Lesson Recap

On Tuesday night I had another lesson on Cisco. In my lesson on Phantom the week before I asked my coach if she had any tips on getting a green horse to pick up a sticky lead. Which I said was probably because he isn't sharp enough picking up the canter. She said she had a great trick she picked up in Holland so I said I would ride Cisco next week and we could work on it.

I walked him around while she finished the lesson before me. I got miked up with her CeeCoach-type system (not sure which brand she has) and we picked up the trot. After what only felt like 3 minutes of trot she told me to ask for the canter - as I approached the wall on the circle, step into my inside stirrup, outside leg back, and tap him on the shoulder with the dressage whip. And use my voice.

One pooped pony post-ride.

First of all, I wasn't ready to canter after only 3 minutes of trot! So I fumbled and the first attempt sucked. We circled a couple of times to steady Cisco's trot, and tried again. He picked up the wrong lead, so rinse and repeat again. And we got it! Still not super clean, but not as much running trot into it.

We did that a few more times, each direction. There was also a jumping lesson going on, so I tried to just go large and just let him roll forward around the arena. There were a few moments to the right where he slowed his pace down a bit, and didn't feel like he was running so much. For the most part though the canter feels like he's running with his lower neck stuck out. But I've just got to let him roll along to find his own rhythm and relaxation. No matter how icky it feels.

After a really good canter to the right we went back to some trot work.

We're starting to have some moments to the right of being able to get right flexion and not fall in with his shoulders and ribcage. Tonight we managed to get more, including some lovely moments on a 3 loop serpentine across the short side of the arena (which is about 30m wide, so 10m turns). A glimmer of how he's going to feel - which is fantastic!

I tied him up and went to mix his food. I heard hoof sounds in the aisle so peeked out - this is what I saw approaching me. No idea how he untied himself and ended up with the lead draped over his face.

My coach kept saying that she loves how much he tries. He's trying so hard to figure out what I'm asking him to do.

We had to stop to shut the arena gate as I led him back to the barn after the lesson. He was pooped - pretty sure he would have been happy to have a nap standing at the gate.

So it was another great lesson. Not much new stuff learned but pushing me to ask more of Cisco than I would otherwise.

Unfortunately. I'm going to have to drop down to bi-weekly lessons. I've had a bunch of expenses over the last month (new hot water tank, furnace repairs, new back door) and need to economize a bit. If I do bi-weekly I'll probably alternate between Cisco and Phantom. It means only one lesson a month on each, but at least that will still give me something to work on.

Left Leaning

Another lesson! Back on Phantom this time.

In our last lesson (which I didn't blog about) we had done a bunch of work on kind of a shoulder-in on a  15m circle at a walk. The goal was to really get the shoulders to the inside, and have her really step towards her mid-line with the inside hind. Going to the right (which is our better shoulder-in side), it was really sticky, and oddly was much better to the left.

On my Monday ride, before our Tuesday lesson, I practiced this again. And had difficulties the opposite directions - going right I had a harder time setting her up, but could really get a response from my right leg in having her take a bigger step with her right hind. Going left, I could set it up easier, but could not get her to take that step with her left hind.

I took my camera out on the weekend to take pics but timed it wrong, just after they had been fed. No pics with heads up.

I was hoping to do a bit of work on this in my lesson, but no. The lesson is only 40 minutes, so there isn't enough time to do everything. Instead, we mostly worked on leg yielding, specifically off the left leg, and more specifically trying to get me to sit properly so that I don't fuck it up.

Our right leg yield is great. I think we only did about 4 or 5 of them.

Left? Well, I sit to the right, Phantom pushes her right shoulder out, I don't have enough connection with my right rein, because that hand wants to either cross the neck or stick my elbow out, my left leg is my weaker one, and that is also the side Phantom doesn't want to step under as much with her left hind.

All of which I am very aware of.

Phantom and her current paramour Diesel were all Lady & The Tramp about their hay pile.

At one point I had to stand with all my weight in my left stirrup - and Phantom immediately straightened herself out and brought her right shoulder underneath her, which allowed us a few steps that she stayed very straight through the leg yield. She wasn't crossing over at all, but the mechanics were better.

I, of course, felt like I was hanging off the side, but was told that I was right in the middle. Ugh.

There will be lots of hanging off the left side of my horse in the future, it appears. Not literally - but it sure is going to feel that way!

Omg! A Lesson!

I had my first lesson in at least two years on Wednesday. There is a coach who has been coming to the barn since the winter and teaching a bunch of people. They all seem really happy with her. I haven't been able to commit to regular lessons so far mostly due to scheduling (she often flips her night during the week to a night that I usually work) but she is a school teacher by trade and has the summer off. I hope to be able to get a lesson in each week through the summer, then play it by ear from there.

I tacked Phantom up and was on about 15 minutes before my scheduled time. I should have known Phantom was in a weird mood when she put her foot up on the mounting block like she was going to stand on it like a podium. That mounting block is tall - well over the height of her knees. I screeched "nonononono!" at her, then burst out laughing when she brought her foot back down. I know she likes standing on the podium, but no idea why she offered it at that time.

Guess who was napping again? (No media from my ride so you get random pictures.)

I hopped on using the mounting block in the indoor arena, and since I left the gate open Phantom knew we were heading out. We headed over to the outdoor dressage ring with some unrequired perk in her step. Apparently I haven't ridden outside enough this year and it's still Super Exciting.

As I was heading out to the ring I noticed another horse from the family that had trailered in was getting tacked up. Ruh roh. Was she running late? Yep. I guess this kid has been off with an injury and the coach didn't realize that she was riding again. Normally it wouldn't be a major issue for me, but I was heading into work on my day off to do something and had to be there at a certain time. So I was slightly annoyed and worried.

So I decided to take Phantom for a walk down to the neighbour's place. That wasted 20 minutes. When I got back we had another 15 minutes before my lesson, so I puttered around the outside of the ring with some trot.

Finally it was my time. I got kitted up in the headset system that the coach uses - which is fantastic. It was the first time that I had ridden with one.

I discovered that the white marking on Cisco's lower lip is simply called "white on lower lip". I prefer the term "hippopotamus lips".

How did the lesson go? Well, for a first lesson, it was okay. I didn't hear anything new to me. She wanted my legs more forward (I had a feeling she would), more weight in my heels, thumbs on top, less nagging with my leg. All habits you tend to get into when you don't have anyone to yell at you to fix it on a regular basis.

She seemed to like Phantom - called her a good mover at one point. Hah!

The best part about my lesson?

She saw us at our worst.

I think it was a combination of a few things - overly perky pony on one of the first rides outside, we were in a 20m x 40m arena for the first time in a long time after being in a very large arena for the last year, she might be getting close to needing her teeth done (she'll let me know when I'm not allowed to touch her mouth), and of course, me having to ride a certain way instead of our normal pattern.

When we started off at a trot to the right, I got comments about how straight we were, and that she liked the slight shoulder fore positioning. It was a great shoulder fore. Except that I wasn't asking for it.

On a 20m circle at the end of the arena, I'd put a leg on to steer and she'd overreact and shoot in or out. I got stuck on a circle for a few minutes trying to make it round.

My poop picking posse.

I had expressed at the beginning of the ride that the short-term goal was to figure out how to get more contact in my right rein when tracking left. When on the left rein, I was trying to put her in a slight shoulder fore before the corner so that I could use my outside aids around the turn. But my stupid left hand doesn't want to give forward. And Phantom hates this. And she got pissy and did her not gonna turn left trick, which is tuck her head into her chest and bulge her shoulder out to the right. My correction had to be to thunk her with my right leg, and then she got super pissy, and that was when I was asked to canter. Which had much more expression than it needed to have.

After a bit of canter we were back to trot, and I was asked to lengthen the trot. I put my leg on and her head shot up in the air and she scooted forward. I rebalanced and tried again and she shot off into canter. Yoy.

I knew when I got on Phantom that she was a bit up, but it's been a while since she's felt like this that I forgot that she waits until we canter to express her enthusiasm. And once we've cantered, that's all she can do. Moar canter.

It doesn't bother me that I had a bad ride. If I'm paying for a lesson, I want to either learn something new, or how to deal with problems that we're having. If my ride is perfect I feel like I'm not being pushed enough. I mean, I don't want to have a bad ride every lesson, but it's nice to be pushed out of our comfort zone on occasion.

For homework I was asked to work on halting and standing immobile on contact. Phantom is the overachieving type of mare who thinks that everything should be a speed event. Halting and standing has never been a strength, though she usually does it better than we were doing it that day (I do work on it regularly).

Hopefully I will have a more agreeable horse on my next lesson so that we can work on something slightly more exciting than a 20m circle!