Despite me feeling a bit down and out personally, I still am quite excited about Tillie and where we are for the most part.
I am trying my best to keep my demons at bay and focus on how fact Tillie has caught on to things lately...you know focus on the good rather than the bad (like our dressage has felt not as great lately).
Hail balls that were pelting us while riding
To make up for not being able to go to P's weekly jump lesson to try to teach what I could at home...I attempted to school at home so we dont lose the momentum we have had over fences.
Mother nature surely made things interesting and decided to start raining and hailing on us which made Tillie a bit reactive, my cold with them managing to get down my jacked and the footing sloppy. BUT a good barn friend convinced me to try anyway saying that one day I may be competing in something like this and we are eventers...so you know we are supposed to be tough an all.
Tillie looking like a drowned rat
So we started getting ready and setting up....and Tillie had many opinions about everything being in heat and all. I also realized my weirdo horse likes to poop on the wall when in heat:
See fresh one? Yea...and all the other old stains too?
Tillie shaming out of the way...she was a trooper and pushed through despite the weather. It was honestly one the fastest most productive jump school. Excluding warm up took about 15 min, but the mare was so good that we both agreed to stop when we did.
Starting to look like an eventer!
Mares got springs!
We warmed up over a small x which slowly built up to low bounces to a one stride vertical to a one stride oxer. We eventually tested Tillie a bit by raising the last vertical of the bounce into the first one stride and the final oxer. She was fabulous!
...is a lot harder sometimes than in lessons. Well duh! In lessons, I have an instructor holding my hand, giving me confidence which also gives Tillie confidence. So yea, it makes sense why the magic comes easier in lessons with the puppeting my instructors do that manipulates me and Tillie right where we need to be.
the beginnings of what we were trying to attempt (except this is the RIGHT way to do it)
The point of this post is to sort of laugh at myself and learn from my schooling ride last night with my barn mates. We had it all planned out. We would jump some jumps and set up a one stride line exercise of oxers.
Simple right? We do it every saturday in our P jump lessons...except P is there slowly building them up rather then putting them right up to the final height.
We are all smart adults...but for some reason we didnt think to go hmm maybe we should put these down to cross rails first.
So Tillie and I warm up beautifully. I let her canter out a bit more and she responded coming back nicely. My thought for this was, if I can find this balance during the show season where shes got enough gas to safely compete, but not too much she is harder to half halt Ill be golden.
Anyway, we pop over a small cross rail a few times, then a few random 2'6 ish verticals and she was fine. I worked on my release and trying to find a good distance in our rhythm and not always reverting to adding since that tends to be my go to.
The longer (non short) spot really promotes tillie to stretch better and jump up rather than over her shoulder
So after those felt good I looked at Brita and said ok lets try the one stride line (two one strides). I got a nice canter and made the turn...which in hindsight I should have circled because Tillie lost her shoulder but I closed my thigh and thought hey we got this.
Jump #1 we swiveled with Tillie taking off and seeing the other jumps and just reallllly backed off. so I landed in a heap, lost my left stirrup and in true - lets get er done fashion sat up, closed my leg and clucked her on.
Looking back to a more successful jump
We got through it. Barely. Tillie landed and cantered off like we just finished and grand prix course with my left stirrup flopping around and all. Which I was super excited about in a way because A) I ALWAYS lose my right stirrup not my left which means maybe, just maybe I am evening out from my last few schooling rides working on my own alignment and B) I didnt feel at all unseated without that stirrup which hopefully means my stickability is improving.
MMMMAAAAYBE we should have been smarter about this and opted to take turns slowly building up to a 2'6 one stride grid eh?
I cant speak for the rest of us, but I can attest that my brain wasnt all there yesterday with how stressful life has been lately in other non horsey areas so Im giving myself a "laugh it off and Ill try to use more of my brain next time".
We did ultimately lower it and go through a few more times just fine and just sort of play around to rebuild our confidence (mostly mine). I found myself not feeling too happy with Tillie being uphill enough and wondered if I was being too hard on her, accurate in what I felt or if the judge from Sunday was still in my head.
Tillie also felt a bit different when switching diagonals which leads me to believe she was a bit weaker on one of her hinds...which it felt the right hind again to me. I always worry, but am trying to chaulk it up to some pretty crummy footing probably making her sore because when I got off to check her legs and poultice her to be over the top safe, both legs felt cold as ice.
So I did feel a teeeeennnyy bit better when a barn mate said she sneaked in a video and I saw it showing Tillie jumping pretty darn uphill. So maybe I need to stop worrying so much about it and just let her figure it out:
Shes getting over stuff without having trouble, she doesnt take rails down a lot at all...so the uphill thing? Who cares (well yes it matters but I think it will come). My horse may not be a power house jumper, but she has game, is brave and does have scope even if it doesnt look all that amazing. And hey, these struggle bus rides that I apparently plan but not enough...Tillie clearly tells me what she thinks and it keeps us knowing where we need to be right?
As far as seeing my form, I now am realizing my release is getting there and my heels are too...but I now notice it isnt the release that is posing a problem, its how quickly I am sitting back in the saddle on landing. So back to the age old question of how to prevent that without my shoulders getting ahead?! UGH.
The weekend of January 22nd, we got hit with the biggest snowfall our state has ever seen since recorded snowfalls in history of our state. Pretty darn impressive. It was nice, at first. The first few days cleaning, cooking and catching up on the neglected things...but after 3 days of not ONE snow plow down our street and being forced to work (from home but it still sucked since everyone else was off) I was going stir crazy.
Sooo much snow...
Even as recent as yesterday some roads are still not plowed to the full width of both lanes...meaning riding was not happening. I was soo envious of barnmates that could go during the day to ride the fluffy fresh powder, but I couldnt get out there before dark and the lack of lights sort of put a stop to me trudging through almost 3ft of snow by myself to ride.
For those that could play in the snow, I got some pics to hold me over :)
Tillie clearly enjoyed her mini vacation.
With snow/ice covering all available riding surfaces, that meant no teaching lessons for like I usually do, but luckily our usual saturday jump lesson with P was still on since they have an indoor! I was so excited I got to the barn early to do a bit of grooming and love on Tillie.
Never so happy to see this face!
The plus side to all this snow - her whites on her legs have never been whiter! Now we have rain moving in and that will quickly change that, but thats ok...that hopefully means a ride-able ring with the lights!
We loaded up to go to P and once again she self loaded like a charm! I really am getting quite spoiled! The indoor here is quite small, so trying to fit us all in was a bit hectic on top of snow occasionally sliding off the roof sending all the horses into a frenzy. Tillie got used to this by the end and only had a few sassy mare moments.
Because most of us havent been riding and because the deep snow does wear them out, we did a simple low grid just to get us all back in the swing of things. I dont think anyone was particularly thrilled with their rides...but all in all you could tell our horses were true champs just trying their hardest despite being fatigued.
I spoke with P about the head wagging tracking left and we ruled out soreness since she just saw the chiro, decided to try the dentist (since shes due anyway) but that it was most likely that she isnt really through enough in the bridle. So during warm up I really thought about riding her forward without rushing and getting her into the contact more. That really seemed to help!
I made sure to giver her a lot of walk breaks through with all the recent time off...so that wasnt helpful for our rhythm, but was great to work on transitions.
oh hey!?
P had us warm up over some trot poles and then raised a few to be cavaletti. Tillie seemed bored and did it no problems. We moved on to cantering one ground pole and then two. Tillie did it tracking right beautifully...tracking left the first time she got a bit flat and grabby but second time through figured out her balance without trying to goad me into helping her.
So onto jumping:
First attempt through, you could tell Tillie just wasnt quite sure and the tightness of the indoor made her a bit nervous about her balance/feet jumping:
When P had us try to come through again things got a bit interesting:
So ok, it wasnt great...but we recovered and I took a deep breath and knew I needed to let her go a bit more and stop micromanaging her. When I do, she feels claustrophobic and gets behind my leg, too light in contact and just stops listing to turning off my aids. What is nice about P's lesson format is you get to sit and reflect while others go...so I took some time to reset before we tried again:
MUCH better this time through even tracking left. So the answer all along is to stay off of her face...well duh!!
So P raised the fences a teeeeeny bit more and we all did it a few more times. These last two times Tillie really started getting tired. This round, I should have trotted another lap to wake her up after sitting still for so long, but she pulled us through and got it together:
P had us go through ONE more time and commented that Tillie would jump the first one well, the second kinda ok and the third one like "OMG I cant make it over" so we called it quits after this one:
I walked away from the lesson a bit ambivalent. I was really happy with the fact that Tillie was pretty much all business aside from a few minor incidents...but I didnt feel like we had done anything great or worthy of improvement. Regardless, I realized I actually wanted to do more in a lesson...when in the past I would dread running through the exercises and get a sinking feeling. Its awesome that now, I cant get enough.
Sooo tired after the lesson
I also was fully prepared to watch back the videos and be disappointed in both my form and Tillie's...only to be pleasantly surprised at Tillie! (My form still left some to be desired, but I am not beating myself up too much here with all the time off - Mainly my release lacking).
Despite these fences being small, Tillie was jumping really well...mostly over just the first one through the line and her form would die out more and more over each additional one. BUT the fact that shes jumping even these smaller fences so well is promising right?!
Not to mention her trot looks pretty darn amazing too despite time off:
FANCY PANTS
I know I am gushing a bit...but I self doubt ALOT. Both myself and Tillie so its nice to see footage that makes me feel good.
Its hard to remember the fact that my first jump lesson with Tillie was less then a year ago. It was in an indoor when we could only ride 1-2x a week with the frozen ground...I also have to remember that, in the not so distant past, most rides where more "exciting" then not, even when we only flatted. They were riddled with a rushing and non-rhythmic trot, exuberance in the canter and just general over the top sass. The trot rhythm and tempo being the hardest thing for us.
Still trying out this double rein thing.
I say this to remind myself because I often get stuck in where we are now and feel defeated that progress isn't happening - at least not fast enough in my mind. While I am feeling a bit less excited at the moment in both Tillie's progress and my own, I must admit that being here in the land of boring is O.K.
Sure, we are not uphill enough yet...our canter isnt balanced all the time...she jumps too flat and from the shoulder, BUT at least at this point, we are doing these things with much less attitude and more understanding of our job and what is expected.
The only sass moment from our lesson...so things are 100% boring ;)
For Tillie, trying to get her to chill the fuck out and be boring has seemed to be my number one objective all along. It has caused me to ride very defensively and Tillie to get angry which starts a viscous cycle. I watch some of my videos and tear us both to shreds and hone in on every last bit of feedback we get to the point of agonizing over it. NOT GOOD and it really isnt helping me by doing this.
What I am currently agonizing over, yet again, is her jumping form over fences and her general way of going which has the tendency to be downhill. We had our weekly jump lesson with P and she remarked how quiet Tillie looked, but she was still jumping too flat and not really pushing like she should be.
Found this gem from last winter...yes its a bit over exaggerated and Tillie taking the long spot, but its a good example of the jumping flat and not round.
Instantly I get myself all worked up because who wants to have a horse that cant jump? I mean she jumps and is super willing (sometimes way too eager) but as an eventer you want a horse that jumps well and safely for both of your sake. Ill give her credit, she is athletic enough that shes gotten by at this point and clears fences fairly easily but we are only jumping max 2'11 right now...most days closer to 2'6 or 2'7. My fear is that there will come a point this poor form will make or break whether or not shes can do this.
Leave it to me to take a perfectly fine lesson or ride and freak out...things calm down, get boring and I get all edgy and jumpy from the residual PTSD I have from the first year of owning this horse when I constantly had to look over my shoulder for a phone call she was injured yet again.
I do not like drama yet I seem to create it for myself.
The moment you forget to finish a portion of the exercise
There will always be something for us to work on. Horses and training are never ending, but I have this awful way of taking what that next thing we need to work on is and turning it into my this anxious worry that my horse wont be my partner in crime.
I want to reach my top goals on her. The far out ones like getting to a 1* and I would love for her to be a horse people see and go, man what a nice horse that is. I know the latter of that statement is me looking for validation...but I do still feel as though Tillie doesnt really get noticed when we go places and it makes me feel like maybe she isnt something special.
My weird tense riding at its finest.
I know that is my downfall and its something I should make a goal every month for the rest of the year to work on.
It doesnt help that I recently noticed a few things that are causing some concern (which seems to just make me that much more edgy and prone to being over anxious on all other things Tillie related).
Tillie has intermittently been off her grain. She always will eat her hay in her stall eagerly..but she has never been a picky eater or one to do this.
She is incredibly back sore. I feel like such a bad mom for not noticing because she hasnt been...back sore to the point I just lightly touch her and she buckles and dips so hard I worry she might fall over
Horse cant balance and stand in the freaking trailer
Tillie still seems eager to work and quiet.
I attribute #1 to the increased amount of work and more frequent hauling...I already started her on ulcer treatment BUT with her not eating her food that has it in it doesnt really do anything. I unfortunately think I need to invest in some of the paste which is like 2x more expensive.
#2 I have no idea yet what the cause is but talking with Emma shes talking me off the ledge and we are sort of leaning towards the fact shes been in much more aggressive work and jumping the most frequently she ever has. So basically like us when we start using new muscles get sore. I want to believe this to be the case with her still going so well and jumping so quietly. I fear it may be saddle fit issue, the new pelham bit or, worse yet, the hind end lameness I delt with last year possibly coming back to haunt me and its showing up here first. I have not decided my next course of action yet for this...I think I need to calm the fuck down before making any decisions or spending money of a vet if its isnt needed.
3 I will elaborate more on below...
When your horse canters over fences rather then jumps.
So back to our lesson Saturday, I had to haul us there with Emma being back in business on Izzy! Woo!! But Tillie HATES my trailer and cant stand up to save her life around turns...In another friends that is wider it isnt an issue at all. In Emmas she would mostly for slower turns after being stopped or really slow. BUT for some reason in my little straight load is the worst and you can see her shoulders flying all around, her head goes flying side to side and it just generally looks unpleasant. I have no idea why she still even loads because I KNOW how much she hates not being balanced. I have started using shipping boots for fear shes going to slice herself open in her scrambling.
I have no idea how to remedy this other then keep hauling and hope she figures it out.
Bitch please, Im fabulous
Other then that we tacked up with a lot of her looking around and just disregarding my space (a few good checks on that she was fine) and hacked up to the ring like a pro. I am so pleased with how well shes gotten this part down since the first few times she was so jumpy and jigging the entire way up there.
This was my first attempt to jump in double reins. It is really apparent I need a curb rein and my current one is way too bulky/uncomfortable, but it was good enough to attempt and P commented that this bit has really seemed to mature Tillie. She know seems to understand her job and despite occasional sass its usually when shes calling me out on something I screwed up.
Tillie went through every exercise like it was no big deal...watching back the videos from this lesson though it is really apparent just how flat and low she is jumping AND just in general my lack of equitating even on the flat. WTF?! Just a few lessons ago I felt like it was better and now my heel is up and my back is hunches and my shoulders are so tense I look like a tool.
All in all the lesson was long!! a good 2 hours at least with a lot of standing around and catching up which was wonderful...it was a solidly boring ride from Tillie made not boring from all of my woes.
so anyway here is the video mash up of some clips a student of mine capture (sorry for the poor quality, Emma and I are definitely going to put her in videoing boot camp!)
Yesterday was another "P" lesson and boy was it cold. We have been really spoiled lately with this warmer winter so far...but Friday brought in a cold front and it was cold and windy. I did ride Tillie Friday night and lets just say something was in the air. She was in a mood tacking up and just was making all sorts of faces even when grooming her. First getting on she felt cold backed and coiled up and just so braced everywhere I knew I needed to slowly work though each area to try to unlock her.
She always has tense days here and there, but this tension was through her whole body back before I started her on Depo and before really digging into dressage lessons with C. She was also insanely spooky which is not normal. The kind of spooking where she would go full on giraffe mode and then bolt a few steps. I realized at this point I have been a bad mom and have not been consistent with the Depo.
Despite this, she started figuring things out and I consider that a win since in the past it would not have improved. We did some canter poles which she really wanted to brace through and ended the night with walk trot walk transitions.
On to yesterdays lesson...it was another cold day and I have the best barn friends ever because I had some things to take care of in the morning and didnt think I would be able to make it to the lesson since I knew I wouldnt have enough time to load up Tillie. Well my wonderful friends did it all for me! I met them there and I was delightfully surprised to open the trailer door to this:
NOTE: Her front boots are on the wrong feet...my friend has never done shipping boots and got a bit confused! oops!
Tillie in her BOT blanket and shipping boots that apparently are my Christmas present! I think it makes Tillie look quite smashing if I may say so.
She was a bit spooky at first too, but at least wasnt jumpy or anything. Mostly looking around more then usual. Once I was on, she hacked up to the ring just fine! Yay for progress there! I could feel her in warm up trying to trick me into riding off my hands by scooting forward when I added leg, but would duck behind or above contact in the process. So really just not connecting.
P sorta coached me through some of that by telling me to just stay consistent, half halt and give back since I have the tendency when she does this to try to find contact by pulling (BAD BAD BAD!!) She also shortened my stirrups ALOT which seemed to do the trick - her theory being if they are too long and youre reaching, you arent moving with them which causes this issue.
I also started trying to not fuss with her as much and just ignore it by staying consistent in my rhythm and let the jumps sort some of her tension out...she loves it so knew she would settle in (Crazy i can say things like that now!!)
Here is some video from the lesson:
P really had me concentrating more on keeping my elbows in as I like to flap them like wings over fences...and also work more on my release. We talked about the auto crest release and working towards being able to be comfortable enough to put my hands lower on her neck since I tend to let them float which sometimes results in me catching her in the mouth.
See forward hands!! Tillie's face here is awesome...she says I GOT THIS.
We started off with a centerline grid to warm up slowly adding more and more jumps. It turned into a bounce to a wide low oxer working on compressing and expanding.
Building off this line, it turned into two bounces to the low wide oxer which could be a 2 or 3 stride. P recommended sticking with the 3 until we sorted some of our tension issues out.
Then we did the one stride grid line set to about 18" - Tillie really hit her groove here and this is where we talked about releasing more.
The grid went up in height and ran through it then...Tillie made it feel easy :)
Then we did the oxer grid. Same thing, Tillie just was spot on.
Then we did the whole exercise together except we came in the centerline grid the opposite way to make sure they were paying attention - I messed up here and Tillie sailed through the rest of the line no problem but was sure to tell me I was wrong after the fact (unfortunately the sass was not caught on video)
My face after messing up...laughing, Tillie staying focused.
P did make me run through that line on more time and we called it a day. All in all it was another confidence boosting lesson. The more repetition I get over fences the less I tense and the more I can start playing with trusting myself and Tillie enough to work on some other things.
The horses were great after the lesson and just too cute all matching.
This past Saturday, I finally felt like a human being again after being sick with whatever I had. I finally felt well enough to strap my riding gear on and go back for a jump lesson with P. The baby horse that tagged along during my last post/dressage lesson also tagged along here...so I was really hoping Tillie could behave and provide the young horse with some structure.
Hacking up to the lesson ring...Tillie says let me show you how its done
The other horse again had a bit of a trailering phobia so Tillie was patient and luckily made things easier by walking on and off no issues whenever it was asked. She also led the way to the mini trail up to the ring while the young horse did a good job taking it all in, being scared but didnt put one foot wrong. Yay for baby horse progress! I am so happy for this friend and glad her green bean learned so much on this outing making it a positive one for them both.
What was so wonderful about this day is it was almost 70 degrees!! I cant remember the last time I have ever worn a T-shirt riding in December. I could definitely get used to this. Tillie warmed up a bit wound up, but behaved. P had me try my new set up with the Pelham after discussing how she felt and the fact we hadnt jumped in two weeks.
Going over the warm up jump and mini grid the first few times was interesting...and almost resulted in me running over Emma. I was laughing at this point because she was just so happy to be back jumping and while it was rude, I have really begun to feel stronger and not so worried at her antics.
P tightened up the curb chain and said, yes you need to give over the fences despite this, BUT if you land and she isnt half halting you are ok to set her down and draw the line.
So here were a few times doing just that:
Trying to stretch more over fences.
In the lesson I was concentrating on so many things, that I didnt even realize until after the fact that Tillie got the picture fairly quickly and we ended up having a decent lesson.
Look mom I can dressage between jumps!
Here is our first attempt at cantering into a fence/line and you could tell we both just are out of practice and seeing the distances just wasnt happening. So when in doubt, count!
So here is the second attempt to clean it up a bit:
Of course, in true P form we start building and slowly making a course. So she wanted us to do the grid, to the 2 or 3 stride line to this angled fence. We ended up chipping into the angled one as we both just didnt see the distance again. You can also see she just wasnt expecting it and almost broke to trot thinking we were done a few strides out. But the 3 stride line this time rode beautifully!
So P sends us to come back just to that fence to try again:
Tillie thought she was just the best pony in the whole world.
So we finally put the whole thing together and I decided to try to open up a little more and go for the striding in the lines a horse with an easier 12' stride would do...so the 3 stride line I would do in 2 and the last outside line I would do in 4 instead of 5 strides.
Nailed it!
Tillie questioned the 2 at first but good girl said OK. The 4 stride she ate up no problem. I am grinning from ear to ear upon landing because she landed forward and felt like she has in the past juuusstt before putting her head down and dolphin diving but she didnt and it was just this cool feeling of her energy just being like "YEA I did good!" without it being too over the top.
Every lesson we have jumped this, she has jumped it so well and enthusiastically.
Maybe Ill have more smiling photos by the end of next year :)
So weirdly enough, the next day she didnt eat all of her grain again. Totally happy to eat hay and bright and all...but she did this last time we went to a P lesson and came back. She always eats everything and dinner fine but not sure whats up with it?
I gave her Gastra-FX before going to help with any stress and shes on ulcer treatment now. Her teeth have been done this last summer...Anyone have any ideas?
Tillie and I had our third lesson with trainer P Saturday and it was a lesson filled with many things that have flooded my brain to process. So this will be my best attempt at processing...
Hey uphill trot...where have you been all my life
Tillie hacked out to the ring this time like an old pro. No jigging or dancing around at all even with a giant group in the ring doing some fun Christmas thing. It was utter chaos with bows, bells, shiny garlands and christmas decor on ponies that were running around, jumping etc.
Tillie took it all in just fine until they started to leave and a neighbor was driving around a remote car in the field next to the ring. This to Tillie was just the scariest thing ever. So our warm up was a bit tense with some pretty hard spooks I am not used to riding. P just consoled me and said act like no big deal and dont make a fight out of it.
Isnt she just so cute?
Left bend struggles:
She felt a bit flat at the trot and not very supple, especially to the left...I hate to say heavy because she really wasnt but she felt a bit like a lug. Usually I can have her like a rubber band and she just feels easy to manipulate.
I struggle with her left bend because she'll start to bend at her neck not the poll or her whole body and then throw her right outside shoulder off the path so shes no longer straight, but she isnt properly using her body either.
Homework: P prescribed homework of lots of transitions, getting her straight in the warm up, lots of turn on haunches and/or turn on the forehand and some other lateral movements in the walk to really be sure I can move all parts of her body.
Finishing the flat warm up: Usually when she trots around like a lug her canter is a mess and she bogs down on me, but for whatever reason her canter was just lovely! Because of Tillie's tendencies to get flat and recent XC outings, I have asked P about bit options (and have been toying with them for a while) and she suggested trying a Pelham.
P had me switch bits to try the pelham with bit converters on it so it would be a softer adjustment for both myself and Tillie and I wouldnt have to worry about two sets of reins just yet:
I went back out and did a quick w/t/c set both directions with it on to see what Tillie thought. Right away P reminded me to just ride softer and the amazing thing was, I felt like I could. I barely needed to touch the reins and Tillie seemed much happier to respond off my seat half halt after she felt the bit a bit more.
So on to jumping we went.
The first warm up fence was just a trot in to a vertical to see how this bit would go. I really had to focus on soft hands and letting her take the reins with this bit so our rhythm up to the fence did change a bit, which P didnt seem to mind:
P then sent us through the same grid as last week, again really having me focus on leaving her alone and staying out of her way through the grid.
Some the other horses in our lesson were having drifting problems (which we had our first lesson with P lol) so she set the grid with a ton more poles to help promote straightness. The conversation here got missed, but I believe the landing here is where P discussed with me about owning Tillies outside shoulder and getting her straighter to balance her when circling. We will see more of this issue in a later video.
After that it was on to warming up over some other fences before we would do the whole the course. This moment, by far, was the shining moment for me in this lesson. I got the hugest adrenaline rush from this one fence because we both just felt so in tune and like we really nailed it.
P had us keep going to come right back and do the whole line. It could be a 4 but we did it in a 5, but what was nice it was a fairly even 5.
We took a bit of a moment here to talk about what was good and bad and the course we would be doing. I LOVED hearing from P that I was doing a better job releasing and letting her stretch, so Tillie was jumping better because of it. WOOO!!
Stretch Tillie Stretch!
So on to trying the entire thing, and while some of it was nice, others were not. The grid was fine and quiet, but really apparent that I am collapsing my right side and dropping left which is why Tillie isnt landing on the left lead even though we discussed trying to do this in the lesson.
Uh...rogue right hand apparently goes along with that.
But Tillie lands and does a change for me, but we lose the outside shoulder again like I mentioned earlier, so decided to circle before attempting the next part of the course. Basically I need to use more right thigh!!!
The line rode fine in a 4!! It felt like we came in a bit long and I think you can hear me sort of squeal in surprise, but it was fine and we rode out fine.
WEEEEEEEEE!!!
Then came time to use the half halt and I tend to be a bit dormant and not quick enough / dont get the timing right which makes us biff the next fence. Plus side is Tillie rode out of it like ok so what...whats next?
The outside line rode very nicely again for us and that was that!
So of course P had us try again...and some things got better while others regressed. At this point I could tell Tillie was tired from the last two days of lessons as she was a bit more backed off to fences then usual this last go. P had me think HALT after the grid portion to better balance her for the first line which got us a much better approach.
Just because this fence and line worked out so nicely each time for us.
Unfortunately the striding to the second fence didnt really work out BUT we landed and Tillie wanted to build, I was able to use a clearer half halt to get a nice ride to the oddly angled fence. This moment is when I fell in love with the pelham because I half halted fairly lightly, but could give it back! And Tillie listened! WOOOO!!
Then we ended with the final line again which we came in a bit tight so Tillie sorta questioned the last fence (you can see her sorta dodge left right before).
All in all it was another good solid lesson and another page in Tillie's book for learning. I am desperate to get back to C for a long overdue dressage lesson to get our trot back on track, back the fact her trot is now erring on the side of flat and slow is a step in the right direction from the rushed million miles an hour trot.
Tillie got a much deserved day off Sunday...which good thing, because mare came in not 100% for breakfast and really only picked at her food. Luckily, she seemed fine otherwise and was eating hay, pooing and peeing, drinking, normal gums and temp so we just kept a close eye on her and she seemed to work out of it. Nothing like stressing mommy out after a few good rides!
