This post is a bit out of order, but I was way too excited to share about yesterdays lesson...so we dressaged on Saturday. The weather here on the east coast has been, you guessed it, non stop raining. It sucks, but I am trying to make the best of and keep on keeping on with our training.
Wet unhappy Tillie
Tillie has started her Doxy treatment and luckily hasnt been worse for ware since starting. She still feels really good and supple and happy to work.
schooling saturday and she was happy to work
We did a jump school Friday practicing what we learned in our lesson with Dom that previous Wednesday. It went and felt so much smoother which is nice because it tells me she is learning...the only mistakes were piloting error so I am trying realllllly hard to give her the best ride possible. I guess it will come with time...
Saturday was so yucky we decided to haul to the indoor where we take dressage lessons to school. I dont mind riding in the rain, but once in a while its nice to have access to such nice state-of-the art footing to ride on to eliminate the blips in the footing in our ring.
Starting to get better about those lengthenings!
Tillie was all business when we arrived and ready to work. I started off trying to get her to stretch a bit with this being one of our goals. I know this will help keeping her loose and swinging in her back which will help her while being treated for lymes and its also a movement we will be tested on in training level tests so we need to get more confirmed at it now.
Pats for a good girl trying so hard
Tillie did a really nice job staying connected in the contact while stretching down...in the past shes poked her nose out and lost that nice full feeling in my reins.
Some video of stretching and starting canter work:
After this we did some canter work and while the transitions still leave something to be desired, the canter itself felt way more comfortable for me to ride and much more soft through her body.
Here is some video of our canter and lengthening work:
She did break once into canter, but C has told me in the past this isnt a bad thing and to not reprimand her...forward is good and its the correct answer, but usually shell break if I am not 100% even in both stirrups or half halting enough evenly.
Starting to get more uphill!
I am very eager to try the Custom Saddlery VLX this week and finally get a dressage saddle again! But shockingly my jump saddle seems to have worked well for us in the meantime.
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!!!!
I have been up to my eyeballs...and trying to keep up!!! It is all good, just stressful.
We have snow in the forecast tonight and tomorrow so I am hoping that the warmer weather we have had will make it just be a blip without setting us back. I actually was able to ride 2X this week...thats right, middle of the week rides!!! Woooo!!
How Tillie feels about me riding on a week night.
I was a bad horse mom and totally forgot to give Tillie her depo Sunday so brought it to give to her Tuesday...unfortunately I do think it affects Tillie more than I realized and she was in a meh kinda mood for our ride. She just didnt have the work ethic she has had lately, which given this was our first time riding an additional day could have been just sheer tiredness while we rebuild strength.
Me tired? NOOOOOOO...
I felt a built guilty because I did get frustrated in the ride and realized I am falling into the trap of comparing to well this is what we did and how it felt the ride before. I need to ride the horse I have today and what I should have done is just did a hack around and loose rein work. But I did promise I wouldnt go down the coulda woulda shouldas so...we had an ok ride. **shrugs** they happen sometimes right?
Ah the little things like a dry freshly dragged arena
Tillie just didnt want to get off the right side, she was bending but not really bending. She didnt even really put up a fight when I kept asking for more which, in hindsight, I should have realized meant she was tired. But I tried starting slow to ease her into with stretchy trot and some light canter sooner in the rides like the clinician suggested.
She was nice and quiet in the transition, just a bit sticky. I tried to start working on some of our dressage homework of lengethnings and Tillie is really starting to understand...it isnt perfect, BUT she will quietly come back really nicely now which allows me to be able to be braver and riding her more forward for that bigger trot.
Isabelle happily hanging out while Emma sets jumps while we cool down
Tillie had a bit of a hard time maintaining the canter in our canter work when starting the counter canter exercise C gave us as homework...I let her settle and rebalance in the trot before cantering one more time before I just said ok its not our day for this. I finished the ride working towards stretchy trot.
so cut
But I have other big fun news to share!...so remember I was trailer shopping. I have been doing research and window shopping gradually getting more and more serious.
And I finally decided and put a deposit down on this beauty!!!: 2001 Exiss 2 horse with a dressing room. I ran across it on a classifieds and it was a really good price for the shape that it is in. The tires are brand new, new brakes, new lighting etc.
The only downside is now having to wait for it!! UGH sooo hard lol. I am hoping to have it by the end of the month...worst case not until April after Rolex. GAH But either way im so excited!!!!
and that means warmer weather and finally having a rideable ring rather than an ice rink. I was so excited to be able to take a change of clothes with me to work and go through the routine of riding and working on all that homework we have.
Tillie and Krimpet arent so sure they like this
I found myself driving to the barn feeling butterflies which I have a hard time sometimes separating if its anxiety or excitement. Excitement because I can actually ride my horse at home and not haul somewhere, but anxiety because I have only been riding her in lesson setting right now.
Its really easy to get used to that and become reliant on that instructor coaching you through everything. So I was a bit worried at trying to reproduce what we have been getting in our recent rides all on our own.
Tillie says Im Ready!
Walking down to the ring you could tell Tillie was a bit curious...like oh we havent been down here in a while, whats this thing, whats that thing. But she wasnt spooky at all and was her usual consistent self she has been as of late.
I made her stand for a while after getting on her since shes gotten a bit quick to walk away when I mount lately...Im not a huge stickler for has to stand all the time, but I also dont want mounting to turn into a game of vaulting.
Look a ring that isnt frozen!
I got on a did my usual walk on a loose rein for a while and figure out what areas were still frozen, too sloppy wet and dry enough for some of what I had planned. Tillie acted like an old seasoned pro and just went along wherever I wanted.
I picked her up to work and she was a bit reluctant and did some rooting and lost some tempo in the walk so I heard the voice in my head that said walk and get a soft rhythmic walk before trotting. It didnt take all that long and I did push into a trot. I noticed right away that Tillie was much less stuck like she has been when first trotting lately and more willing to go forward without the head tossing. In fact she didnt at all until after two or three circles I picked up contact and started asking with inside leg for bend.
Happy to be back in work!
I tried to emulate what we worked on the day before in our dressage lesson and found either she was much easier to get the exaggerated bend OR I was settling with what she was giving without C there to push for more. Either way, it felt great to me and I did a bit of testing of the bend and connection with some changing rein/serpentines and counter bending.
I continued warm up with the spiral in and leg yield out exercise C had us do before walking to give her a break. I made sure to not let her head dive or root before allowing her full freedom to stretch.
After a quick rest I picked her back with not as much apprehension from Tillie and did a few walk trot walk transitions to make sure she understood and asked for a bit bigger trot. I tried to focus on widening my hands, thumbs up and keeping that bend. I really didnt notice any head wagging so hoping it helped!
I decided to go ahead and canter before sitting trot to really make sure she was warmed up through her back...and she gave me a nice transition both ways. I worked on getting her soft in the canter with the idea of bending her more around my inside leg like C had us doing at the trot...I did the same circle exercise in canter which really produced a nice easier to ride stride.
Kisses with herd mates
I couldnt do too much more in the canter since our ring is still partially frozen limiting to me about half the ring, so I decided to leave that where it was and tell Tillie what a good girl she was and ask for some stretchy trot both ways. I tried to make sure I was sitting tall and not trying to stretch for her by leaning which would only put her on the forehand.
She still doenst quite give me as much as I want, but by a few circles into it she was starting to follow the contact without being so rude about it.
To end, we did work on lengthenings again and it was by far the highlight of our ride. I was expecting a similar response to our lesson the day before with a few blips and general going forwad but not letting go...the first two were very much in line with that. But after that we had a few REALLY impressive ones (at least they felt that way) where I felt a lifting feeling and it was a fine line teetering between breaking into canter or not pushing enough.
Tillie was so into it and so responsive and willing to come back to a more modest trot I was so impressed. We called it a night after that :)
Heres to hoping we are on the way to spring sooner than later!!!
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:
Push her around the inside leg even more - SO much freakin inside leg
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)
My left shoulder creeps forward making me crooked/twisted in my torso
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:
My last two posts documenting the worst day ever has certainly marked quite the welcome wagon to 2016. I really hope this doesnt set the tone for the rest of the year.
I decided to hope and pray that I could go to the barn yesterday and get some relief from the mess and have a nice relaxing ride.
The night after the shitstorm...Gunner and I taking shelter in my study with reinforcements.
I got on and forced myself to not touch my reins at all in all three gaits. I let Tillie walk, trot and canter both directions for two laps - yes even the canter! Amazing how well shell canter on a loose rein, but as soon as I ask for more, she braces and speeds up.
Note to self: try this warm up more often. Not only did Tillie seem to enjoy it, I enjoyed it. There is just something soothing about getting up into a half seat or two point and jogging around.
I slowly put her to work and she was quite light in the bridle. Maybe a hair lighter then I would like so I started off asking for longer contact and stretch. She was slightly rude about it...she would carry herself high and then quickly dive down. I wouldnt call it rooting since she wasnt leaning, but was just lacking patience of the pace I was allowing her to take the contact since I wanted to be sure she was taking it without losing it.
So not appreciating my need to destress involving her
I trotted her over this little grid to an easy/generous bending line a few times. First jump was a tiny X she could likely trot like a caveletti with 4-5 canter poles to a tiny 18" vertical with a two stride bend to a 2 ft vertical.
She was a bit sucked back, BUT I didnt use a ton of leg to push...I merely wanted to stay out of her way to see what she would do. Shockingly she meandered through and landed not really sure what the big deal was about. She was a bit fish-taily to the bending line so I went through a few more times and mixed in more flatting between to keep her relaxed.
All while riding amoung a group of small children where steering is questionable...and she did great!
I was about to move on to canter work when she started acting spooky towards the fields...with it being dinner time I didnt think too much of it and just used it as an opportunity to school her. She did quite well despite being a bit unfocused. Come to find out a horse had gotten loose and was enjoying quite the jaunt around the property. It caused all the other horses to get riled up which is what Tillie was reacting to. Dont you love when a horse gets loose and its like JAILBREAK!
After things calmed down I did A LOT of canter work, really focusing on her responsiveness to the cue. I wasnt so worried about her inverting since that cant be fixed until she clearly understands the canter aid first.
She was pretty darn quiet and was more willing to break to the trot BUT I started asking for a more balanced trot rather then the running, bracing on the forehand trot. She definitely got it by the end BUT started anticipating the canter aid and would be soft a few steps then would "OH GOD LETS CANTER" with any little movement of my balance and scoot her butt under herself and offer to canter.
So we worked on getting the trot back again to which the contact was much nicer even if she was trying to lean...I just did the whole "well i wont carry you" and relaxed my contact until she figured out where she needed to be on her own.
I ended the ride with cantering through the grid a few more times and let her cool out on a nice long rein.
eating dinner....or what she felt like eating anyway...
She was cooled out and dinner was dumped, but she only ate a few bites before moving on to her hay. :( Looks like her tummy is still bothering her. I really am hoping its ulcers at this point and was a bit worried while brushing her and blanketing her and trying to coax her to eat more.
Her weight still looks ok and she did pick at it a little more while I was hanging around chatting and cleaning up...
In my last post, I mentioned the new footing work that was done New Years Day.The goal was to take out a lot of it from the smaller arena with it being too deep, and add it to the larger arena and cover more of the surface. Well apparently with this footing, a little goes a long way...
The large arena was leveled out and not quite finished so the entire right side of the ring and back corners have become a bit too deep. Very surprising considering there wasnt nearly enough footing at first before this work was done.
It is not unrideable at all...but will need to be addressed to prevent any injuries. I am dying to try it in the larger ring, but because that was taking so long, I settled to try the smaller arena.
Tillie loving peppermints and grooming.
Despite Tillie losing her shoe only a few days after being shod, she seemed fine on it and I had a plan to try some exercises from my new Christmas present: 101 arena exercises. But once we got in the smaller ring it became apparent I would have to do some riding on the fly. The footing was really unlevel and still way too deep at each end of the ring. With this ring being a hair under dressage regulation, it makes trying to avoid those areas pretty tough.
Tillie was a bit pissy to start off, whether it was the odd footing, it being a bit colder or her missing shoe IDK...BUT I just kept her on a circle and tried to get her to relax.
She felt awfully tight and defensive through her whole body. I decided when we first trotted to not touch her face at all and just get her moving to warm up which seemed to help. We had a bit of trouble getting a forward, non-stabby trot I think with her not trusting the footing and her own balance, but eventually she started to figure it wasnt SO bad.
Shes always been funny and choosy about footing....yay for being a cross country horse lol. I wasnt planning on cantering in it until she threw a bit of a hissy and went back to leg means go rather then soften.
Emma hung out for a little bit as I started putting her together. I cant say it felt fabulous, but her and the other onlooker said she looked pretty light and uphill. We were running into more left bend and bridle unsteadiness tracking left, but it didnt seem to be nearly as bad and before. I also realized it is most like my crookedness causing this since the last two rides its apparent tracking left that I twist my body out causing my right leg to go forward and weight placement to be off. I imagine this makes it hard for Tillie to balance properly under me.
ALLLLL the footing
We did some figures of 18 meter circles a A and C crossing the diagonal each time to change the rein.
Once she got a bit more consistent here I worked on the homework from our last dressage lesson with C and worked on rating her trot in the middle of the ring where the footing was the most consistent. She had a bit more trouble with the go, but I attribute that to the small ring size and footing.
I did push into canter both leads a few times just to establish a proper depart and canter to offset her hissy fit earlier in the ride and be clear what the aid for canter is and what the aid for being is. Again it was a push ride in the canter and I think the footing was really making her work.
I didnt dislike it!
I did try for some stretchy trot to really hound relaxing and trusting balance more and once she gave me a little bit of try both directions with that I called it a day.
