September 29, 2009

Nicole's lead changes are starting to become more consistent. They are totally consistent from right to left, sometimes a little short, but never late. We've started left to right lead changes, and sometimes they're clean and sometimes not. She's figured out that right to left changes won't kill her, but now she needs to figure out left to right will leave her living as well.

The thing about Nicole (and I guess every horse at her stage) is that because her training and therefore her level of sophistication is evolving, her needs evolve, which means the game plan with her is always changing. For months she has been freaky-light in the mouth, now suddenly she is totally the opposite and it takes a lot more hand to get her through and pushing into the bridle correctly (by "a lot more hand" I mean the same amount of hand it takes for Nikita, which technically speaking isn't a lot, but much more than I can usually use with Nicole). I think she had to figure out, again, that pushing into the bridle and being through isn't going to kill her. I'd been feeling for months that particular sensation that tells me the horse isn't through at the trot, but figured her "through" just felt different than Nikita's, since if I used more hand, Nicole got upset.

I finally feel like my legs are becoming more correct. I'm starting to feel more contact between the horse and my calves, which means my legs aren't flapping around in that irritating manner anymore, and the horses are starting to push better into the bridle under me. I put spurs on for the first time in a couple months with Nikita (I've been denied spurs for the past couple months with the purpose to learn more effective leg position). Nikita was hot-hot-hot, which I like in a horse. My leg position is now getting good enough to put the spurs back on, and I'm consistent enough in my 4, 3, and 2 tempis to start on the ones again, but I haven't been able to start them without the spurs. They went fine, we just did sets of 2 one-time changes, then cantered until the canter is good enough again, then another set of 2 one-time changes for the most part. We did 4 one-time changes in a row, but I didn't want to push it - sets of 2 one-time changes is good enough for me right now.

September 27, 2009

Video of tempis on Nikita. 4, 3, & 2 tempis.



Passage, collected trot, medium trot transitions on Nikita.



I don't like the passage in this video because I don't think she's underneath herself enough, but it's a start.

Current trot video on Nicole.

The Laziest Dressage Rider Ever: September 16, 2009

I've been working on my leg position with Nikita. I'm sure my legs are effective enough, but I can't stand the way they look. As the mare tends to fly, my legs start flapping around, and eventually my heels go up and my toes point out. I've been trying to keep my knees on these imaginary parallel lines pointing forwards to keep my knees on Nikita and my calves in the right position.

On a related but sort of different topic, Nikita seems to enjoy blowing off my leg. I'm starting to get the drift that the mare doesn't take me seriously, so some "yes, I'm completely serious" schooling has taken place. In other words, when she doesn't respond to a light leg aid, she gets the whip. And like Nicole, she's terrified of the whip. It's in times like this that I become the laziest dressage queen ever, and since it's too much work to keep kicking her, she really needs to respond to the light aid. My motto with dressage has always been "if it's that hard, then I'm probably doing it wrong" and sweating just to make the mare go is making me sweat buckets. I'm starting to get somewhere, but I think part of the reason she blows me off is because of my leg position. It screams "take advantage of me!", and so the mare does. Who can blame her?

Nicole's lead changes are becoming more solid. She's finally realized a more collected canter isn't the same thing as being hung, drawn, and quartered, and is relaxing more into and out of the lead changes. Of course, Nicole wouldn't be Nicole without some heavy fire breathing, but she's starting to have fun with the exercise.

September 7, 2009

We've restarted the lead changes on Nicole, and the good news is that she understands what's being asked of her - she consistently changes correctly and on the signal. She needs to come more underneath herself, and that's been difficult for her. She prefers to stay camped out behind, as she has done for 14 years, but this produced consistently short changes, which obviously we don't want. So we've been working on making her right canter more collected. Which has been an adventure. An almost rearing adventure.

Nicole, of course, is Nicole, which means she's hot and likes to avoid the bit by sucking back into herself. This habit has caused the mare to almost rear a few times, and come somewhat close to flipping over, had I not released the reins and sent her forward. She isn't being bad, just stuck in the collected canter, and needed to be driven forward. But yesterday she did 5 absolutely clean changes, so we're getting somewhere.

To the left, she does a great collected canter, but to the right she isn't quite there yet. She doesn't like to use her right hind leg. But she does a great working pirouette to the right, so go figure that one out.

I'm finally getting somewhere with passage-collected trot-passage transitions with Nikita. I did them fine initially, but lost the ability to keep the rhythm and relaxation for a brief while. The passage is always fine, but the collected trot started to feel wild, flat, and not through, but I wasn't sure how to keep the throughness and uphillness in the transition.