on how adorable he was from just about everybody, and not just little girls), because she took a TON of pictures of him, especially his face. There are only a few other riders who got as many shots as I did. There is one from dressage where his mane is flying everywhere and he’s got this LOOK on his face which makes me laugh – I’m not sure what he’s thinking, but it’s not too positive from his expression. I guess he feels the same way about dressage that I do. Anyway, I had to buy that one because it makes me laugh every time. I actually bought 4 of them, since they were only $8 a piece. That’s the best deal for pictures I’ve ever seen since I was riding Tanner.
We got mostly 7s and 8s on our test. We did get a 4 on our canter lead, so if you think about it, I probably would have gotten at least a 7 on our lead, so that would mean that I would have gotten a 24 on our test if I hadn’t screwed up. Unbelievable. The only negative comment the judge made was that she thought the test was a bit rushed, but she did give me lots of “very active” comments, and mentioned that I needed to slow the tempo down so that I could develop more swing. However, after talking it over with Christan (who saw the test as she was warming up and said that the score was well-deserved), she said that if I slowed him down at this point, he would just mince along and then I’d get comments of “not enough push from behind”. So, that’s what we’re working on – getting him to push from behind, and THEN we can slow it down and see if we can maintain it. Still, I’m thrilled, and that just means that I have something to look forward to. The weather was miserable. It was spitting rain and about 45 degrees, even though the forecast said “sunny in the 60s”. I was extremely tempted to go home after dressage, since there was a long wait before xc (dressage was at 8:50, xc was at 12:45, and I had been up at 4am to get there). I didn’t bring any cover and didn’t relish the idea of going xc in the pouring rain, which is what the sky was threatening to do, and plus Oliver didn’t have studs and the xc course was full of clover, so I was worried about him slipping. I stuck around for some perverse reason – I guess I was fearing the wrath of Christan if I didn’t – and I’m glad I did, because even though it didn’t warm up a lot (the wind was really blowing), the sun did start to peek out and it warmed up to about 55 or so. Perfect xc weather. Plus, I had the benefit of riding Oliver, who was a bit fresh but definitely manageable.
Stadium was next – it was a bit hilly. First jump was a birch oxer, which he peeked at, but rode well and then a bending line left to an orange vertical. Then, about a 90 degree turn to a largish pink oxer, very bright, and then downhill and to the left at about 7 o’clock over fence 3, uphill and to the right for a bending line that rode about 3 strides, vertical to oxer, going downhill, and then back around to the right to a domino jump, which was getting a lot of horses. Oliver didn’t care at all – he was in a good, solid rhythm. Back around to another oxer, downhill over the Liverpool, and then back over the Nemo jump. It rode incredibly well, if you balanced them through it. That was his best stadium round ever. I was so excited with his progress. On to xc from stadium.
I swore I wasn’t going to do it, but I peeked at the scores (I had nothing else to do). Since I was sitting in first place, Christan told me to play it safe xc and not take the harder ditch option in the woods. XC was pretty long – 17 jumps, which is on the long side for BN. Right out of the starting box there was a hay bale jump, so you didn’t really have a lot of time to get them in front of your leg. Oliver gawked at it but I took it from the canter and he landed galloping, so that he took a longish spot at the next, which was a steeplechase sort of brush fence side perpendicular to a slope, so that you had to jump it at a slight uphill angle. The footing wasn’t good until after the second fence, which was a long gallop into the woods, downhill to a skinny log, and then, quick left to avoid the spooky ditch and go over the log option to the left. Oliver slid twice in the woods, even though I had him balanced, so I was thinking about studs for sure at Novice. He didn’t seem rattled by it, so we galloped out of the woods, down the woodline, left over a cabin with stuffed scarecrows to either side, and then still along the fenceline, swoop left and over a cutout rampy thing going uphill. Back into the opposite side of the woods for a largish cordwood pile with pine brush in front, which rode beautifully, then back down to the water. He peeked at the water but you can see from the pictures that he had no issue with it. If only he could trot in the dressage like he did in the water! Check out that engagement behind! Out of the water, downhill a ways to a cabin. That rode well – Oliver has gotten to the point of where all I do is sit up, close my entire leg, especially my upper thigh, and he just comes right back to me and balances himself on a soft rein. From the cabin, back uphill over the required ditch. Back uphill and a 180 to a narrow green cabin with orange fall leaves. Then, downhill again and a right turn to the drop – I went over the smaller one just because I wasn’t sure how it was flagged and didn’t want to risk a technical elimination for jumping the wrong side, although Oliver would have had no problem with it – he likes drops, and so do I. About 6 strides to a ramp, then uphill again to a bench, and then a long gallop around to the picture frame jump, bending line to a couple of logs, and back to the start box for the final table. He was a bit tired towards the end, but we only trotted the drop and the ditch, so I felt like we made good time, even though I wasn’t wearing my watch. That was a deliberate choice, since this was really his first BN (I don’t count Foxtrack as they’re so tiny and short).
Then there was a LONG wait for the scores. For some stupid reason, they waited until the ENTIRE BN division was finished before placing anybody. Half of the show was doing BN, so that meant that we waited about 2 hours for scores. I didn’t know if I had any time penalties or not, so I stuck around. When they finally posted them, I had 10 time penalties for going too slow! 2nd place had 8.8, and the rest of the division had higher penalties than I did. That wasn’t right, so Christan went to investigate. Turns out that Patricia had forgotten a section of the course when she wheeled it, so you had to be going Training speed to make the time. She (Christan) actually lost her 1st place on Bella’s sister, Das Belladonna, because the girl who got 1st actually MADE the time. That girl must have been going like a bat out of hell. Everybody else in BN didn’t make the time. However, since Patricia had already given out some ribbons (namely, to the girl who placed above Christan and already took hers and went home), Patricia said that the scores would stay. Grrrr. Still, I consider myself going double-clear as it was obviously a stupid mistake. That meant that Trainor Eventing (myself, Christan, and Marissa) all won our divisions on our horses. All of us scored below a 30,too, which is even more impressive. First place was a very nice ribbon, with a blue bucket filled with a over-the-wall tack hook, a body brush (blue), a sponge (also blue), a leadrope (yup, blue again), and a few gift certificates to a feed store and such.
The one thing I regretted during the show was wearing those damn Sit Tight breeches with my long johns – I felt like I was sliding in my own skin. I haven’t felt that insecure going xc in a long, long time. You’d think that with the rubber seat on the Sit Tights, I’d be stuck like glue, but I slid INSIDE the breeches – I didn’t even know that was possible! I’m tempted to burn the damn thing, since I hate them.
So, the show photographer must have loved Oliver (everybody else did – I got compliments on how adorable he was from just about everybody, and not just little girls), because she took a TON of pictures of him, especially his face. There are only a few other riders who got as many shots as I did. There is one from dressage where his mane is flying everywhere and he’s got this LOOK on his face which makes me laugh – I’m not sure what he’s thinking, but it’s not too positive from his expression. I guess he feels the same way about dressage that I do. Anyway, I had to buy that one because it makes me laugh every time. I actually bought 4 of them, since they were only $8 a piece. That’s the best deal for pictures I’ve ever seen since I was riding Tanner.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
So that's what it means to ride with leg!
I started off by getting him really forward and marching up into the contact, because for some reason, today he wanted to mince alone and just arch his neck. I did a lot of shortening the stride and lengthening it within the gait, and each time I lengthened, I asked for a little more, really concentrating on wrapping my legs around him and riding every step up into my hands. Once he settled into the contact – he would get pissy and start to bob his head around, so I kicked him forward every time he did that – he started to have some nice lengthening. I also had to concentrate on riding the outside shoulder. Something that Bruce Mandeville had me do with Miles clicked with me today – you press your outside leg right behind the girth (instead of back, where the belly sort of swells out, which is where I keep my legs wrapped most of the time), and press the shoulder over around a turn, using very little hand. Of course, they’ll want to fall in, which is where you keep your inside leg back (where the belly swells out) softly and ride them between your inside and outside leg, to keep the bend. Once they get to the point of where they’re practically going around the turn with no hand at all, except to support, it’s pretty easy to ride them straight into both reins. Oliver has a bad habit of popping his shoulder to the outside around a turn, or the open part of a circle, tempting me to pull him through the turn with my reins. It also creates a kink in his body which prevents him from truly stepping through. Anyway, after getting some good trot work, I started on the canter by walking a turn on the haunches by pressing my outside leg right at the girth (well, it’s really slightly behind, but I imagine that it’s at the girth) and getting him to step cross over in front with very little rein. Once he was responding to that, I would allow him to take a few steps of walk and then immediately canter from there, keeping the outside rein, and just sliding my outside leg back to ask for the canter. If I truly have him on my outside aids, he’ll pick up the canter smoothly and without hollowing, and I’ll get the most lofty canter strides I’ve ever ridden from him, with very little effort. I also make sure that I really ride him forward into the canter to keep the inside hind jumping through, and instead of keeping my outside leg back, I’ll bring it back to neutral position so I can press his shoulder back in if it pops to the outside. By this time, he’s really understanding my outside leg forward, so when I walk him, I head down the long side, slide my inside leg back from the hip to think “push his butt down the rail”, and then press my outside leg at the girth to keep the shoulders off the trail. It worked like a charm. He eased his way down the long side in a wonderful, correct shoulder-in, and it seemed effortless.
I’m finding that I don’t ride with leg, like I thought I did. I read in the latest issue of Horse Journal that dressage judges are seeing an alarming tendency for people to ride without leg, and it’s why the halt is crooked and sprawly in so many tests. They had a picture of a person riding from behind, and the lower leg wasn’t really wrapped around the horse. It wasn’t sticking out away from the horse, like I had imagined, but from the mid point of the calf down, it wasn’t really touching the horse’s side. So, that got me thinking. Today, when I slid my legs back to where I could really feel his belly under my calf, he squirted forward. That told me that I wasn’t really, truly riding with my leg, since he really isn’t a very touchy horse. I immediately started to keep my leg there, and when he tried to canter forward, I would just keep my hands still (and NOT pull down, which is very, very tempting!) and keep my leg on and just wait for him to accept it. He started to pull and yank away, which annoyed me as well as had the effect of pulling me forward in the saddle, so instead of pulling back, I lifted my hands and put more leg on, and that made him sit back on his butt more, and when he did that, I immediately softened and put my hands back where they belonged. So, he started to accept that at the trot, and then I started riding trot/walk and walk/halt transitions with my legs back there. He hated that – wanted to pull and root and yank, and every time he did, I would boot him forward into the bridle (making him work harder) and then ask again. It got to the point of where I could just sit back, put my leg on, close my hand slightly, and BAM – he’d give me a beautiful, uphill down transition, and even a square halt. At the canter, he protested just as much, so much so that I think I may have gotten some Grand Prix collected canter work (he would rather canter in place than do a correct trot transition???), but in the end, his canter would get lofty and then he’d slide into his trot transition and have a beautiful trot with self carriage right off the bat.
I’m finding that I don’t ride with leg, like I thought I did. I read in the latest issue of Horse Journal that dressage judges are seeing an alarming tendency for people to ride without leg, and it’s why the halt is crooked and sprawly in so many tests. They had a picture of a person riding from behind, and the lower leg wasn’t really wrapped around the horse. It wasn’t sticking out away from the horse, like I had imagined, but from the mid point of the calf down, it wasn’t really touching the horse’s side. So, that got me thinking. Today, when I slid my legs back to where I could really feel his belly under my calf, he squirted forward. That told me that I wasn’t really, truly riding with my leg, since he really isn’t a very touchy horse. I immediately started to keep my leg there, and when he tried to canter forward, I would just keep my hands still (and NOT pull down, which is very, very tempting!) and keep my leg on and just wait for him to accept it. He started to pull and yank away, which annoyed me as well as had the effect of pulling me forward in the saddle, so instead of pulling back, I lifted my hands and put more leg on, and that made him sit back on his butt more, and when he did that, I immediately softened and put my hands back where they belonged. So, he started to accept that at the trot, and then I started riding trot/walk and walk/halt transitions with my legs back there. He hated that – wanted to pull and root and yank, and every time he did, I would boot him forward into the bridle (making him work harder) and then ask again. It got to the point of where I could just sit back, put my leg on, close my hand slightly, and BAM – he’d give me a beautiful, uphill down transition, and even a square halt. At the canter, he protested just as much, so much so that I think I may have gotten some Grand Prix collected canter work (he would rather canter in place than do a correct trot transition???), but in the end, his canter would get lofty and then he’d slide into his trot transition and have a beautiful trot with self carriage right off the bat.
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