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

Horse eating gremlins are everywhere

Wednesdays ride was the ride I like to call "overcome with the fear of horse eating gremlins." To be fair Tillie was wonderful in the ring...it was just our experiences when we left the ring that made this ride a bit more interesting.

Trying to hold on to the simple things in life, like a pretty sunset even if our ride wasnt stellar

Wednesday I really had to talk myself into going to ride. I just was not feeling motivated, but I am glad I did go. Despite there being lessons going on with some questionable steering, Tillie was pretty focused. Not quite as soft or supple as I would like, but she would give my some lengthening of her neck without losing her tempo or the connection!

BOT mesh sheet before and after rides = a happy relaxed Tillie

I did some canter work pushing the canter forward and then asking her to back off again without using any hand. As hard as that was to do, I was really impressed with how well she did it and without sass UNTIL the lesson with the children left and she noticed Isabelle (You'll often see her in Emma's blog) being long lined in the round pen next to the ring. She locked her side eye on her and began bracing on the right rein...even though we had been working past Isabelle the entire time without problems at this point...and when I did a check and balance on it she did a bit of a head toss before settling down.

The end of our trail ride adventure...where Tillie thought everything would eat her

 I made her do it one more time at the same end of the ring to establish it is possible when other horses are around and then decided to push my luck and take her on a cool down walk through the woods. After all, most days I get there after work so its too dark to go and I am usually too chicken to alone. BUT Tillie does seem to look to me more when we are without other horses and riders and I figured she needs to do this alone if we ever are going to improve and try conditioning one of these days.

She was a bit tense and looky at deer, fox, random leaves which I all scolded her slightly reminding her these things live with her in her pasture every day (Yes literally the deer come in her field every night). She kept it together until we came upon Gremlin Mountain.

I call it that because every time I have ridden this ravine/hill down to the stream crossing no matter which direction (ascending or descending) every horse, the seasoned and the green, just do not seem to like it. So we all have joked there must be horse eating gremlins down there we humans cant see...

After a few rears and spins without any bolting (see its the simple things) I got the mare down the hill and across the stream without any more trouble.

Yay for progress!

The day to day rides

After Saturday's amazing lesson, I found myself in a whirlwind of lessons to teach Sunday (12 hour day) and a lot of work to catch up on Monday so was unable to make it out to ride. Part of me was ok with that because whenever there is such an amazing ride like that, its really hard for the following ride to live up to it.

Look mom I can stretch! 

So I took Sunday and Monday to reflect and bask in the glory a little more while setting some realistic expectations for the next ride. I was even contemplating one more day but then realized I need to put on my big girl pants and just go ride...I always get upset we arent progressing, well we certainly won't if I dont actually ride my horse.

Isnt she just the cutest

I am certainly glad I did too because for the second time in a row, Tillie came galloping up the hill when I called for her! I have no idea if she really is coming to me or if she thinks I have food...but either way when she did it Saturday and yesterday it really just made my heart warm up.

Hi Mom!!!!

Unfortunately, I do not have videos of our ride or any footage so Ill have to recap as best I can in words. Overall the ride was an uncomplicated one again (yay!) I believe if I had instruction like Saturday it would have been another amazing ride, but leave me to my own devices and those bad habits start creeping in again (Rogue right hand, pinching at the knee, letting Tillie get too flat).

She was happy as a clam though to work and we did a quiet warm up w/t/c where all I expected were basics: Rhythm and Relaxation.

I could hear my trainer D in my head saying her trot was too flat and to add energy without changing the tempo...but I chose first to focus on the relaxation bit and be ok with the slightly flat trot if she was willing to stay relaxed. It was dinner time and another lesson going on in the ring so full expecting an unfocused and tense horse.

I used a lot of changing rein to keep the warm up interesting and test how connected Tillie could stay through the change since she tends to lose the rhythm and connection when we do. Nope! Mare was perfect!

This little bit longer/lower frame was my goal for the ride

Once I felt that was well established after a few minor reminders to pay attention (she wanted to look around a lot at the walk and trot transitions initially were full on giraffe mode) I decided to attempt to wake up the trot and canter without losing the relaxation or rhythm. So much easier said then done and I tend to either get not enough of a reaction or too much and we shoot forward.

While I feel like the difference wasnt HUGE, I do think there were some moments she was getting it and a few really strong moments of seeking contact with an actual stretch down! WOO!! She could only do it for a few strides before shed come back up but that is a much bigger response then I had two rides ago...even if her hind end wasnt as energetic as D would like to see. (*Note: this was not rooting either which is what she will do when her hind end is not energetic enough...this was honest contact down and stretching).

Will stretch for food.

Her canter -trot transitions were much nicer and she was willing to move forward into the trot rather then get coiled into the itty bitty canter and come down into this trot where her back is inverted but shes "in a frame" faking you out. We even got some really nice bend in the canter which has been a bit of a struggle.

I worked on letting her canter go and get bigger and then bringing her back to a slower canter without hand and she responded beautifully. Let me tell you what, I need some conditioning in 2-point position because I was out of breath after only a few minutes...I was also reallly trying not to grip with my knees since I tend to do that apparently:

This image shows perfectly how I am not actually wrapping my leg around Tillie when in a half seat or 2-point.

So sufficiently out of breath I was ready to call it a ride. But with some peer pressure from a fellow barn mate and because they were excited about hearing of our lesson Saturday, I decided to pop her over a few jumps just to see what I had and as a bit of reward for being so lovely flatting again.

We started off just cantering a small off a circle X to establish a rhythm and Tillie did that swimmingly. I then rode the same X to a rising oxer that was already set (about 2'7) and the first time through got an odd striding...about 4 1/2 to 5 but the last stride was really tight and she brought the front rail down. Not to say she never knocks rails, but it isnt often she does so just figured it was a distance thing and lets try again.

So ok, we need to either collect the canter a bit more or push for the four but, jumping Tillie, I prefer to do the add when first starting out to establish that adding is preferred with her tendency to get the gappy distances.

We circled and got our canter and came through again and it still rode really odd, but she cleared it. OK...one more time for good measure and to try to smooth out the edges. Nope, last time through was just as awkward and she brought down the last rail.

So in my head I decided lets try the other outside line and see if its us or the distancing of that particular line. The other outside line were two verticals, one with a coop as filler. First time through we got a nice even stride though Tillie drifted a bit left and was slightly wiggly to the coop. In all honesty it felt like she had lost a bit of confidence in the striding I am assuming from the first line because when I came back to do the line with the coop again she was much straighter and clicked into gear. I know I wasnt releasing just as much as my P lesson...but I tried to as best I could when I was thinking about it.

All in all she maintained a nice rhythm and I was pleased that, once again, she was uncomplicated.

I asked the friend that was teaching her lesson to quickly walk the distance of the awkward line because I was so curious. Sure enough it wasnt quite set up right and walked in an odd number of strides.

So lesson learned...if I am going to jump my horse I need to check distances or set them up myself.

Just do it (and questions about stretching)

I have found that whenever I go a certain period without riding, I actually require a lot of motivation to get back on and get back to work. I come up with every excuse in the book to prolong the inevitable. 

When I think about it, its so strange I do this because I miss it incredibly when I can't ride. So why all the angst? Finally it hit me...I am an amateur holding my riding with such high expectations and ambitions to that of a professional. This means I am constantly letting myself down. So I prolong getting back on the horse and experiencing the let down of what happens when your horse hasn't been in work so they forget the last 5 things you worked on. 

Luckily for me, I have the best barn friend, Merideth, who not only rode Tillie for me while I was away, but also to kick me in the butt and remind me of what a great horse I have and just do it. 

Eager and ready to work as always.

So I turned on my favorite Pandora station and turned off my anxieties and then I got on my horse for the first time in over a week. It was a bit eerie because no one was around with it being close to 8pm, but I breathed out a huge sigh of relief as we walked around on a loose rein for a few laps. 

I decided to approach the ride with a KISS mentality of just keeping things simple to prevent me having that "let down" feeling. I also decided to worship the fact I had a quiet and willing horse that wasn't so anxious or protesting any little cue from me like I have had in the past. There was a time not so long ago that walking around on a loose rein would not have boded well for my well being. 

So happy to see my girl after being away.

The next thought I had after starting to put her together was just how grateful I am to Merideth because I had a horse that felt like butter in all three gaits. She knew we were working and, like an old pro, quietly and willingly answered all my questions with crystal clear, definitive responses. Even if they were not exactly correct, she was doing them willingly and genuinely trying. 

I decided within 10 minutes of riding Tillie that I need to somehow convince Meri to school Tillie more for a few reasons:

1. Merideth doesnt have the same baggage I do when it comes to Tillie so she has a fresh perspective on what Tillie feels like. There is no "Normal" or what Tillie usually does, but rather this is how it needs to feel in the universal sense. 
2. Merideth doesnt coddle Tillie like I do and gets after her when she starts to evade, therefore problems get nipped right away before they become problems.
3. Having another rider other then me makes Tillie more educated and versatile so she is more accepting of the aids. 

These late night rides are exhausting

Her canter transitions were on point...relaxed into it, yet sitting and really pushing into the canter without all the extraneous "weeee we go fast now". We did a bit of schooling of the canter to trot transitions as she wanted to fall behind my leg and tense into it (it felt like she would coil and do a itty bitty canter before breaking into an unbalanced trot) rather then seek the contact and step into it.

After one time establishing this isnt how its done, she was much better keeping her spine more relaxed...relaxed for Tillie anyway. 

 I did ride with my reins incorrectly how my last trainer suggested and I must admit, it was kinda nice. I couldn't hang on Tillie even if I wanted to. Holding them that way made me use my reins when needed and leave them alone when not as well as carry my hands. 

I also pulled my stirrups for the last 20 minutes in the name of No Stirrup November and tried to use this opportunity to get Tillie to stretch more into contact and take a longer, lower frame (this is something Merideth started working on in her lesson with her and apparently Tillie was quite rude about jerking down). 

I know she can stretch!! Now how to do it under saddle?!

Trying the new:

Tillie quite happily trotted along not really doing much...so basically did NOT understand what I wanted at all without giving me any answers really at all. Hey at least we had a rhythm down right? So as my legs are screaming at me I keep trying to apply my leg and take it off so I dont nag with it on constantly. I think she thought I just wanted to stay "Here" and that was that.

So I tried getting different answers from her by asking for smaller steps without losing the energy, then, when that didnt work, bigger steps without speeding up. I tried staying on a 20m circle then spiraling larger and smaller to see if she had a preference...Nope. Nothing. 

Tillie's version of long and low has only happened while galloping at warp speed.

I could tell she was getting a bit confused so did some lateral movements shes really good at to build her confidence again and then tried again. 

Damn mare holds her neck righhhht where it meets the withers and just wont stretch at the trot. At the walk, got it. Ask for it at the trot and its like she doesnt trust her own balance. I mmmayyybe started getting a litttttle longer by the end but it was only a few steps here or there and more so tracking right then left. 

This picture is extremely dark, BUT it is one of her from the first few months I had her where she is
 stretching and showing she is capable of seeking contact. 

She just doesnt follow the contact like she should. Eventually as I slowly slip the rein, she will but at a certain point there is nothing and she eventually seems to either get bored or just isnt sure and she comes above the contact again. 

I stayed patient and changed my approach to just asking for any iota of a response, right or wrong, rather then her going around doing nothing. Eventually I did get small responses so I guess that is good right? **sigh** Something I'll need to ask about in a follow up lesson later this week. I also am toying with setting up my mullen bridle again and riding her in that for this purpose to get her seeking the contact again - the trick being not letting her lean or fall on the forehand.