February 22, 2009

No matter the gait, when the horse is soft in the mouth, you have to continue to push forward to retain that softness.

When warming up the horse, keep the hands wide. Tension should only appear in the rider's shoulders, never in the hands or elbows. The elbows only block and serve to create tension in the horse's mouth.

When needing to bring the horse's head to the inside to create throughness and make the horse take up contact better on the outside rein, bring the inside hand to the inside hip. This causes any positive tension in the rider's arm to remain in the shoulder, rather than allow negative tension to remain in the elbow or fingers. The fingers, especially the fingers on the curb rein, should always remain loose.

Always ride as if you have on hand on both reins. If you get stuck, put both reins in one hand. This serves 2 purposes - to see if the problem is your lack of coordination in holding both reins with both hands or if the problem is some sort of tension in the horse (excitement, etc) and, because the horse always responds better when you ride with one hand, it aids in developing and maintaining throughness in the horse. At the same time, bend the horse inside with the outside leg to establish and maintain throughness. You may have to use the outside leg twice per stride. Yes, kicking twice per stride isn't very easy. Deal with it.

No matter what you do, always focus on the quality of the gait. This is said so much as to render it almost trite, but it's the best advice out there, because the rest gets easier after you've accomplished it.

Never make pancakes when typing up a horse training blog.

February 20, 2009

Repeat after me:

Any horse I buy in the future will have clean lead changes...
Any horse I buy in the future will have clean lead changes...
Any horse I buy in the future will have clean lead changes...

Guess what Nic and I worked on today?

February 15, 2009

Nicole did a canter half pass to flying change today (right to left) and of course I didn't get it on film. Maybe tomorrow. The first flying change I messed up, the 2nd attempt the flying change was clean. I had a feeling this morning that we were going to do this exercise, then my trainer suggested it without my input. Somehow I knew that Nicole would get the exercise and that she would do the change cleanly. The more you throw at Nicole the more she does. She rises to the occasion, and I think she just needs to be challenged. I've been getting vibes lately that she's bored and annoyed, mostly with the reoccurance of spooking and she's begun tail-swishing which isn't something she usually does.

Something to remember:
When doing canter half pass to flying change, concentrate on the quality of the canter. Everything else will take care of itself.

Today also marks the first appearance of Nicole's heat cycle for 2009. Guess it will be an early spring? Please??? She is stationed in the paddock next to a stallion, and so far she's kept her panties on, but it's been winter. When spring actually arrives, it may be a very exciting season. Oh, I forgot to mention there's an 8 month old filly in the other paddock, and Nicole is very much in love with the baby. So, a stallion on one side and a baby on the other. Yep, this spring will be interesting.

February 9, 2009

The way to get the horse through at the poll is to bend to the inside and ask for the bend using the outside leg. You may have to kick 2 times per stride if the horse is being tough. This is hard if you're white and have zero rhythm (like yours truly) and is a trial of balance, but damn if it doesn't work. The horse goes from hard on one rein to chewing the bit and evening itself out so there's equal pressure on both reins. Don't ask for a big trot, just a small sleepy trot. Fingers and arms remain loose. Guess what, you will have to redistribute the horse's weight and control the speed using your back. And guess what, your back will hurt after if your horse is forward like Nic. You're asking the horse to maintain softness and throughness and self-carriage.

Maybe if I can remember to do this, one day my horse will look and be like a real, live dressage horse. And I can pretend to be a real, live dressage rider.

February 6, 2009

Some things:

Always keep the fingers holding both reins loose. Closing the hand means locking the hand and locking the elbow, which makes the horse's mouth harder and makes it so you can't feel when the horse gives at the poll.

All bending is done with the seat, the outside leg originating the bend.

Finish one issue before starting the next. Don't work on canter pirouettes and flying changes at the same time.

February 2, 2009

Happy new year, although we are already well into the new year. So, I guess, happy groundhog day. I've finally thought of something to say.

This week I tried out 2 new horses. I'm not really in the market, but I saw the ad, and decided to investigate. I want something with established flying changes, since that's a real make or break issue in whether a horse will go FEI. Nic's changes are fine, but they aren't finished. I want something with finished changes, and let's face it, Nic is going to be 14. She's still my buddy, and my companion in this crazy little thing called dressage.

So, I tried out 2 horses, a 6 year old and a 9 year old, each doing tempis. Both mares, of course. I can't help it. I like the mares, even if they make me want to shoot myself. The problem with both is they will have to be retrained to get more of a connection and collection, but that's a problem fairly easily solved given enough time. Both do clean, but short, changes.

Ok, here's what my point is. I've come to a turning point in my own dressage training because I felt something kind of new and particular when trying each of these horses - I could tell which one would have an easier time with advanced collection. I'm not saying either horse can do advanced collection - obviously my feel isn't that sophisticated yet. But I can still feel the difference between the two horses. The 6 year old, when I asked for a more uphill balance, responded fairly instantly. The 9 year old didn't get it. The 6 year old can do working pirouettes; the 9 year old doesn't have the balance or self-carriage to do that yet. I'm sure there's a billion things in these horses I missed given my lack of education, but I sensed that much, which is pretty cool compared to where I was 6 months ago.

Nicole is currently housed next to a 6-month old filly. Suffice to say, Nic is in L-O-V-E. Must be a broodmare thing.

December 10, 2008

Know what? Most days, I've completely had it with horse people. Actually, most days I've had it with most people, but horse people in particular tend to be the recipients of my ire more than the rest of humanity, except for perhaps those girls on My Super Sweet 16. I've never met a class of people more self-involved, dishonest, and dramatic than horse people. I can delve into the myriad reasons why horse people act the way they do, but why bother attempting to analyze something that will never change. The more I'm around horse people, the more bitter I become about the sport.

I spend most days trying to remind myself that the dressage world is effectively a pretend world - outside of horses, when would any of this be important? There's a whole planet spinning outside of the dressage arena, making the efforts I expend in the dressage world frighteningly superficial and meaningless when I really take a hard look at it. Then I ask myself why I'm doing what I'm doing - why do I care about some nebulous concept of achievement that Grand Prix represents? What is this doing for me as a person?

I suppose it's truthful to say that I started riding dressage and worrying about achievement in the dressage world for lack of anything better to do. Everyone needs goals, regardless of how meaningless they are outside of a specific sphere, right? Some people want to be in politics, some people find validation in working to become a bishop. Of course, those spheres have their own dramas. Dressage is no different from anything else out there. I can't shake the feeling that if it wasn't dressage I had picked, I'd still be surrounded by the drama of whatever else I'd replaced dressage with. Might as well stick with the evil you know.

Still, I can't help but wonder what this is doing to me as a person. Success, like everything else under the sun, in the horse world is all about survival of the fittest - I'm not going to sugarcoat this as some people would. It is what it is. Let's be realistic here, in order to achieve anything, one has to be very focused on the goal, and I tend to be more committed to achievement than other people (read: I'm willing to do what it takes to meet an end). Machiavellian? Probably. But I also have to face the reality that I'm not entirely sure I like the person I have to be when it comes to horses. Who wants to be bitter and angry before they're 45?

I know I've had success more rapidly than most people - a brief perusal of this blog will satisfy any question about the validity of that statement. But, the reason for that success is because I've done what I've had to do - sacrificed personal relationships, sacrificed money, and probably sacrificed my future reputation to some extent. Six months ago I could barely canter Nicole - now, given a horse with the proper training, I can pop of one tempis with no problem. But that rapid improvement HAS come at a price, and I can feel the weight of it within me mentally. I can slowly feel myself becoming more sour as time goes on - do I really want any success in dressage if it turns me into a total bitch before the age of 30?