Dressage Skillz

Yesterday I had another lesson with C. We didnt tackle any new movements, but we did push the boundaries on ones we have been working on. I have more media I am working on uploading, so will hopefully be able to add all of it, but for now only have a handful of videos.

I was a bit nervous at first because it was my first real ride back since the fall. It was also the first day Tillie did not get bute, so I was eager to see how she felt (her leg looks totally fine!). You can hear me when the lesson starts asking C how she looks to reassure she looked as good as it felt.

Some bullet points that stick out to me from the start of lesson:

• Bigger trot needs to happen more...I tend to want to ride her trot a bit too slow
• Leg yields need to be straight and off the outside rein half halt, not the inside rein
• Dont let the reins bounce, be sure to hold them, have more weight/shorten the reins. Use the right side to soften her but then be quiet.
• Dont nag her with any aids
• Dont let her fall in or push into the right side when tracking right
• The whip, put thumb on top and point it at her ears
• BEND my elbows...shorter reins, longer arms

Next we talked a bit about the walk and leg aids...mostly keeping the leg relaxed and if you squeeze too much it changes the way my seat moves (not for the better):

Sitting trot portion and leg yielding:

• Tighter stomach in sitting trot, chin up
• My arms look weird lol Ill have to play with this
• Be quicker in my aids in the lag yields to get away from the wall faster
• Ride straight after the leg yield
• Dont be afraid to make it ugly...have a conversation to be able to correct it

I am still figuring out how to use my upper leg and thigh more without contorting my body in these movements. Especially when we leg yield off the left leg to the right, she needs more right leg to keep her straighter...but boy is it hard for me. 

Im sure it will come with time, and will make shoulder in and shoulder fore easier too. 

We rode through 1st level test 3 but it was taken on a different phone, so Ill be sure to share it once I get it!

Waiting is really hard

I have a lot of fun exciting things to look forward to this weekend...and a lot going on between now and then. All good things and as much as being busy can be a bit of a whirlwind, I tend to thrive.

We have been lucky to have quite warm weather move in so its been easy to stay motivated to ride.

Much to Tillie's dismay

I hopped on last night after showing my old trailer to a few interested people and I am reallllly hopeful it sells so I can go get my new trailer for the weekend. I kept the ride pretty light and just pushing some buttons to be sure we were agreeable and on the same page.

She started off a bit distracted since there was a lot going on...amazing when its warm how lessons pick up, leasers are around etc. So when I initially started connecting her at the walk she was a bit fussy.

floppy ears!

But I focused on using my legs and getting her forward in the walk to concentrate. Once I had a reasonable walk and she could bend and counterbend off my leg I ask for a trot. I did some gradual leg yields to help get her testing her balance and was really impressed with how well she settled into them. She stayed much straighter BOTH ways too!!

I will not look at you

I did some ground poles and felt her fill up the contact even more and it felt really nice. She even offered stretch and stated on the contact while doing it for an entire circle!!! I let her catch her breath before cantering and she did beautiful transitions into both leads and I really forced myself to not stay on a 20m circle and stay large around the ring. It paid off!! While she got a big a few times, it was never unbalanced or out of control. She came right back and down to a nice trot after a few rebalancing steps.

After another walk break, I picked her back up and we worked on lengthening around the whole ring and Tillie really seemed to enjoy it. She did break into the canter (albeit a lovely one!) but I dont hate that...she was really trying and I just need to figure out the balance of toeing the line without breaking. I know it will come.

showing off her newly trimmed mane

From here I decided to pop over a few little jumps just to test if we could keep it chill...and Tillie actually offered to jump the cross rails and come back to trot without me even asking...it felt more or less like I thought it and it happened :) So we upped the height a bit and jumped around at about 2'9 and Tillie just felt flawless. 

We jump jumps!!!

 She really cracked her back over a few and really enjoyed herself. After the last fence she dug down and was a bit heavy, but she came back after a short "victory" lap that wasnt out of control, warp speed or containing any airs above the ground.

All in all it was a great brief ride. I could really get used to these! Now we need to practice for the dressage show this weekend!!!!

Recent dressage lesson = TONS of homework

Continuing on my recap from the weekend...it also includes my Sunday dressage lesson. I dont normally do lessons on Sundays other then teaching my own lessons, but with it being overcast and a bit drizzly I jumped at the shot to slip in an opening that C had right after Emma had her lesson.

So we hitched a ride with Emma and I am thankful she got Tillie loaded up for me while I finished up with my last few lessons. After a bit of rushing around, it turned out C was running really late so I made it long before Emma got on and was able to watch hers! She'll be recapping her own lesson on her blog I am sure soon - here.

An indication of how our lesson went...a tired and itchy Tillie

I mentioned in my Part 1 recap from Saturday's lesson that lately I have felt Tillie falling back into the old habit of wanting to put herself in a safe zone and not being all that agreeable when I ask to change that. She'll happily go around straight, bent to the inside, high or low but once I put her there, that is where she wants to stay. She is quite smart and only recently did I figure out this is what she was doing rather then just being stiff or harder one way vs another etc. 

C pointed this out right away and said that while its a much better place shes putting herself in, we still need to be able to adjust her more readily and have more give at any time. So we went right to work and I can summarize all I can hear in my brain after the warm up:

1. Push her around the inside leg even more - SO much freakin inside leg
2. Watch out for a stiff right hand, but open and close to have more bend in both elbows especially the left (nice to know I have issues on both sides)
3. My left shoulder creeps forward making me crooked/twisted in my torso
4. Dont be afraid to take the rain until she softens BUT I must soften and follow her back

 Tillie had a few moments of "No I dont think so" before she settled into a nice rhythm and really started to dig into work. She was so into it, her vibe was contagious and I felt a bit like the little engine that could as if she were thinking "I think I can" over and over.

C had us going on a 20 M circle spiraling into a smaller circle focusing on really getting her to give and wrap around my inside leg before using a fairly quick leg yield to push her out without losing the shoulders. Here is where we talked about leg use and keeping it longer when applying it since I have the old habit of lifting my heel and my leg then shrinks about 6". Ok maybe not THAT short, but its a bad habit among many others I need to break.

Here is a video of warm up...notice Tillie really starting to dig it by the end of the clip:

After the warm up we continued trotting but started asking for leg yields, but really quick lateral ones to promote getting her out of her comfort zone. Tillie was all business. 

It felt really good and still amazes me how well she is progressing despite not riding at all during the week with our ring still frozen. After a bit of a break which had a lot less rude pulling and rooting then usual, C had me start back up said, "ok, now sit your trot"

Lol I made a face apparently because she laughed and said everyone makes that face!

Being fairly new to sitting a trot where my horse is actually going...it is not the most pleasant thing in the world. Ill admit, I feel as though I am riding it ok, until I watch the videos. The amount of discomfort that I am emulating is so apparent I was uncomfortable just watching it:

At this point, Emma started filming since my phone died. C  prompted for me to canter (I love how we will be going along and rides as you go and gives us commands a few strides before she wants it). Sadly we missed capturing on video the first and most wonderful right lead canter transition. It took both Tillie and myself by surprise that C even laughed and said it was all over my face.

C had us move onto leg yielding in canter to get her more mobile and rideable in canter. At this point its been all about the basics of balancing her and keep her from diving on the forehand...so it felt really good to receive a command that required taking our canter to the next step - which as you can tell in this clip Tillie wasnt quite prepared for: 

What I have loved about the sitting trot despite how uncomfortable it is, is how much it has helped me get a better feel in the canter. I can only describe it as me feeling more balanced and stuck in the saddle which allows me to use my seat to better help Tillie. The leg yields in the canter were quite fun! Tillie gained a bit of speed through them, but it didnt feel too bad with how soft she was. 

So we moved on the left lead canter which is our harder and weaker lead. C guided me on how to use a better timed half halt to get her more balanced and using herself better without me grabbing and bracing on her. 

It produced quite a nice canter and we were able to do some of the maneuvering from this lead as well. At the end C had us try some lengethings in the trot across our diagonals to promote testing the boundaries of balance which Tillie tends to err on the side of caution. You can see in the clips she gets a bit unsettled and really doesnt let go of her shoulder just yet in them...but C reassured me it would take some time for her to trust herself to just ride very straight, weight even and both elbows stay at my body. 

The lots of homework part includes:

• Taking Tillie big around the entire ring to test try to get her trusting lengthenings more
• Sitting trot there is no head wag which means rising trot happens from tension on my arms
• Bring my left shoulder back/straighter
• MORE inside leg and MORE bend to get her out of the safety zone
• Sitting trot practice rocking back more and letting my "crotch bounce" 
• Stretchy trot (which we did a few circles of here)

Poor Tillie was so tired after trying so hard she was ready to go to sleep:

Sitting trot = human blender

Lately our state has decided it wants to be Alaska because Saturday and Sunday (Valentine's Day) the temperatures dropped to below 20...Sunday, my truck said it was 12 degrees as I loaded up to go for a dressage lesson. Because what else can you do when all your lesson cancelled / the show is cancelled and cant ride on the rock hard footing?

I was also really excited to haul with my new truck for the first time.

Oh so excited!

Backing up to hitch up was easy peasy with the back up camera and now I am officially spoiled (I am sorry...I dont mean to brag!!! I have been driving beater cars my whole adult life - this is my first all out new with all the gadgets!!!)

I was really bummed the dressage show got cancelled...but decided to sneak in one with C to feel a littler better...

I chose to get there early again to give us some time to walk around to warm up since it worked so well the day before. Tillie was a bit more up here...the indoor is MUCH larger and the light was so strong coming in the windows from the snow reflecting it would blind Tillie and then cause her to be a bit jumpy. She finally figured out how to close her eyes going through those patches and settled in ok.

She kept being really rude about any contact with the bit and would root or dive her head down...even in really small short bursts. I worked on addressing that so by the time C said she was ready it wasnt as much of an issue.

Here is our warm up trot:

She started off really stuck and pulled a few whip nae naes when I started asking for bend with some leg. C had us do things realllllly gradually and try to get her warmed up with both inside bending and counter bending before asking for more trot...rather let her offer the bigger trot when she felt warm enough. 

She lost a left hind shoe at the end of the week so I was a bit worried if she was being inconsistent from being sore on that....

Here is our warm up trot tracking left:

She still felt way too light and not confirmed in the contact so C had me start having more of an outside rein conversation and think almost mini leg yield into it so we would spiral out gradually to a large circle, then smaller into a smaller circle and back out.

Then C wanted to use some changing rein exercises to help soften her more and partially through this is when I had a nicer contact and could start manipulating how high or low I wanted her rather then her dictating that herself:

Youll notice pretty early in this video, C instructs me to gently add leg as I set to push her away and encourage lifting her back. Keyword being gently to which Tillie thought my gentle was not gentle enough.

After a few turns, we started having more conversation about softening. 

See we can soften despite the cold

We did some leg yielding each way and leg yielding from right to left was really nice and easy. Seeing it in the mirror was really cool and exciting. The left to right she was having a harder time staying straight, but C had us take a walk break and promised we'd get back to it later in the lesson...she had other plans for us - AKA sitting trot AKA the human blender.

A still of stilling trot...not as bad as it felt

 First sitting it was just all over the place. I really did feel like I was in a blender and might bounce right out of the tack. The key is to still have a good working trot from Tillie, but sit it without asking for her to slow down too much. Her trot got really elastic here and watching this footage makes me really excited.

So C wanted me to ask for canter from the sitting trot...and my muscle memory was really making it hard for me. You can hear her scold me a few times because when I started thinking about other things I accidentally post...hehe "weenie" moves she said.

I cherish these photos of my smiling while riding...this used to be so rare, and now I have found the happy place again!

Unfortunately my phone died before we really got to improving :( but it was really cool how sitting the trot and canter sort of help one another improve. This first right lead canter was the first canter of the lesson and it already felt way more solid and balanced then usual with using sitting trot. 

After this round, we changed direction and I was able to start relaxing a bit more. C noted my sitting trot was MUCH better this direction and I wasnt gripping as much...my knees were open and leg was much longer. Left lead canter was just as nice which was a huge shock considering how unbalanced and weak it has been. 

So we walked after this a bit to mostly let me catch my breath and stretch out my hip flexors which were on fire. Who knew sitting trot was soooo much work?! 

Miss fancy pants

When we picked up sitting trot again, I immediately felt better about it was was able to rock back and engage my core without tensing my upper body or gripping as much with my legs. It took a reminder to breath here and there, but it felt better even with Tillie working in the forward trot she needed to be in. 

From here we did more leg yielding this time coming down the center line, leg yielding staying straighter and asking for canter through the turn. It produced a really nice canter! Tillie did this very well leg yielding right to left into right lead canter. 

We had to practice a few more leg yields left to right, but sitting trot allowed my to close my thigh more to keep her straighter. I notice I tend to tighten my left side this way which is part of the issue in her over bending and leading with the shoulder...I simply am not riding the right side enough and letting go enough with the left side. 

All in all Tillie tried really hard and C was impressed with her work ethic and by the fact she stayed as calm as she did despite the cold and a loose horse. 

The remote start for the truck was really nice to have warm and ready by the time we were done...and I topped off the Valentine's day with lunch with the barn girls and then dinner with the hubby. 

Valentine's day dinner.

Hope you guys had a great Valentines Day!!!

Harmonious Rides

As you have read, this ridiculous snow has forced us to either haul out to ride or not ride at all...which with work being as rough as it has been, having the time to haul out hasnt been there. BUT rather then teach Sunday like normal, I couldnt with our rings being frozen so I had another free day...so of course I make a point to haul to an indoor to ride.

so pretty

Tillie was an absolute star...I did some warm up in the walk just letting her free walk on a loose rein for a few minutes. I am still really aware of this head wag thing so my goal for todays ride was to see if she did it and if it was P's theory of not being through enough....so my goal was ride her forward thinking and see what I get.

Before I continue, the notion of getting a horse through or on the bit or in a frame...all those key phrases you hear...is always taught right the back end not the head. So yes, I should be riding more forward thinking always, but if you have been following my posts you know how hot my horse gets. The tricky thing about hot horses...when they get forward but are behind your leg so not really accepting the contact. THIS is what I mean by getting Tillie forward thinking...more accepting of my leg without being rushing forward but maintaining a rhythm and willing to seek the contact.

Bright eyed and ready to work

Today, I took dressage trainer C's advice and put her together in the walk before trotting. She was wonderful and remembered how to turn off my seat and bend with the use of my inside leg while keeping a nice marching walk. So without expecting anything other then a willing transition into trot I tried use the quick leg aid like the windshield wiper and she did a nice little spring into a trot. She settled into a nice rhythm and I only wanted rhythm and tempo to maintain at this point...after a few laps in each direction she naturally started seeking the contact on her own. AND NO HEAD WAGGING! 

I noticed tracking left she will tend to get forward more since she gets off balance more easily...while going right shell back off and I shockingly found myself using my driving aids to promote a bigger step. I am starting to think the head wag comes from my tension when she feels unbalanced...

I let her have a walk break keeping in mind we havent been in consistent work before picking her up again and boy was she in work mode. Normally shell start pulling and diving, testing the contact at the walk after I let her stretch...but she was quiet and our trot transition was spot on and connected. 

So we did our homework from a few weeks ago of lengthening and shortening the stride...lengthening on a smaller circle to prevent building or excitement and then shortening on a larger circle. She did it shockingly really well so I went ahead and tested them across our diagonals. 

They may not have been text book correct or pretty, but boy was riding that line fun. You could feel Tillie playing and testing her balance and get close to teetering into canter and re-balance with a small lift of my reins. 

She say oh yea thats fun!

Whats harder for her on these is coming back and restraining herself...which she surprised me again and was willing to come right back to a working trot. 

So after some laughs with my barnmate that hauled with us (she also tried these but on her green and very uncoordinated baby) We moved into leg yielding into canter transitions which my hopes would help a two things: 1) get our leg yields straighter through the body and not lead with the shoulder...and be soft / relaxing into it 2) improve the canter transition which would improve the balance of our canter. 

That sounds hard

It is a great exercise C has had us do a few months ago...and with Tillies left lead being much weaker and being unbalanced decided it would be a good thing to do. 

Tillie did the leg yields only first like a champ and was pretty darn willing to move her butt over when I asked her to keep it in line. So I went ahead and started on the harder lead first and the first canter transition into the left lead was slightly muddled but definitely not as bad as it was before the snow storm. So a few laps in left lead canter I was going to inside leg on and off to get her inside hind "jumping" and could hear C in my head saying "pop! pop!!" and got a pretty nice canter that didnt feel like our dressage lesson where it was on the verge of diving into the ground.

By the 3rd transition, it was spot on. Right lead canter was nice and I worked on getting more canter without getting flat. Its hard for me to think about adding more leg to get uphill when it feels fast, BUT this ride was nice because she felt in a good rhythm that I could push for more. 

After that we called it a day and ended with being a good quiet adult horse and gave a lead over a x-rail to the green bean and Tillie was such a good girl for that too! A few mere months ago that would have sent her exploding!

Now just to get in more riding time!

Biding Time until winter is over....so we dressage

So far we have been pretty lucky with winter...its been fairly warm and mild until the biggest snow fall in the history of our state's snow fall happened (and I am not exaggerating...it really was the largest recorded snow fall in the history of my state).

Sooo much snow...and this is from a few weeks later!!!

The snow fall was enough to put me over the edge...because it means not being able to ride unless I haul out and my job has been limiting that happening since no one wants a stranger in their barn later then 8pm. So anyway, I havent been riding nearly as much as Id like to and its sad. Very sad.

BUT once in a while I can haul somewhere and shockingly Tillie has been pretty behaved and, better yet, ready to work with a nice work ethic.

Is it me or does she look eeevvvvilll here?

Without boring you all too much longer on the intro, I scheduled a dressage lesson with C and finally got the opportunity to try hauling with my trailer with the partition open to see if Tillie's scrambling around turns would be better, worse or the same. 

Luckily all of our self loading practice came into to great use here since with keeping the divider open means no butt bar. I did minimally put up a lead rope but if Tillie realllly wanted to run backwards out of the trailer she could break it easily...but shes really good about waiting for me to ask her to back out.

Night hauling makes taking pictures harder :(

Tillie didnt scramble AT ALL...and majority of the time did keep herself fairly straight, but around turns you could see her swing her butt and angle herself. So I think I need to get myself a wider trailer and haul like this in the meantime...

Lesson Time: (sadly had no one their to take pics or videos)
I get on and just start going through the normal motions of loose rein walk around the whole indoor both directions a few times while waiting for C to finish another lesson. Tillie was quiet, had a bit of a speed walk going on, but not terribly looky like she can be. 

I start picking her up in the walk a bit to test her mood and see how much resistance Id be dealing with once C was ready...and Tillie was quite pleasant and even with a longer rein moved right into contact without missing a beat. Typically even after warming up walk trot canter, going from a loose rein to contact isnt as smooth as this! 

Once C started with our lesson we moved into a trot fairly quickly and her first transition was quite nice and she stayed connected without going inverted. Another Win! We treadmilled it at the trot a bit just to let her warm up...and C thought she looked off right front so we did a few changes of posting diagonals and changing direction see if it was worse on turns or a certain direction....but luckily it went away and Tillie seemed not bothered at all so we pressed on. 

C right away when I trotted again said "no bigger trot then this" which was interesting because I felt like we werent covering enough ground....I attribute this to me getting more comfortable riding her trot now and not always trying or needing to slow things down. 

Can winter and the early darkness be over yet?!

Tillie was pretty consistent in the trot and we worked on getting more inside bend both directions...for this ride, her right bend was much harder. My inside rein would end up touching her neck which C pointed out there should be a clear gap and the inside hand should be open and away...so more inside leg to push her away. But do not lose the outside elbow (I tend to straighten it out too much). 

Leg yielding 

Moving on from that we went into riding down the quarter line and leg yielding, but this time rather then using the entire length of the long side of the arena, C wanted us doing them pretty quickly without leading with the shoulder and focusing on a straightness. Tracking left she nailed every one, tracking right we had a few at first where she really didnt want her booty to stay in line, but a tad more inside leg and outside rein fixed it pretty easily. 

Tillie eating ALL the hay

Tear drop exercise
Then C had us ride tear drop formations (trot and at E make a 10M circle and trot a straight diagonal line between H and F and ask to change the bend). Once I got the hang of the actual figure Tillie rode through this exercise REALLY nicely. C remarked she was impressed!

We took a bit of a walk break and chatted about the upcoming dressage show and discussed strategies...when I started to pick Tillie back up again I reminded myself shorter reins and really felt I found that sweet spot (you know when your seat feels solid, your rein length feels right and the stars align?). Tillie on the other hand didnt appreciate the shorter reins and despite another lovely trot transition and half circle started "whip nae nae-ing" with her head when I applied inside leg (tracking left).

She did it a few times when trying to re-establish bend and I wasnt letting the reins out...C recommended I verbally reprimand her for this....that a physical squeeze or crop for her would be too much but I need to at least tell her NO.

I will admit, I felt like the contact in my reins was heavier then I like (I tend to waiver it seems or say this after not riding for a period of time). I never dislike when this happens...just seem to notice it and feel like its not "soft" enough contact which is false. She is soft...just not behind the contact like she used to be more often a few months ago. I think I just need to re-calibrate my feel...

UMMM...wheres my food?

So we treadmilled a bit at the trot again to let her get those out and C said ok, canter NOW! OK it wasnt quite that abrupt, lol, but it felt sort of sudden...as I wasnt really expecting to move into canter so quickly in the lesson. We sometimes only get to it briefly!

Test riding - being smart about placement of transitions

C did set me up for it talking about the strategy of riding in the test and prep for the transition depending on the horse I had that day. If Tillie was more up to ask earlier to use the corner or turn to back her off, if she was going well ask a bit more in the middle of the corner to present the long side of the ring to promote her opening her stride. 

Canter

So we started on left lead and it took a few steps at first, but she did a nice little jump into it I sort of didnt expect. She felt a bit unbalance on it again so I do a poor job being soft in my arms when this happens...but C talked me through it, we achieved inside bend and she felt a bit smoother once that was better. Her downward transition was a bit strung out and as we changed directions on the short diagonal Tillie was a bit fired up and ready to jumping into right lead canter which I promptly did a strong half halt which C agreed with. It sort of took away the rhythm but it was needed...and we regained a nice balanced trot tracking right within a half circle. 

I so good!

We went right into right lead canter once we passed C and it took a half the circle to get the inside bend, but once we did C even said it was a nice canter. She urged me to step more into my right leg so I dont fall to the outside (which would push tillie in and not be able to bend in). Her downward transition to trot this direction was really lovely. 

Center line - test riding

After this, C had us run through a few center line practices again really concentrating on no drifting...especially when you continue the trot on and turn at C. She said most horse and riders will drift before reaching C and to wait as long as possible to make the turn - for example if youre turning left, you start drifting right when over prepping for the turn. 

C said Tillies weight and muscling is looking good! 

Riding Novice A

Once we got the strategy for the center lines down we moved on to riding through a test. I chose to run through Novice A with C since that's the most difficult test I signed up to do for the dressage show. I am debating now on changing that after this ride and talking with Emma...but we will see how the next week goes if I change. I am currently signed up for BN A and B and Novice A. 

C called out the test as I was riding it and for the most part it rode pretty well. USEF tests tend to be harder for us since there is so much ability to build up in the trot and canter...USDF tests are nice since there is a lot more changing directions, circling, transitions etc to distract Tillie.

Her transitions out of canter to trot were a bit rocky...but C said if I plan them accurately the judge shouldnt be able to see it too much. Her right lead canter transition I planned perfectly and C said we would work on the left lead too next time, but both leads she stepped right into without needing a few steps, I just need to time the transition better and stop anticipating the build up so much.

Nicely trimmed tail :)

Her free walk we talked about her wanting to dive when she stretches...like throw her head down and pull the reins from me rudely. She has a habit of doing this when doing anything stretchy or even when letting her walk on a loose rein. C suggested I dont ever let her go around on a completely contact free rein until she breaks this habit and earns the privilege back. When she goes to root give her a boot or slap with my leg. No pulling of the reins, just a bump using leg. 

Aside from those C was really complimentary and said we definitely earned the award for most improved. :) Its really nice to hear!!! 

I seee you barn cat

Mid-January Dressage Lesson Recap

I know I know, this is so overdue I almost didnt blog about it...but the footage from this lesson is just way to epic and funny not to share. (in hindsight is funny).

So back when I thought Tillie was broken and my house was in shambles, I begged C to let me still come take a lesson on any horse she had available. See the intro and background story in my past post here.

I was glad I went to get my mind off of everything and it worked because I ended up getting really frustrated in my lesson...so not exactly a good distraction but one that is a step towards growing all the same.

C has a retired 3rd level pony horse (youll understand this description in a mere moment) that I rode in this lesson. While tacking up C starts warning me of all the devious things this horse does and going down a laundry list of do's and donts and I finally ask her "Should I be worried?..It sounds like I should be worried" I have heard this horse is quite particular and another friend rode her and said she felt like she didnt know how to ride all over again. LOL oh joy.

Walking Star between trotting

So, I do as I am told and walk Star all the way around the ring since she is also really spooky and proceed to get on. I was pleasantly surprised that not only did I not die, Star was ok...ok as in I could ride and maneuver around in the walk without much drama. I did get a lama/giraffe mode for a circle or two, but even C sounded surprised when commenting how much Star seemed agreeable with me.

I knew the real test would be once we started to trot. She did revert to a giraffe a bit just to establish I really dont know what I am doing but fairly quickly and without much fuss started working for me. Probably because I was thinking so hard about not losing my stirrups...idk what the heck was up in this saddle (not mine) but I felt like my ankles were so loose! C even thought they looked TOO short! I managed to just grin a bear through it, but do think it made me less noisy or in Star's face which came to my benefit.

so fancy!

I remarked at how similar of a ride she felt to Tillie...a bit picky, sensitive at times and then stubborn / ignorant others. Just all around a but finicky but I LOVED the challenge. That is until we started adding in lateral stuff.

Leg yielding was fine, just worked on really making sure the shoulder doesnt lead and her body remained straight. This was great for me to feel since I am also starting to set this boundary with Tillie and take her leg yielding to the next level.

Then we started working on shoulder in. On Tillie, I can shoulder in in my sleep...and I often times accidentally get her to, especially tracking left. Oddly enough, I did the same thing on Star warming up to. BUT ask me to do it on purpose on Star and I turn into a blubbering idiot apparently...LOL.

It was not pretty at first and Star wanted to make sure I knew that SHE knew her job...that it was me that needed to pull it together. I started scraping a few together and of course C goes and makes it harder by telling me to sit Star's incredible hard to sit trot to do it.

LOL by the end of the long side C told me to post before I would die...whew glad I survived that one!
But seriously, this horse has the most springy and active movement through her back that sitting the trot compare to Tillie took every ounce of concentration I had.

Because of my extreme focus on that, I somehow missed the memo we were transitioning to working on half passes (which I expressed interest in learning the aids for) If you get a chance to watch the video you can even hear me ask, "wait are we trying to half pass?" to which C explodes in laughter, "UH YEA!!"

This marks the point I was starting to get frustrated and luckily didnt have much longer at being tortured before we cooled out and I felt like I didnt have enough brain power to control all the million different parts of my body at once. I know its from a lack of trying this movement that the body control and coordination just isnt there, but when you know what it looks like and studied it so you conceptually get it but cant put it into practice...well that just sucks.

All in all, I decided I need to force myself to keep taking lessons on Star once in a while...it was a bit refreshing to ride something I didnt have such a history with as well as one that is trained so highly to teach ME for a change.

Hope you enjoy! I did put amusing music to the video to drown out my trainers voice...she would probably kill me if I didnt...

When the going gets rough - we dressage.

Lately, when I stress about Tillie (and non) related things I seem to have a habit of seeking out a dressage lesson with C. Sometimes it was unconscious other times it was not...but it seems to do the trick and get me and Tillie both relaxing. Who knew that by me being able to relax ends up producing a horse that is lovely and willing.

Tillie relaxing into a bigger trot in yesterday's lesson

I managed to convince C to fit me and thankfully she had some room...so off we went. Tillie wasnt nearly as back sore as she was the few days around Christmas so that put me at ease a bit. But Silly mare still can not stand up in my trailer around turns. She ripped part of the outer layer of her BOT mesh sheet from slamming her shoulders side to side :( 

It is really quite a miracle she loads because it looks unpleasant....

At least it isnt affecting getting to work on a more uphill trot!

Tille started off a bit ticked off initially, but C encouraged me to relax and let her slowly warm up not just get on and go. She stayed fairly inconsistent in the bridle in my opinion, BUT I am attributing some of that to the fact that dressaging on our own hasnt been happening much outside of one or two rides between jump lessons and my last dressage lesson.

She was especially fussy with the left side and C suggested possibly mouth sore...and to check my pelham. I am in need of a slightly larger size for it so could be causing some issue there for sure...at least i hope that is all it is. Fortunately, I feel OK with the double reins enough to only use it for jumping her for now. 

Fancy schmancy! 

Here is where we started warming up...notice in the remaining videos I post that she consistently inverts or fusses tracking left towards this side of the ring which is closer to the trailer and other horses so not sure if that is related or not or if it is just C's mouth theory.

Warm up tracking right...shes always a bit more consistent and easier to ride to the right:

C had us start keeping the rhythm around the larger ring and try some leg yielding to get her a bit softer and trying to get her more comfortable relaxing when moving her around.

We started to get to the meat of the lesson and talking about getting her sitting more on her hind end since I expressed my concern about this with Tillie and with jumping. C gave us a great exercise that i can also do at home:

When we opened up to more trot it was shockingly hard for Tillie to trust her balance going forward, but once she did I felt like her trot looked quite nice! 

By this point, Tillie felt really nice, but watching back videos notice she is inconsistent a bit in contact...but I am not terribly concerned with that nearly as much as I am about the tracking left, twisting and bobbing head thing. The bend was there so that is improving, but this head thing kills me.

C says its my left arm being really tense and not moving...and while it could be, I cant imagine why now? LOL and logically I know horses evolve and change and of course it can happen. I just dont want to get down this slippery slope and rein lameness which I have seen happen. I REALLY need to figure out what it is i am doing that causes this. Even when I concentrate on it, it doesnt seem to "feel" different.

*Le sigh*

At this point we ran out of time to canter, so C invited me to stay in the ring and continue practicing. My student who was filming managed to snap some of this too...

Well, there is my dressage lesson recap. Hope you all have a happy new year! 

Dressage lesson when your sick = hardest thing ever

Clearly I do not know how to rest up and take it easy...and I was in denial I was sick. So decided Tuesday I would try to suck it up and go to a dressage lesson. C is always great about positional corrections for me while making sure Tillie is doing her job correctly so figured it was the best place for my first ride back on in over a week. 

Tillie showing off her new boots. 

I was so proud of Tillie loading up since we took a friend's green bean horse who wanted nothing to do with loading. Tillie was the adult in this situation (thank god) and was a gem. Patiently waited and went on and off the trailer a few times in the hopes this other horse would load with her on, then maybe without her on....etc.

Yessss I so good! 

So I get on and immediately feel the same old crooked issue with my body...Where I feel like my left leg is longer then my right and constantly feel like I need to shift my weight to the right as if my saddle is crooked. This happens in all saddles...some more then others. I tried to not let it get to me too quickly and just do my best to adjust.

Our walk work was minimal and C instantly remarked how well that looked. Not too fast but not too slow...my first lessons with C the walk was rushed and then it became too slow in the next few. Tillie has the tendency to answer things in this way and sllllowwwly come to the middle eventually.

We started trotting and she felt really consistent but my arms felt like they weighed a ton. I believe now this was just from being sick/tired because riding since then each ride I have slowly regained my strength and its much improved. We warmed up with some leg yielding off the quarter line and I expressed my left bend issue of how she tricks me.

So we worked on riding more off my outside rein to close that door for when she likes to fall out and lose the outside shoulder and really use more inside leg to wake up the trot. Rides like these when I need more forward trot tend to mess with my head since I am so ingrained to slow it all down...but HEY new problems means progress right?!

We then spent some time discussing stretchy trot and worked on this with Tillie since I had left off working on that. Low and behold Tillie gave me the most wonderful willingness to stretch and all it took was taking a bit more of the inside rein and letting the outside slip out. Riding with wide hands when she loses the connection, and bring them together and forward as she stretches. Sounds so simple lol but it worked!

Psh this is no big deal any more mom!

There was a lot of commotion with it being feeding time at this point and I was so proud of Tillie for not going full giraffe mode like normal and stayed focused in work mode. 

We moved on to canter work which felt sooo strange to me. Not riding for over a week has a funny way of making it all seem foreign...but C said again she thought she looked pretty good and we would start working now on introducing a counter canter exercise to prep for that. 

I struggled a bit understanding at first what she wanted which led to a confused Tillie...and she really let me know how unfair it was at one point. C wanted us cantering and after the corner present like we were going to do a diagonal change of rein, but then by the center of the ring, still be on the quarter line and present Tillie back to the corner. 

Drawing it out makes more sense then explaining it

I was riding too deep and going all the way to the center line and when I heard C say no too deep I would panick and go back to the wall which confused Tillie and would result some of the time getting a flying change (which I have no idea how to ride or ask for yet...lol so good to know they are there!) and my balance and weight being all wrong and Tillie just getting pissed at me for getting in her way. 

BUT I finally understood it when C walked it for me...lol yes I was having that much of an issue and was clearly on the struggle bus and it produced such a wonderful canter by the end. 

It was clear at this point too, but crookedness issue was part of what was making this exercise so hard which C agreed and imbalance will get called out and show up in lateral work. So I need to go back to yoga and rebuild back to how strong I was before getting sick to catch myself back up. 

C left me with one more exercise where I would try an extended trot across the diagonal and then trot a 10 m circle to get her back to get Tillie sitting and lifting with a bit more forward and balanced and back to slow and balanced which is hard for her, and to test my evenness in both stirrups. 

The first two times Tillie broke to canter. The first time was right lead canter and then left because I over corrected. The last few times doing it was the coolest feeling...while it wasnt 100% correct extended trot C was excited we had a few steps of Tillie really sitting and toeing the line with the toe flick...she said you could really see Tillie testing her balance here and was impressed with how quickly she got comfortable doing it.

Tillie on the left ignoring the baby horse quivering and her shennanigans