Embracing the Challenge

After the Dom Schramm clinic two weekends ago, I was quite excited with how  well Tillie developed over the two days we participated. There were many light bulb moments and it certainly helped that Dom expressed how cool he thought Tillie was.

It got me thinking about trying him out for lessons outside of a clinic with him being a reasonable distance to us. Turns out he is close enough that he is willing to come to us!

Waiting for Dom!

So that he did yesterday and I found myself a little nervous. I haven't taken a lesson at home in a while, and in the past those home lessons were usually not so great. Not sure what it is about home... whether its because Tillie can see her friends, the footing or whatever, she just doesnt give me the same ride as off the farm. Almost like she thinks she knows better at home where as off farm, she relies on me a bit more. She gets a bit, what I call, squirley and sucks back then leans, goes too slow then jigs...just in general is just not as soft and willing. She anticipates and I can really only choose certain battles...

Dom was super pleasant and began setting up some jumps clearly knowing what he wanted to do. Something about his complete knowing and having a plan soothed my anxiety a bit. Warming Tillie up, she instantly felt softer both ways than in my dressage lesson the day before. We told Dom our plans for competing this Sunday and he asked if Tillie and I were doing the training division!? EEKS!!! lol I laughed and said no that we are starting out BN but training definitely a goal Id like to get to with her one day. He finished setting up and sent us out to warm up again.

Tillie figuring out where her legs go and sitting down to jump!

When we were trotting around warming up, he said right away to develop a nice energy level in the trot...for jump warm up you do want softness, but it isn't the same as a dressage warm up. Right away he picked up on my left hand dropping down issue and another light bulb moment...rather than tell me to lift that hand he said "your left leg just isn't doing much is it? So your left hand is trying to compensate." Don't know why that never occured to me but he laughed and after a few laps of actually using my darn left leg he said it was remarkably better.

Our canter transitions still arent 100% there, but they were better and less all over the place until Dom asked us to do one on cue. (of course right). At this point is when she started getting a bit lit up but Dom was understanding and really didnt force the issue, just said no worries take a walk and lets use the warm up exercise to develop the ride we want.

He said to let the warm up exercise help develop the canter and jump we wanted so we didnt spend too much time for warm up.

Warm up:

The first exercise was set as three small one stride jumps on a curve. The idea is to test the horse's balance and if they are their jump should show improvement over each jump so the final jump should build to a nice round  jump. It also is meant to test and develop your eye on distances since the approach should be a bit deeper take off from a smaller canter.

Easier said than done!

The first two attempts we got a bit long coming in so Tillie jumped flat. But once we found the sweet spot she did a nice job through and Dom just sent us through a few more times to confirm it. We changed leads and came in from the right and had a bit of a struggle bus moment again where Tillie drifted left a bit. Dom just reassured us, sent us through again but had us open the inside rein earlier on the approach which helped.



Serpentine Exercise

Next Dom had two verticals set up roughly 40 - 44ft apart...this is what he said he guestimated it at. With a 20 meter circle being 66 ft that it was set to ride on a 20-25 meter circle. He said that measuring it always helps, BUT you want to look at it and see if you can ride it in 4 strides in the arc primarily and then adding 5 and 6 strides would come as long as you could ride the 4.

He had me go first...yay us! He had us set out to try it thinking of changing our leads and get it in 6 strides first. We struggled at first getting the right striding and the left to right lead...but as we kept doing it we started hitting a decent rhythm. He told us not to slice the approach too terribly much and to use the curve for the right stride not the angle of the fence. That proved to be a bit challenging...

Then we tried it in 5 strides then 4. While we started getting some nicer even strides the precision of getting the number of strides we wanted wasnt always there. It definitely is my piloting error and in the nicest most encouraging way possible, Dom said I just need to be better at this and the better I get Tillie gets better. It is evident throughout the exercise that when I ride it right so does she. It also became evident that riding her on the more forward stride, there was more adjust-ability there...GO FIGURE!

What was really challenging but cool about this exercise :

1. is it helped develop our eye for the distance through the turn much farther out (rather than trying to adjust the last 2-3 strides before) and get the canter for the correct ride in the turn. 
• This will help me with Tillie's rideability according to Dom because she does get so lit up and strong that it will allow me to ride her through the turn and be softer once we lock on to a jump
2. Adaptability to be able to know in the future which striding or path is the one to take depending on the first jump. This technique will help with stadium courses and stringing together fences. 
3. Getting the lead mid jump and being more aware of that. 

So yea lots to think about, but it is a great exercise to show some holes that need to be ironed out. 

Putting it all together

Finally Dom put some fences up and had us ride a mini course to see if our horses learned anything and the goal being- did they (as well as us riders) develop accuracy and a nice form over a fence?

I would have loved to try the entire thing again, but Dom had us ride the oxer a few times more for me to work on the landing side keeping my hands forward to allow Tillie to finish the jump. He said she is so powerful with her hind end over them and kicks it up so high and her tendency to land strong has gotten me in the habit of sitting up quickly...which he said is the right thing to do, but do that while keeping my hands forward enough for her to stretch.

Again - duh! P has been trying to convey this very message to me for months now...more release more release and just a simple rephrasing was like Oh...well....Yea! 

Conclusion

I LOVED the lesson...while it didnt FEEL awesome, it was definitely a lesson with exercises meant to challenge and open up holes to fill. Dom still said how cool Tillie is and offered to keep coming down despite not having a full group that he would be happy to help us through the season. He also invited me and Brita (my lesson partner) up to XC school at Boyd's place anytime and to text him to set it up... UMMM YEA!!!!

He was reasonably priced and actually pretty affordable...so I am definitely thinking to keep trying this!

Here is the compilation of the lesson...sorry for the odd clips, next time Ill tell the kiddies to just keep filming since I like hearing his feedback and commentary too.

When you just cant get on the same page

While I have been staying diligent and jump schooling at home, it was really apparent I havent been to a P lesson in a while...

Tillie was a good girl but she just felt sluggish. Warming her up she was ok, just didnt seem really eager to try like usual. She did what I asked, but she felt more like a gelding rather than my snappy sports car (no insult towards geldings intended there!) where is quick to think. 

It was chillier than it has been during the week, BUT it was humid and Tillie was already sweating after a brief warm up so I really didnt push it too much. 

One of my favorite Stills from the lesson...go Tillie go!

P had us start warming up like usual over some smaller jumps in a one stride line to get the horses sitting and paying attention. Tillie floated through and was totally in line with it. She even sorta woke up here and I had more horse under me again.

Last dence in the one stride lines with the oxer helping tillie to stretch

P had us then break down what our course was a and jump it a piece at a time starting with an outside line. I have an odd phobia about cantering into fences...I know most people hate trotting in and I used to hate it, but I feel like it forces Tillie to push more uphill to jump and keeps her slower. So rounding the turn to come into the first line in canter I know I sat up and just waited rather than moved up to the distance that was required.

Second fence in the line...we had a few striding issues the first few times.

We went through it again and it went a bit better after P suggested trying to allow Tillie to move up to the distance and be better about trusting her...but most of the striding issue she said was just a green bean move and it would sort out.

A litttttttle better

Tillie was fine despite these blips and kept a cool head, she didnt bat an eye and kept going so P had us move on to the opposing outside line. We had a chip in to the first fence which Tillie decided to fix by taking a flier to the second. 

P encouraged us and said it was good riding on my part and it was just a green bean move from her and I did a good job staying out of her way. She did land a bit forward and protested my half halt with some head flinging, but hey no leaping through the air or bolting through my reins!!!

Better approach to the first fence.

Our diagonal fences after the lines tended to be the harder fences for us...trying to get Tillie balanced and sitting on her hind end around the turns is challenging still. She no longer is bolting or diving, but she still isnt quite quick enough to sit up and lift so P had to talk us through the timing of the half halt, how hard its needed and then being soft without dropping her right before the fence. 

Tillie figured it out after a bit and got a nicer uphill jump

weeee

P put the fences up and had us then try putting all the jumps together...

The one stride jumps were nice to have in the middle as a sort of reset and seemed to help tillie figure out oh hey we sit to jump! But the darn diagonal fences after the lines seemed to still post our biggest challenge. Especially after the first line:

Finally getting a better distance, but still not uphill and unable to lift the shoulder.

 Luckily the one stride lines presented a nice thinking exercise for Tillie and as P said, made her have a bit of a light bulb moment.

Last fence in the one stride. 

You could hear P say "thats the fence we have been looking for!" because after that, Tillie jumped uphill and in balance the remainder of the course, even after the long canter stretch to the last fence. 

See more uphill!

Re-watching the videos, it doesnt look nearly as bad as it felt...I felt like we just werent quite syncing up. Some of it P chaulked up to the height being upped a bit which does change your ideal take off point/distances which will require me to balance her sooner and be soft. Soft being the operative word so she cant hang on me like I currently let her. 

Well here are some clips from that lesson:

Sunday Funday

I am usually way too exhausted after teaching lessons all day to ride my own horse...but the weather was a beautiful spring - like day in the mid-60's that I couldnt resist. It was so fun too because I had my trusted 3 musketeers to help as jump crew and video...these are a few of my more advanced students that ALWAYS help and are a huge lifesaver many times over.

The end of our ride - all smiles and proud we can not only jump, but we can jump big and keep our heads screwed on:

 I actually used Tillie in an earlier lesson doing this very same exercise just as small x's and was super impressed with her keeping her cool and how well my student rode her (one of my three musketeers). I do always get a bit nervous for both my students and for Tillie because I care about each of them and want to set them both up for success. I was quite proud of them both!!!

So when it came time for my ride, I had the students come down and give me a lesson...I said ok, you tell me what to do and what to fix...what you see happening. I really want them to start being able to talk about what they see. They are great listeners and soak it all in, but I find by allowing them to say it out loud they can start "owning" the information on their own.

Look at those knees! 

I also realized this was my first time jumping outside of a lesson in months....and outside the indoor since before the blizzard. So I tried to remind myself to give Tillie the benefit of the doubt and work towards my goals of releasing more/upper body work and heels down. There was a one stride grid set up made of two one stride fences with the middle fence as an oxer.

So I warmed up while they set the grid height lower(I walked the distances first to be sure!) and started off trotting into the grid. Tillie was a bit excited so I did a few times through halting her at the fence. She needed the check a few times and did blow up on me at one point when she turned one of the one strides into a bounce...but it was for one circle afterwards and to be expected.

Sadly it wasnt caught on video.

Good mare Tillie!

I did school over a skinny a few times around 2-2'3 to start making her look for the fence/get more comfortable with it...my goal for next schooling is to set a few different types out like the barrels on the sides and the mini coops we have. But once she jumped it both ways ok, I stuck with the grid.

But this gem was...not sure whats more awkard, her legs everywhere, her neck or my butt. 

The photo above really captures an awkward moment that really didnt feel all that awkward when riding through it. I had been slowly raising the height in the grid, but wanted to test her scope a bit and my positioning with this last fence and this was the first time jumping it at around 3ft. I dont think she expected it and sorta scraped by with an "UGHHH I WILL NOT TOUCH IT!!" but looking like a lama in the process. But hey, I am releasing and my leg is awesome! And my post worrying about folding...well apparently I can.

WWEEEEEE!!

It felt really good to jump around and feel like I knew what to do, how to adjust and give the kids a few good laughs and let them tell me to release more, heels down!! etc. It actually really helped! I made a point to work on my goals and trust Tillie as she got better and more relaxed.

I mostly stuck to trotting in to keep things slow and because its so beneficial for Tillie but when she would land in canter and give me a nice rhythm I would do that as well.

Watching the footage, I am super impressed with how great Tillie is jumping and lifting over the first two fences...the last one you can tell she still isnt perfect. But I am reassuring myself this will come with time since it wasnt that long ago she jumped even the little fences like that. 

I do think I did a decent job working on my release and could see how it allowed Tillie to stretch more. Heres a clip from the summer over something little where shes jumping not so great like the last fence in the grid. So it does reassure me shell get there!

So heres the entire footage I got from schooling...see if you can hear the one time through that starts off with me not counting properly, yelling Tillie, WAIT....GOOD GIRL!!!! hahaha

Form over fences

In my post yesterday, I outlined my monthly goals going into March (RECAP HERE).

My biggest struggle right now is related to consistently being able to release over fences enough to allow Tillie to stretch. I have a hard time with this because her neck is fairly short, so I need short enough reins to have a good feel for her and keep her in the contact for flatting between the fences.

So lets take a look at few recent photos of us over fences to review:

Out of all the photos above, the first one is the ONLY one where my hands are not planted at her wither. I also notice in all of them, even the higher heights my hip angle doesnt really change all that much. I stay really upright in my upper body, which is always a BAD thing...but it certainly isnt allowing me to get those longer /lower arms. 

P suggested to lower my hands on each side of her neck and that would help, but clearly I am stuck in this position and no fence or change of anything causes me to adjust. 

I do not want to lay on my horses neck like Ive seen all too many times...but I do think I have a stiffness somewhere or this safe place of balance (not unlike Tillie when we dressage) that I havent quite been able to branch out of and trust. 

So I guess I need to figure out how to do this...and how to not get too quick with my upper body on the approach but get more comfortable once we do take off and land.

2016 short term goals - status

So back in December, I published goals and would like to try to establish monthly goals (see the post here). With the crazy weather we have had this winter, I sort of slipped in keeping up on choosing and writing about them...but here is my best attempt to try again.

Remember when this goal? to canter a fence in stride without holding or using reins for tempo?
This was the first time being able to do that and it was HUGE! 

Here is a recap of my December goals:

1. Learn how to ride in double reins in the pelham Check! In fact, I havent needed to jump in it for a while now :) Lets hope it stays that way once we go back to the outdoor ring again.
   
2. Ride at least 4x per week despite work being nutty this month - This didnt exactly happen all winter, but the weather and a frozen ring were the culprit
3. Convince Emma to show me how teach me and Tillie to self load See my blog post about it here
   
4. Improve auto/crest release - I think this is improving, but it needs to be more second nature before I consider this accomplished. Especially after our twisting and turning jump lesson when my release wasnt that great.

   

   even here hands are still stuck right at her wither.

5. Get Tillie more maneuverable in canter I am considering this done after our last dressage lesson(recap here), although I dont think we are confirmed with this goal yet...we did achieve it so the goal is now to maintain it! 

UPDATED MONTHLY GOALS:
(Pending weather)

1.  Ride at least 2 days on crummy weather weeks, but at least 3-4 days if it isnt bad weather
2. Heels down over fences, especially on landing
3. Improve release over fences (maybe fold more in the hip without getting too quick with my upper body?)

I am trying to limit my goals so they are more attainable...but the last one # 3 is where Id like to start a discussion, but Ill save that for my blog post tomorrow. 

Overcoming obstacles (including self doubt)

So here is part two from my Saturday lesson (see part 1 here) - This is the overcoming obstacles and self doubt part. As I said in my last post, I wasnt super excited with my lesson...it wasnt bad, but I didnt feel like we knocked it out of the park either. I know I know...less than stellar rides happen but I am sure you can all tell I am bit of a crazy lady and have a hard time feeling good even when I should about a ride. 

Before I continue, I am sharing some stills from the lesson that made me, in retrospect, feel a lot better about our ride:

Tillie and I getting it!

 ------------------------------ Part 2 ----------------------------- 

So at the end of the lesson, just like P always does, she asked if anyone else wanted to do or try anything else. I usually dont say anything...but I reallllly did want to try the barrels after I saw Emma post about her lesson that she went to on a weekday (I had this pesky thing called work so sadly couldnt go).  

So in true, FOMO I was dying to try...but wasnt going to speak up until, like a true friend, my barnmate did since she know how badly I wanted to try.

warming up before the lesson

P is so sweet and let our lesson run over and started to set up the barrels. For me, doing these barrels symbolizes overcoming a major obstacle and fear...I wanted to do it because neither Tillie or I have done these so knew it would be a test of our relationship and groundwork from the last few months.

Shockingly, as she was setting up, I thought I would be more nervous...the only tiny bit was evident when I asked P to set us up one small barrel on its side to start with just to familiarize Tillie with it.

Tillie Didnt care! 

So after we cantered the small barrel P shouted, ok keep coming!!! Which in hindsight was a good thing since it sort of gave us a rhythm to start with.

Approaching the barrels, my thought wasnt, oh god thats big...it was more or less, thats skinny and interesting looking. I know If I find it odd to look at, so will Tillie so I just breathed it out sat back and allowed her to look at it on the approach:

So we kinda missed it at first...but I LOVE this mare for being so game. She never offered to stop or change her pace. She kept going forward, just got a bit wiggly. So new goal: start jumping low skinnies to teach her to look for the jump rather then look for the other side.

So we land (Tillie seemed not to be too rattled) and around we come for the 2nd try...This Time I was was more prepared and closed both legs around her. She faltered a little again and jumped them a little off to the left this time:

Talk about being brave and getting it done...

Ok so we know we need to try again and hope we get it just right in the middle this time and finally things clicked into place:

Just in case you missed it i have TWO angles of it:

P wanted us to try again...so we did. It didnt end on quite as awesome since we couldnt seem to find the right distance the last two attempts, but I definitely seem to have mastered the eventing equitation of stay in the back seat and let the reins slip:

Tillie was very proud of herself and celebrated around the turn...but it was reasonable and a perfectly acceptable one! HUGE progress for Tillie...especially since landing from a gappy distance like this in the past would send her on a full rampage. 

Pats for Tillie!!

A few things came to light through doing this:

1. My horse is awesomely game and brave
2. We need to work on teaching her to look for the fence itself rather then the other side
3. I need to not get ahead with my shoulders - which is the reason for the gappy distances
4. I need to work on folding and being softer in my hip (being defensive is all great, but sitting that upright just looks ridiculous)
5. Tillie REALLY likes her job

Ears back ready for more!

The majestic tail flip

See - upright position, but hey Tillie is stretching! 

not enough release here, stiff upper body and not folding enough for the height.

just another angle

So all in all I was really excited with giving this a shot. It really showed how Tillie and I have gotten to know each other and faced this obstacle together...this really helped my self doubt in our abilities and talent. While I am sure Ill still doubt, for now I am just happy with how willing she is to try for me! 

Twisting turns in our Saturday Jump Lesson

Well as I let on in my previous post, my Saturday jump lesson with P was definitely one to remember. I am splitting it into two parts since the actual lesson was very different from the overcoming obstacles and self doubt part.

------------------------------ Part 1 ----------------------------- 

The east coast finally had a nice thaw this weekend with Saturday being so warm I was able to wear short sleeves!!! It was so nice out in fact that it got me to rally despite my severe sore throat, no voice and ear infection to go make my lesson. I am glad I did because the more I moved and longer my antibiotics were in my system, the better I felt.

WARM UP: 

Warming up before P arrived Tillie felt happy and ready to work. She has a new "sass" habit that is much milder then her blow ups before warming up that usually entail a few whip nae naes of her head when first asking to trot or first really using any leg. Its her way of saying...yeaaaaa no I am not really wanting to do that. She also tends to do this sometimes when we first canter OR when we do a jump really well and shes happy. So its universal way of Tillie saying, I am Queen Bee and I am in charge.

Queen Bee herself looking a little bit more like a giraffe then a Queen

I am not worried about it at all and happy that this is what I ride through now over bucking and dolphining without steering. 

I cantered her both leads and really tried to work on getting some softness and a true bend through her body since I feel like shes happy to stay where ever she puts herself, but as soon as I ask for something else she gives me the whip nae naes like our first canter warm up:

Her left lead canter warm up is below and she really started understanding and letting me manipulate her a bit more:

Once P arrived, we all filed in nose to tail and did some trot over ground poles to establish a rhythm. I am noticing that seems to be a trend the last few lessons. NOTE: Tillie's tail wag in her trot in this video really makes me smile:

As you can see in the warm up video, P had quite an interesting set of jumps for us. What is really neat about the exercise is there were lots of turns making establishing a good rhythm both needed and really hard (since riding forward through turns is something I never could do before with my hot horse) BUT a lot of lead changes throughout. It required me as a rider to really plan ahead and set up Tillie to bend and use my weight and seat cues to tell her to land on the lead in the direction we would be going. Easier said then done...so after some confusion about the order of jumps we all had a turn:

So we didnt quite get the leads at first...but I really didnt catch on this was the point until after watching everyone else go after my turn (I am a visual learner, what can I say?). So the next round I decided to commit to cantering the entire thing...we almost got all the leads!!! 

I would have liked the simple change to come a bit faster and cleaner, but she was a unbalanced through the turn so it took a bit of convincing her to stop bracing to get it. Other than that this was one of better more steady, even rounds. I just love her tail flip over the oxer:

P made it a bit harder and added a new pattern with bending lines...Tillie and chipped into the first fence but recovered nicely. We also came in slightly tight to the over, but I LOVED how well she sat to jump it rather then curl under herself like she normally does. Because of this we didnt get the lead, but it didnt throw off the tempo at all. We continued and didnt get the lead again which I think was my fault not shifting my weight in time after the tight turn. After the entire thing, I really was surprised at how nice her trot was...the quality of it as well as the relaxation:

There were ALOT of us in this lesson so we didnt get to have many chances at it, but I liked that...it simulated the standing around at a show and having to wake Tillie up and say pay attention! In the past we have had issues getting our ryhthm early enough in a course. 

Ill admit, I wasnt feeling totally great about this lesson until re-watching the footage. P had said after the first round to really sink my weight down in my heels more - which I think she meant it as how to shift or change balance better to get the change, but during the lesson it sounded in my brain like an up-down remark you hear all instructors say : "heels down, sit tall"...lol. Also, P said Tillie was a bit curled and not stretching like she wants and attributed it mostly to the tight turns but softly reminded me to think about that...I guess we need to start working on longer reins and achieve this same control.

us looking more dressage here than when we ride in dressage lessons

I got home passed out and this morning watched the videos and was pleasantly surprised to see how polished we looked despite our mistakes. 

So, Part 2 to come tomorrow!! Heres to hoping my ear infection will be cleared up before then since it quite literally hurts :(