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.

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.

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

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.