Ups and downs...

Well, it's been a tumultuous month, that's for sure. The lesson after my last post was a lesson from hell. Jessie wasn't coming through at all. He wasn't tracking up, he was being very resistant and we were just having a bad day. Since it was a Monday during the day Kim's husband was there (since vet clinics don't follow government holidays, thank goodness!) and he came and looked at Jessie while I was riding him. Turned out things were very bad. Their suggestion...joint injections. LOTS of them. Two in each hock and one in each stifle. To the tune of a LOT of money. It was like a punch in the stomach. The money...the fact that they needed done...everything. It was the first time it hit me. Jessie is getting old. Old. I won't be able to ride him forever. He may never be able to do dressage. He may, in reality, be in too much pain to be ridden without the injections. I was heartbroken.

Liz, another of the vets, came and watched Jessie while I rode as well. At the end of my lesson she flexed him and it was bad. It was interesting, because she did it while I was sitting on him. So when she did his right hock he was three legged lame trotting away. The left wasn't nearly so bad, and the right stifle, while noticeable, wasn't anywhere close to where the hock was. So I decided then and there that Jessie would get his injections at the end of the week. And that set forth a profound change in me. I went home and started putting models up for sale...resins, bodies, OFs. Liquidating everything that I don't absolutely love so that I can devote all of my resources to my real horse.

Jessie got his hock injections on that Friday, Liz had to practically knock him out just to prep the injection sites because of his seperation anxiety. The injections went well and we managed to hobble him across the arena back to his stall. I was going to my parents that afternoon, so C and I stopped by and saw him on Sunday, to see how he was doing. We trotted him around the indoor a little, just to watch him move. I had my first lesson on him that Tuesday. And I nearly cried. He was lame. Very off in his right hind. I was devastated. What if the injections hadn't worked? What if we were really done? What was I going to do? I went home and cried. I was so worried and heartbroken.

We left the next day for Thanksgiving at C's parents house, and I didn't ride at all the week after that because Kim was in Florida closing on a house and honestly, I was too scared to go out and risk Jessie still being lame. Plus, school got a little busy, finals are this week so things will be nice for the next three weeks. I'll have to finish my recap tomorrow, as a break from studying for Org Behavior (tonights post is a break from Statistics).

Half halts are us...

Today's lesson was fun. Alando was gone (to a lesson with Kim's daughter I think) and Glory was still in heat. Jessie was easy to catch still, he came right up to the gate as usual, as did Glory. She was especially hard to shoo away today, but I got her moved away and we got ready. It's been nice not having to deal with a muddy horse before a lesson, it hasn't rained for two weeks. Of course, now that I said that, it will probably pour between now and Sunday.

Jessie was calling a lot for his pasture buddies so we worked on a lot of showmanship while getting him warmed up. After he was focusing on me I took the opportunity to undo his girth and move the saddle forward a couple of inches and tighten the girth again. The showmanship made a huge difference in his demeanor though, he was quiet and easy to walk on a loose rein. So we warmed up, having trouble with long and low because he was tense and fast, but overall pretty nice.

Once Kim arrived we started the real work and began with working on our trot around the whole arena. Jessie wasn't bending well so we worked on sidepassing arcs, but making sure to take a step that was both forward and sideways each time, not just sideways and not backwards in any way. We added the whip, though I only had to use it once, just to remind Jessie that he was to respond to my leg. Then we worked more on trotting and bending...

Jessie was a little fast, so we worked on BIG half halts. Basically I was to think and ask for halt, and then asking for the forward trot again. Once he got his rhythm down and to a more reasonable rate we were able to concentrate on bending and started doing a 10 meter circle once we reached the wall. After doing a good circle we would stay on the rail in shoulder in.

We have progressed enough at the shoulder in that I am no longer allowed to celebrate doing it right after we finish and just let him go. Now I need to continue riding and straighten him back onto the track so that we can ride deep into the corner. No more riding forward quickly and not caring what the short side looks like, lol. After doing that in both directions we went back on the 20 meter circle, alternating between sitting trot and canter. I worked on getting him to be more responsive and more quickly. Most transitions were done while crossing the centerline on the 20 meter circle at B. The big focus was not bracing with my hands, allowing him to stay round and supple, while also making sure we kept the proper bend and sinking my weight into my seat for the downward transitions. Then for the upward we got to the point where I would just weight my inside seat bone and think about sliding my outside leg back a bit and he would canter. Our upward transitions were much nicer than the downward transitions. We worked on that in both directions and then we were done.

We only had one walk break, so I think it was a good sign that our fitness is improving. Next week will be a real test, there are no classes on Monday so I'll be doing a lesson on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Craig is going to come video/photograph Monday's lesson so I should be able to post pictures. We'll play with the videocamera so that hopefully I'll be able to video my own lessons after that and get screenshots for pictures.

Counter Canter Fun

Well, last night's lesson was interesting. Jessie started the evening out thinking he was the Black Stallion. Apparently his girlfriend is in heat, and his buddy Alando and him were running her around the paddock. So he was NOT happy to be coming in to the barn to get tacked up. He was calling his head off the whole time I was tacking him up. Fortunately as soon as I got on him he chilled out other than feeling like he was going to explode at any moment. He was quiet at least. It felt weird period because I was wearing my new polar fleece breeches (thanks QH Congress!). We got warmed up, though didn't accomplish much long and low because he was ready to defend his mare that wasn't present.

We started off with trotting some circles and working on spiraling. He was very tense and not bending well at all, when Kim and I had a discussion about my inside leg. I just wasn't getting it far enough forward, trying shoulder in at the canter down the long side was a disaster in the sense that Jessie would do a flying lead change rather than maintain the inside lead and shoulder in. So after she tried putting my leg in the proper position for me to see we realized that I couldn't get my leg ON him even if it was far enough forward. That's when we decided my saddle was too far BACK. Who would have thought it possible?!?

So I hopped off and we moved the saddle forward and I remounted. It was amazing, Jessie bent just with my leg being on him with the saddle in the new position. I was able to ask for the bend at the beginning of his rib cage, instead of the end of it, where my leg was naturally. So we tried more circles and then shoulder in along the long side. It became very obvious very quickly that even with the saddle in the correct place I still had trouble keeping my right leg far enough forward, because we were nearly perfect to the left and he kept changing to the right. So we got it better and then moved on to a similar exercise. A shallow loop along the long side of the arena, at the canter, staying on the same lead the entire time.

We started going counter clockwise and it was apparent that now was not the time to be an over-achiever. While the goal (from First Level Test 4 I believe Kim said) is to meet the centerline at X there was no way we were going to get it right out of the gate. After I finally accepted exactly how shallow my loop had to be we did very well on the left lead. So we reversed and tried it to the right, where the degree of forwardness my right leg needed became very apparent. One thing this exercise taught me is that flying changes are VERY easy for Jessie. We ended after one final good go to the right. Leaving us with a lot to work on, mainly me, lol. It was a great lesson. Afterwards I continued my trend of cleaning my tack after every ride. Fortunately the barn is pretty warm so between that and my polar fleece it wasn't too bad. I also checked out the ponies that Kim had bought over the weekend.

Also, a sidenote...we finally got tivo talking properly to the cable box and we now get Robert Dover's Search for America's Next Equestrian Star! I did see the first episode on youtube and it was great. There are two left, but I'm hoping tivo can find reruns at some point, unless I get episodes two and three on youtube. I highly recommend it for those of you that get the Fox Reality Channel.

Dressage eye candy...

As I begin following a strict budget to save for whatever horse may be in the cards to replace Jessie, I have still been window browsing online. One of my favorite sites I already talked about, and that, of course, is tack of the day. They have dressage bridles ALLLLLL weekend, so that made me wander over to my favorite dressage gear site, http://www.dressageextensions.com/ , Dressage Extensions. I've been good and haven't bought anything, but thought I'd share, since I have no riding post to make. Hopefully I'll get out to the barn tomorrow...and with any luck, might come back with some pictures!

Shoulder in progress!

We had a great lesson today. We rode in the outdoor...first time and it was in the mid 50s so I was expecting a hyper horse since he was calling for his true love, Alando. But he was a good boy, just forward. Not very responsive to my leg though, so Kim brought me a dressage whip and that woke Jessie up. I used it twice maybe, but just knowing I had it got him moving off my leg. We worked some on leg yielding and staying straight doing it, then we moved on to the elusive shoulder in. It actually went very well. I finally *got* my upper body position and Jessie carried himself nicely. I probably should have asked him to be a bit more active, but he maintained his rhythm and forward motion. He was soft and round and bent correctly, so I just let him be and stayed out of his way. It helped that we started in each corner with a 10 meter circle before moving on to do a shoulder in on the long side, so we already had the correct bend before moving "straight". It was like he was gliding...very cool feeling.

I posted about having trouble "feeling" when it was right and this was someone's response, it was a good summary of everything Kim has told me, so I wanted to put it here, for further reference for myself once Kim flys South for the winter.

"Leg yield should be performed with an almost straight body and just a bit of flexion. The rider should think; forward step, sidways step, forward step, sideways step. The shoulder leads slightly in the leg yield...meaning...if you're going from quarterline to wall and someone was standing at the head of the horse, they would see that the horse's shoulder is slightly closer to the wall than the haunches. The horse crosses it's inside fore and inside hind over the outside ones with each step. I've heard different things about the leg aids, particularly the inside leg...some will say that leg is at the girth, others will stay it's slightly behind the girth. The outside leg though is slightly behind the girth. The rider's shoulders and hips face forward, though the aids are 'diagnonal'. The rider may sit a touch heavier on the outside seatbone. Inside hand provides flexion, outside hand controls the bend and pace. The rider asks the horse to move laterally into the outside hand.

Shoulder-in is performed with bend through the ribcage as if the horse is going to perform a 10m circle. The horse's shoulder is moved to the 'inside' track causing the inside front leg to cross over the outside front leg. The hind legs do NOT cross because the haunches stay moving straight ahead on the original track. The rider's shoulders will be turned towards the inside mimicking the horse's shoulders, while their hips remain pointing 'straight ahead' also mimicking the horse, his hips in this case. The inside leg is at the girth to create the bend AND to push the horse laterally into the outside hand which controls the bend. Outside leg is behind the girth to prevent the haunches from fall out and keep the horse moving forward. One might also weight the inside seatbone slightly. "

Tuesday's Lesson...

Tuesday's lesson went really well. Jessie was a little distracted by other horses in the indoor, but I think those distractions are good for him, since there will be a lot more going on at a show! We warmed up long and low and worked on sidepassing a little. I had zero energy and Jessie was playing off of that, so we weren't very forward, especially in the beginning. We added a new exercise to our rides...cantering a 10 meter circle directly off the rail, and then riding a diagonal line back to the wall when only halfway through the circle, breaking down to a trot between the quarterline and the wall. Our transitions period are pretty sticky right now, so it was interesting. That combined with the fact that Jessie thought for sure we were supposed to be working on flying changes. He did some beautiful simple changes though, as we got the hang of the exercise. We did some shoulder in, and had a near perfect go between two letters when going counter clockwise. He was actually carrying himself along, it was *wonderful*!!!

One thing that gave me warm fuzzies was when discussing Jessie's weight Kim commented that he works hard, she doesn't hold back with us and asks a lot more of us than she normally would because we seem to be able to handle it. It was nice knowing that my stubborness pays off sometimes! There have been plenty of times during lessons that we had trouble keeping it together, but I think that in the long run pushing through has helped.

Hopefully tomorrow's lesson goes as well.

QH Congress Fun

I've spent the last two days at The All-American Quarter Horse Congress (http://www.oqha.com/congress/congresshome.htm), the largest single breed horse show in the world. I mainly go for shopping, and bonding time with my sister, who is dying to get started on the QH circuit in HUS (hunter under saddle for you non-pleasure horse types). I bought a couple of jackets, lots of vetwrap, coolers, hair (for horses) products, and polar fleece breeches. I was looking for schooling tights, but didn't find any. I realized that was because English QH riders ride in jeans, half chaps, and tennis shoes, no need for something that will fit under tall boots. My wallet probably appreciated this though.

Ironically, I found that I enjoyed watching the Western Pleasure horses more than the Hunter Under Saddle horses, mainly due to the riders. The broken wrists and elbow windows were driving me nuts. As well as the chair seats and the constant yanking on faces. I passed the time by making lists of people that jerked excessively on their horses, and then seeing how they did. About half of them placed, half didn't. I also found it easier for me to pick the winners in Western Pleasure, I think because they just have a completely different set of standards and all of them were close, it made it easy for me since I just picked the horses that had the truest gaits. HUS, I was picking horses based on which were on the forehand the least, which rarely worked. It was still a fun experience though, and anyone that has the skill/dedication/money to show and win at Congress deserves some level of respect.

I still can't wait for Equine Affaire though. Tack of the day saved me by having dressage pads the day before I went to Congress the first time, and fortunately I caved and bought some, because my hopes of picking a couple up at Congress were dashed. I found two total, and they were $80 Professional's Choice air ride pads. Not the plain jane pads I needed.

No lesson today...

Kim's dog had to go to the vet to get a C-section so I ended up not having a lesson today. So I rode on my own, practicing lots of transitions and some leg yielding. A little shoulder in, but I can't tell if the angle is right on my own, so not much. One thing that was helpful was cantering the long side and short side, then changing direction on the diagonal by coming to a walk at X. Then walked to the corner and asked for a canter halfway through the first turn, then cantered down the long side and the short side and did it again.

Another thing we did was practicing trotting the quarterlines. He was anticipiating leg yielding when we would turn early, so it was good to work on just going straight. Also made it easier to check us out in the mirror, lol.

One more thing we worked on while taking a walk break was gathering him up and then doing a free walk on the diagonal and practiced gathering him up again, we did X's like that. And of course, lots of circles and riding around the whole arena. A bit on lengthening, but not much. Overall it was a good ride. Started out rocky because he was calling for his new buddy again, but overall a nice day. It helped that I came home from class to my new saddlepads! If you don't already check it every day, http://www.tackoftheday.com/ is *the* place to go for deals. It's like an addiction, lol, but one that saves you money!

Good site for shoulder in help...

I found this site helpful in learning more about the shoulder in. The directions were clear and the rest of the site is pretty good too! http://www.geocities.com/gerrypony/shoulder-in.html

Rough Day

I've had a rough couple of days, so I was looking forward to relaxing and having a good lesson...but was I expecting a lot.

Lesson started out really rocky, it took a while for Jessie and I to relax, him due to his new buddy constantly calling for him and me to get over my bad day and being tense about Jessie's lack of attention. Long and low was not happening, so we worked on side passing in the corners and transitions to warm up after a bit of attempting long and low at the walk and trot.

Kim came in as we were working on canter to halt transitions, so she had us do some more canter work. I have been trying very hard to sit up tall and straight with my shoulders back and chest open. I know I'm improving, but it's taught me how bad my position was because Jessie canters in a perpetual state of readiness for a flying lead change when I sit upright. His hindquarters are cocked and ready to switch at a moments notice. I need to evaluate my position to ensure I am sitting evenly on my seatbones and then I guess he'll just get used to this being the normal way I ride and that it doesn't mean we're going to do a lead change. We got a couple of nicer than normal transitions, and also worked on encouraging the *jump* in every stride with my inside leg. One of the hardest things for me to remember is that I need to lower my outside hand a bit and keep the inside hand raised up a bit more. He was very stiff so I was doing lots of playing with the reins and my inside leg to keep him round and bent.

After that we picked up the trot and worked on some trot to walk transitions. We attempted a shoulder in, but it just wasn't happening because I didn't have it together with trying to soften him and refind the proper position. So we went back to the walk and tried it with moderate results and then were able to retry successfully at the trot. Doing shoulder in at the walk really improved his trot and softened him to the point where we ended up having a very nice ride.

We took a short walk break following trying shoulder in in both directions, and tried a couple of test movements (turn left at E and then right at B). Then we went large and worked on leg yielding from the quarterline to the wall, as opposed to the 1/8th line where we normally do it. We did quite well going to the right, barely any bend and stayed very straight throughout. Going to the left was a bit trickier, he kept falling over with the shoulder so I had to use my right hand to keep his shoulder over and remember to move my inside leg back further and hold my outside leg steady to keep his shoulders from moving over too quickly.

We tried lengthening our stride on the diagonal at rising trot a few times, there was some change, but not a whole lot. We finished up with a turn down the centerline and halting. It wasn't the best halt ever, but pretty good for us.

I finally got my other dressage saddle back, and gave it to Kim to try. She is looking for a new saddle and I'm trying to sell this one, so it works out. I'm hoping it works for her because I would love to trade it for board. If not, she has a friend that is looking for a new saddle as well, so hopefully I'll get it sold one way or another. She commented that I take really good care of my tack too, so that gave me a warm fuzzy.

No riding today...

We had a rough physical training session today (workout for you non-military types) and I have a big presentation for tomorrow, so I decided not to ride. I have a lesson tomorrow and Thursday.

Something I wanted to get down in regards to working on shoulder in and my last lesson, because I was kind of surprised that we were working on shoulder in, it seemed sudden, but then I was reading a shoulder in tutorial on the internet (http://www.geocities.com/gerrypony/shoulder-in.html) and it all made sense after that. You really should read the full tutorial, but I'll recap what we did in lessons leading up to the shoulder in, which really helped it fall into place.

We worked on encouraging Jessie to stay forward and round
We taught him to move off of my leg by sidepassing around the corners of the arena
We used that new willingness to move off the leg to begin sidepassing
Leg yielding to the wall from the quarter line and from the wall to the quarter line
Spiral circles, both in and out, changing the size of the circle, but maintaining the tempo
Counting strides on each half of a circle to see if they match
Learned how to really do a sitting trot

After that, it was easy. Kim explained the aids for the sitting trot, inside leg FORWARD at the girth (very hard for me to do), inside hand a little higher, twist torso to face where his head should be facing, but don't break at the waist when twisting, outside rein pushes the horse toward the inside and the inside hand asks for the bend, the outside leg stays still and heavy, encouraging the horse to bring it's shoulders over, but not really asking for anything unless correction is needed. The inside leg pulses with every step of the inside hind leg, to maintain the impulsion and momentum.

The hardest part was not bringing the horse too far over, the angle just doesn't seem like enough angle when there is the right amount of bend. Additionally, we lost a lot of the impulsion by the end of the wall, but that is due in part to needing to build up the stamina and muscle strength to maintain the movement, both on my part and Jessie's. It was very exciting though, the only thing more exciting than shoulder in will be half pass, but we won't be ready for that for quite some time.

Anyway, just wanted to recap my shoulder in experience, while it was still fairly fresh in my mind. One good thing about this blog is that it gets my thoughts together in one place for my review prior to my lessons.

Cool dressage link...

This is a really neat dressage link, it has all of the tests for the US (and other countries) in various formats, one with a diagram for each movement drawn out, as well as a version for readers. Really great resource, and there are tons of links grouped by state that I know I'll be using next time I move!

http://www.dressage.net.au/natestdia.html#firsttests

First post...

I decided to start a blog to document my efforts to become a "real" dressage rider. I am starting out with my 18 year old QH gelding, Jester Jigger, whom I have had the pleasure of owning for the last 13 years. We had a rough start, as he was originally my All Around 4-H horse. We have done everything from showmanship to western pleasure to hunter under saddle to dressage to jumping to trail to reining. We did pretty much everything but weren't stellar at any of it, at least not on a real statewide level. Granted, we placed third at state in Training Level Test 1 and Test 2 in 1996 or so, but we didn't have a clue.

I muddled through on my own with no trainer or instruction other than what I picked up in books, magazines, and clinics. I put riding on hold for five years, while I went to college and got my B.S. in Environmental Engineering and then started my life as an Air Force Lieutenant. Almost two years after joining the real working world I was able to move my horses to NJ, where eventually I went to a Walter Zettl clinic, where I met Vicky Gorman. She was gracious and kind enough to agree to come to where I boarded my horses and give me dressage lessons.

I felt like I was really riding for the first time. I had A LOT of mistakes to fix, from my ideas of what dressage was, to the way I used my hands, sat in the saddle, and even the saddle that I owned. We set to work though, and made great improvements. However, as is life in the Air Force, I wasn't meant to stay in that location for too long, and moved to Korea. Jessie went home to live with my parents for the year.

Upon returning to the States I moved to the Dayton area with my fiance, Craig, and Jessie soon followed. We found a stable for Jessie just 10 minutes from our house. We got married (on September 8th, 2007) and I started taking weekly lessons. That quickly got bumped up to two lessons a week, since Craig has karate four days a week anyway. I have already learned a lot in just a month of lessons, and can't wait to continue learning.

Jessie came to Dayton almost completely dead to my leg, but Kim gave us homework of working on sidepassing arcs around the corners of the arena, so that we would be utilizing turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches. We worked on that and soon I was able to move him side to side while moving forward with just my leg, this was especially helpful in leg yielding and doing spiral circles.

We still need lots of practice with our transitions, both in staying soft and round, and getting the transition instantaneously.

Last lesson we began working on the shoulder in. It was the first time we had ever tried it, and did surprisingly well (I think it helped that my warm up included the side passing exercise I'd mentioned earlier). The biggest problem we had was Jessie's neck being bent too much and I would break my body too much toward the inside. He lost impulsion toward the end of the exercise as well (shoulder in along the long side), so for our practice sessions we will probably try shorter distances.

I don't want to make the first post much longer than this, but next time I hope to discuss some of the correlations between what I did in my last lesson and what was mentioned in Zettl's book.