Another lesson

Last Wednesday, I had another lesson with Joan. I'd ridden Monday (Saga was FABULOUS) and Ziggy's dad rode Tuesday, so at least Saga had gotten out of his stall before the lesson. The horses have been in for most of the last month due to all the rain, which we desperately need. Unfortunately, lots of rain makes for not much turnout time!

The lesson was definitely not our best. There were five other people in the arena, and Saga wasn't best pleased about going head-to-head with them, although the head tossing was minimal and got less as the ride went on. I told Joan about the dressage show and Pine Hill and what I felt we needed to work on, so we got right into canter transitions.

Frankly, even after doing probably 20-30 transitions per side, I can't say that I feel like they got much better. I think the biggest problem is that I'm giving up my position and allowing him to run a few step (sometimes quite a few steps) into the canter. When I commented about that, Joan said that must be it.

Whoa, wait a minute. If I'm giving up my position and it's screwing up my transitions, why aren't you telling me?

Joan is very, very focused on how Saga goes. If he's not round enough, or bent enough, she tells me immediately. She might tell me I need more inside leg for more bend or whatever, but in general she's not telling me what to do with my body to get more of X out of Saga. This has been working so far, because we have progressed so, SO much in just 6 weeks. However, I'm starting to worry that I'm not a good enough rider to train with her, except on an occasional basis. If I'm not riding it right, I need someone who will tell me exactly what I need to do with my body (chest up, heels down, whatever) so that I can make my horse do it. If I'm not correct, the obviously he won't be correct.

I'm not sure where this leaves me. I definitely want to continue riding with Joan, but I feel like I need her to be more picky about me. I need her to focus on rider position just as much as she focuses on horse position. I'll talk to her about this in my lesson next week and we'll see if we can work through it. I just need her to help me be a more correct rider so that Saga will go better!

Lesson with Bobbie Paulk

I rode Saga lightly Friday night and again Saturday morning, and he was sound both times. So, I'm hoping the ankle issue is done and over with and we can get on with our lives.

Today (Sunday) we had a clinic with Bobbie Paulk, who trains one of the instructors out at our barn. FuzzyPony and I rode together, since neither of us were going to survive an hour lesson on our own. Neither of us have ever met or ridden with her before, but she comes highly recommended so we signed up for the clinic. Warning: I went a little nuts posting video for this entry, because Ziggy's Dad was kind enough to take videos and pictures of the clinic. I will probably post the picts later, but for now, you get video. :)

We spent a LOT of time walking, especially doing voltes in both directions. I've never actually done voltes in riding before as part of my training or warm-up, so that was new and very useful. This volte right is kind of a mess, but you can see at the end he really steps up under himself with his right hind.

We also worked on soft halts, which went not so well. We'd start off nicely enough but then about 50% of the time he'd brace against me and dive down into the bridle. Need more leg, anyone? We also worked on the concept of "pushing the saddle forward" in the gaits when we wanted the horse to come round - it seems to be the same sort of motion you'd use if you were to tuck your hips under you, but it's a different visual, and I found it very useful.

I learned that I'm asking Saga to walk way too fast, and that I am in fact mangling his walk by doing so, especially when we're on a long rein. He sort of gets moving so fast that his walk loses quality and he start stumbling over his front end. You can kinda see it in this free walk - yeah it's big, but he's on his forehand and I need to put him together more.

A bit of collection using my seat fixes this immediately, so we worked a lot of collection through the seat at the walk. That was a big breakthrough for me. We also worked on some walk laterals, and in this video you can see he's starting to get the shoulder in to the right, which is a big deal for us. So it's not even or any kind of straight, but he's getting the concept of lateral (please, ignore my position - I was using a LOT of inside leg and need to be more subtle about it).

We actually didn't work too much on trot, but we worked on a steady rhythm and straightness and coming through the back. I was really bothered by the fact that Saga wasn't very forward, but Bobbie kept telling me that he was really coming through and sitting down, and what I was feeling was his shoulders come up and him being light in the front. Ummm-kay... looking at the videos I could definitely see that he did NOT look slow and pokey, so I guess I need to get used to that when riding instead of this big open trot that I keep trying to get. It just feels really sluggish, and like I am having to work very hard to keep him going. It's also different from what Greta, my adopted horse-mom, was telling me the last time I rode him for her, which was to get him moving really forward. Of course, there's a difference between forward and rushing, and I need to learn where Saga needs to be.

The big, huge moment was canter. To the right, our transition usually isn't that bad. To the left, it's usually a running-with-head-up disaster where we completely lose all position, balance, and any sense of grace we ever have... exactly like this:

Bobbie had me really collect him and ask for a short, bouncy trot, THEN ask for the left lead canter. And wouldn't you know, the left lead canter transition miraculously fixed itself. :)

So, all in all it was a wonderful clinic and I really learned a lot. I am hoping that Vanessa sets up more clinics with Bobbie because I really liked her teaching style and she worked well with both myself and FuzzyPony together. It will also help when Saga's more fit, of course, and we'll be able to do more then. But we've got plenty to work on for now!

Showing off

Today is the first time I've ridden Saga in five days. He got two days of groundwork, then a day of saddle fitting, then two days off due to company in town for my graduation (Ph.D., thank you very much. You may now call me Dr. Jen... once or twice.) So today I got on him and showed off a bit for my parents and my adopted "horse parents," who I acquired when I was about 13 because my real parents know nothing about horses, and I needed some parents who not only knew about horses (my adopted horse-mom teaches lessons), but also had a few they were willing to let me ride.

So the plan was to ride, and that should have been no big thing, even with the inch of rain we got last night, since our barn has a covered arena. What I didn't realize was that the rain came at a 90 degree angle and flooded half of the arena. So I got to ride in a teeny area that was perhaps 12-15 meters wide and about 40 meters long. Yikes! We did WTC both directions (only a bit of canter, just to show off), and got some pointers.

First of all, I need to warm Saga up riding uphill. What this means is ask him to go forward and up, and THEN ask him to come down to me (as opposed to asking him to go long and low, which he'd prefer to do). This is completely different from how I'm used to riding Cash, who is built a touch uphill and never had a day in his life on his forehand. We also really focused on getting my reins shorter and my elbows out in front of me where I could relax them more, and it was amazing how much better he went when I did that. We also lengthened my stirrup one hole and worked on getting my knee back and down (I draw my knee up, which I've known for years) and keeping my inside leg forward where it should be instead of 4 inches back, which is where I keep trying to use it. Saga is also frequently not straight nose-to-tail (his shoulder falls to the inside while he's counterflexed) so we worked a lot on that. We tried some walk-trot-walk transitions which went poorly, mostly because he wasn't going forward enough due to the smallness of the space we had to work in. The homework is to get him very forward and big and uphill, keep him straight, and work on walk-halt transitions, being sure to start with the body. And keep my leg under me. And my elbows in front of me. As if I can remember all that!

Also, I was riding in my husband's dressage saddle (mine needs a billet repaired) with a borrowed ThinLine pad. My adopted horse-mom spent some time looking at both the dressage and my AP saddle, and came to the conclusion that Saga is a very hard-to-fit horse. He has extremely high withers and has a big "dent" right behind his shoulder and under his withers. He also has no muscle on either side of his spine, which may mean that the gullet, while quite wide, could be putting pressure on his spine. Because his withers are narrow but he widens out quickly, I will need a saddle with a wide gullet that is flocked heavily around the withers to keep the saddle from sliding downward and forward, and taking me with it. Come to think of it, I do feel like I'm having a hard time staying off the front of the saddle.

The dressage saddle fits "OK," and with the ThinLine pad, seemed to work pretty well. Certainly his back was drier and cooler than any other ride we've had. My beloved Wintec 2000 AP, however, is a joke. It doesn't look like it's going to work for him no matter what gullet I've got in it. The current recommendation is to go look for a used Schleese jumping saddle, then get it reflocked and adjusted to fit him. Schleese comes to Austin in late June, so I called and left a message to try to schedule a saddle fitting with them. Hopefully that will work out and I can get a used eventing saddle from them. I may also try to contact another saddle fitter in the area who does Borne' saddles, which are also custom-made. We'll see. For now, it's the Wintec Isabel with the ThinLine pad. And lots of uphill walk work to get that back in shape!