Control the Shoulders, Control the World

That was the theme for the dressage clinic yesterday.  I rode Buddy first and we mostly worked on the trot, getting him to yield the outside shoulder and working on lengthening.  We were riding outside and Mary had me stay on a 20 meter circle in the middle of the ring so Buddy couldn't lean on the walls.  I wasn't allowed to touch my inside rein; I had to turn him from my body and outside leg.  Man was it hard trying to keep him on the circle!

Once we had a few nice circles in a row and he had started to drop down and soften Mary had me start asking for lengthening on the circle.  We started for half a circle, then moved up to a few times around with the lengthened stride.  After we got that she had us go down the long side and ask for the lengthening.  The first few times I was too tentative and Mary kept saying "more, more, more!"  The third time through we got it!  Buddy really stepped out and it felt like his shoulders were dislocated from the way he was moving. 

After a walk break we went the other way and tried to replicate it.  He picked up the canter a couple times but had a couple decent tries.  We never got that same OMG feeling as we had the first way but it was still really nice work for the little cow pony!  Both Buddy and I were pretty tired so we quit with just trot work.

Luckily we had a lunch break and a couple other rides before I had to go again with Wednesday.  We decided to take her inside and I rode in the western saddle, just in case.  Mary had us start walking with small 10 meter circles thrown in whenever she felt tense or quick. Once she was somewhat relaxed we picked up the trot and she immediately zoomed off.  Mary told me to just stay with her and let her go.  I was to slowly pick up my outside rein and use my posting and the small circles to slow her down.  We had a couple minutes of borderline out of control trot before Wednesday started to calm down and relax.  Mary had me reach up with my inside hand and pet her neck and talk to her and that really helped, every time I said "good girl" I could feel he relax and slow down.

We took a walk break and Mary had me do small figure 8s, using my body and outside leg to turn her.  Wed would get very tense every time I touched the inside rein so I was under strict orders to leave a loop in it and ignore it.  Again, so much harder said than done!  At this point my thighs were staring to protest and I though we were going to run into a wall a couple of times. We ended with some trot-walk-trot transitions which were really nice.  I was actually having to put leg on her to keep her trotting by the end.  Mary said with a horse like Wed you have to be very deliberate and methodical, give her structure and be her alpha.  She also said that she couldn't have ridden Wed any better than I had and that made me feel great!  I'm always worried I'll screw up Wed even more, but its wonderful to hear that I'm not!!

Back to Work

I had this whole post all ready on my phone,  but apparently it didn't post.  Grrr!  Buddy went back to work this week after his after show break.  He was cranky on Monday, it was windy and that always fires him up.  We worked in the draw reins and while he threw a major tantrum going left we ended on a good note.

Tuesday he got the day off as we were having a barn BBQ to celebrate my and one of the horse's birthdays.  Yesterday I set up a gymnastic, vertical bounce vertical one stride oxer, and had a blast.  He was rushy at first, just very excited to be jumping.  As long as I remembered to have a forward, active trot to the first fence it flowed very well.  My friend suggested cantering a large circle before coming back to the trot and going to the line and it helped a lot.  I can't let him sucker me into a slow trot; he then scrambles down the line and it gets a little dicey.

Our fire pit at the BBQ

Today he got lunged and I'll do a quick ride Friday in prep for a dressage clinic with Mary on Saturday.  I originally wasn't going to ride, but a spot opened up and I got some birthday money so we're doing it!  I hope we've improved since December when Mary saw us last.  I'm also going to do a ride on Connie's mare Wednesday, the one who was bucking people off.  She's had some time off as her back was pretty sore and we've been taking it slow trying to keep her relaxed under saddle. 

We have a dressage pony!

Yesterday we had a dressage clinic at the barn.  Mary Arnold is a local trainer that Connie has worked on and off with for many years, and right after I first moved into the barn about 5yr ago we had a clinic with her.  Unfortunately I don't remember much about the last one other than I had a decent ride so I was cautiously optimistic about this clinic.

I had to work first thing this morning and made it to the barn in time to watch  most of Anna's ride with Phoenix.  They were working on getting Phoenix to be more responsive to Anna's aides by doing trot-walk-trot transitions.  They also did some leg yields at the walk and trot; Anna's first time doing them. Once she figured out what she was supposed to be doing they nailed them!  Mary said at the end of the ride she remembered Phoenix and I and said that he's come a long way and is very nice horse for Anna to be riding.  Made me feel like a proud mama!

For my lesson, I got on about 20mins early to warm Buddy up.  The lessons were being held in the indoor, so we went outside to warm up.  Luckily we managed to find a window when it wasn't raining.  It's been wet and cold and I've noticed over the past month that it takes Bud a lot longer to warm up.  He was little cranky and behind my leg, and I tried really hard to pick at him. 

When we went in to start the ride Buddy decided to wake up.  He started marching off right away and instead of half halting him to slow down, Mary had me focus on driving into my hand and using his forward motion to get him round.  It worked well!  Buddy seemed a little surprised that I wasn't pulling on him and our usual tug-of-war wasn't going to happen. 

We started our trot work by doing some circles and getting him to soften to the outside rein.  To the right wasn't too bad, but he was really resistant to give to my right rein going left.  We did some counter bend and once he softened brought him back to the left bend.  Mary said that he's pretty stiff in his right shoulder and needs to work on learning how balance himself.  We did have some very nice moments when he did give and started to really use his hind end.  Mary had us go down the long side and ask for a lengthening while giving on the inside rein.  It felt wonderful and we got some nice compliments!

We gave Buddy a walk break, then went back to a circle at the trot.  Mary had us spiral in and out on the circle and once we had an nice soft trot, she had me think about leg yielding him into the canter.  It took me a couple tried to figure out what I was supposed to do with each leg and rein at what time but once I got it, oh man did we have some nice transitions.  Instead of leaping or rushing into the canter he felt more balanced and round.  He couldn't hold that balanced canter for long and Mary said that's fine; again he needs to learn how to re balance himself. 

I'm so glad I decided to do the clinic and hopefully Mary will be coming back in 6-8wks.  Everyone at the barn had good rides and has homework to do.  Mary was super nice and I'm glad that she likes Buddy. 

Both boys were tired and got to play in the arena together today