Weekend Rides Recap

First of all you guys I'm doing it!!! I was at the barn 6 days this past week and rode 4 times, lunged once, and did a spa day last Sunday. I can certainly refine it but I'm really happy that I did it, especially since I really didn't want to go to the barn on Friday but was able to pick myself up and go after, again, reminding myself that I never regret going.

Based on my mental ability that night and the fact that Katai felt a little tired I just did an easy stretchy ride. I did get a video which I took by balancing my new iPhone 7 on a jump standard in the middle of the arena. Not ideal, but you can see our most recent stretchy work as well as a decent halt :) There's also some pony cuddles at the end if you make it that far.

Then on Saturday I had an AMAZING ride! Katai was nice and relaxed (stretchy work ftw) but more forward than on Friday. We started with some walk work and did some leg yields, halts, and 10 meter circles while concentrating on controlling her body parts appropriately.

Then we went to trot and other than needing to have a couple of firm discussions about the requirement of flexion and connection she was really feeling good. Nice and relaxed with nice suspension. We did a little lateral work but mostly just focused on the quality of the trot and getting her in front of my leg without getting racy.

Then we did some canter. She was still stiff and struggling a little. After a bit she gave a couple snorts and seemed to really loosen up as we went. I really think she's just adjusting to our tougher work load so I'm making sure to be really understanding while still asking for just a bit more than she wants to give. With that being said her canter is still feeling stronger and stronger, she's just not as relaxed and balanced on days like this as she is when she's really feeling good. Plus she broke to trot a few times. We've been working on doing smaller circles at the canter and I was able to get a couple of good circles in either direction.

Walkies after Saturday's ride.
I always prefer to dismount and walk her out since it's good for me too :)

Finally, after a walk break, we did some of our best recent transition work. It's been a balancing act of working on walk/trot transitions without blowing her mind about them. Tonight I did them in sitting trot just asking with my seat and she was AMAZING!! She wasn't throwing her head around, was going from walk to trot off my seat, and really maintaining a nice rhythm. I also made it tricky for her by doing shoulder or haunches in between transitions.

Finally we ended with a couple of halts. These keep getting better and better! The only thing that's been tough is that now, since she knows she get's lots of praise for a good halt, she keeps trying to throw them in during our walk work. Poor overachieving pony doesn't like when I gently tell her that it's not always what I want haha.

Then today, Sunday, I had planned to do a quiet toodle day or another Sunday Spa day but I woke up feeling like I was coming down with a cold. I try hard to listen to my body so instead of doing anything I stayed home and have pretty much been napping on the couch all day. It's really ok, Katai had two good work days so she had an easier day coming. I would have worked on trailer loading but it's colder out again than it was so I knew she'd be especially hot and spicy and that's the last thing I need right now.

Oh well, I'm feeling ok after a relaxed day so I'm planning to be back at the barn tomorrow!

Trust: Lesson Recap 1/24

In other news it was time for another clip, and my god that mane
But look at those withers!! She's looking pretty uphill now :)

Woah, after lots of early January posts it's been awhile since I wrote anything! There have just been a lot of things going on in my life. Not bad stuff, just stuff but it has distracted me from writing anything.

Also, Katai has been reverting a bit back to her old ways. Even though she's still way better than she ever was and I know that the weather, hormones, and lack of recent rides are causing it it's still been tough. It's been especially tough to deal with the lack of relaxation which I feel like was my most fought for gain since working with Jane. However, as of this lesson on Tuesday I feel like we're getting back into the groove!

Katai started off in a good place and actually seemed like she wanted to work. She's just been so resistant that it's been tough to get anything done until mid way through the ride when she starts to soften a bit. This time though she came out of her stall soft and relaxed and despite some mare faces when I was tacking up she didn't put a foot wrong.

Time to make another pony

We started off the lesson as usually by doing a good long walking warm up and then going to trot. We focused again on getting the correct flexion while keeping her neck straight. When she's been so stiff recently we've been using a bit of neck bend to get her softened up but during this lesson we were able to go back to more properly keeping her neck more straight.

Jane had me start out spiraling on a circle only on the spiral in she had me counter flex Katai. I've don't this before (although probably never correctly) but for whatever reason on Tuesday I just couldn't do it. I really couldn't even get close. I muddled through that a few times and then Jane was kind and had me take a walk break. It's homework for next time.

During our walk break she pulled out the cavalettis and put them about 10 meters from short end of the arena so that we'd trot over them as we went down the center line. Then she had me leg yield from the far end from the wall to the center line and go over the cavalettis. Once over them we'd turn in the direction of bend that we had for our leg yield and then go backs straight down the long side and do the same thing in the other direction.

She's just so cute!!

I knew that we were going to do cavalettis and was really curious to see how they'd go. Despite using them several times at lessons in the past (with other instructors) Katai had always just rushed through them so that they didn't really do what they were intended for. This time though the first time she went through them she paused for so long on to legs that I almost unseated myself. The next time she also really paused and sat and used her new strength to get through them appropriately and in about the same rhythm. The last couple of times (probably getting tired) she went a bit quicker but still really maintained her rhythm. 

We didn't do too many since we knew how much work it was for her but Jane want's me to do this with Katai at 1-2 of my rides each week. What was really cool was that as soon as we went over them the first time her stride opened up and she really started swinging through her back. Almost as though she had just forgotten that it was possible and this reminded her.

Not my best clip but it'll do.
Also her mane isn't as bad as it looks in the photo, it actually turned out pretty cute!
AND I clipped her mare beard :)

At the end of my lesson we did some shoulder in at the walk. I've gotten it done in the past but not very correctly and so this was time for Jane to go over my position and the way I was asking and help me do it more correctly. The lesson from this, other than lots of moment by moment commentary, was that I need to allow Katai to do it wrong and trust her that she's going to do it right. Then if she doesn't I just fix it and move on. Yep, Im a perfectionist and this is really tough for me. I made a comment to Jane that I feel like she's our relationship therapist and she thought that was pretty funny but it's so true!

Also, I completely forgot to bring my little video camera but I'm going to try to remember to bring it to my ride tomorrow AND the boots from Hufglocken got here so I'll hopefully be able to share more about those soon!

When the Well Runs Dry

I wanted to post a ride recap from last week just because it was an interesting ride but for some media I'll share some screenshots from this most recent lesson video and some comparison shots from the last couple of years.

I'm so, so happy with this (blurry) picture!!
I feel like you can really see both of our progress and I actually can't believe that's me

As mentioned in several blogs so far, my pony is a saint. Throughout all of this recent down time when she's been stuck in her stall from the cold or unable to move much in her pen because it's icy or when I've been out of town and unable to work with her, or my car was at the shop...

Photo from spring 2014

Photo from spring 2015

Photo from Spring 2016
I can't believe the changes we've both made recently!!

This past Saturday though, the pony's patience ran out. She was actually really good in the cross ties which is unusual when she's full of energy so I didn't really think anything of it. Then when I led her to the arena I started to notice that she was spooky and since that's really odd I realized that she might be feeling pretty tight and full of energy.

Indeed she was, in fact when I climbed on she had such a hump in her back that I actually wondered if I was going to come off. Knock on wood she's never gotten me off so I was really hoping that Saturday wouldn't be the first day. Especially since it was -1 and I was so cold that I was almost in tears at one point when I just couldn't even bend my fingers and couldn't get them to warm up.

Really happy with that hind leg and the bend

I just focused on forward but she was so locked up that she kicked out at my leg and was making lots of sassy pony faces. She did calm down a bit though and eventually got her moving forward and stretching down and out into contact a bit. With Katai it's not even helpful to try to lunge when she's like this because she just tightens up her back and moves her legs even with side reins but on her back I was able to get her bending and stretching a bit.

Then she volunteered canter so I just went with it and that finally really helped relax her and I got lots of snorts. After getting some really nice work at the canter I got her going in the other direction and we did some trot and canter. This was her tougher side at the canter but she still worked really well. Finally we finished things up with some leg yields and I'm so proud at how they went! She's starting to understand her job and I'm starting to be more coordinated so we're finally working as a team.

The theme of the day, once she relaxed her back a bit and I didn't think she was going to flail/kick out/buck/rear was trying to get her to take the forward and down. She was getting pretty consistent in the contact but between the tension today, the lack of consistent work, and probably the change in bridles, she's having a little tougher time and has reverted to giraffing a bit but it won't take long and we'll be back.

I'm exciting to be able to ride more consistently again!

Go!!

I had my second lesson with L on Sunday and I’m just as impressed. She is wonderful, everything I was looking for in an instructor and it doesn’t hurt that she seems to really like my pony. She’s the calm voice of reason when things are getting a little crazy with my greenie and she’s great at seeing what I’m doing that I need to change and pointing it out without overwhelming me with too much info at once. I think my favorite thing though is that she is catering the lessons to me and Katai and what we need to work on at any given moment and not trying to force us into working on something that “all of her other students are having success with” like J would.

 

We were also multitasking since there was a desensitization clinic going on at the same time. I’m always struck by the different thought process between Dressage riders and trail riders or eventers. The latter just expect that their horses deal with things that could be scary such as tarps, bridges, flags etc. and the former seem to expect that there is no way in hell that their horses could ever handle such a thing. The western riders at the barn had set up a desensitization clinic on the Sunday so while I was riding in my lesson they were playing drums, riding over bridges, and waving flags around. The dressage riders at the barn didn't want to go near the arena. My feeling is that it is ultimately no different than what could be going on at a show so Katai would just have to deal and after a brief freakout when we first walked into the obstacle filled arena she was great! I expected her to behave and keep her mind on the dressage lesson and she did.

 

On Sunday we started where we had left off at our last lesson, getting Katai to not be as quick by slowing my posting. Right away she said it looked way better than last week and mentioned that Katai is very intelligent and is picking up on things quickly. She adjusted a few things I was doing and answered a few of my questions. Then we upped the difficulty and started to work on making sure that Katai wasn’t counterbending. This is why everyone needs an instructor because I had NO idea how counterbent she was. As soon as L started having me make some gentle corrections I could feel the difference in Katai’s entire body. Now I just have to be able to do this without eyes on the ground :-)

 

Next we added a few different patterns at the trot. First we did a 20 meter circle until she was moving correctly and then made a much smaller 10 meter, or so – sometimes I suck at steering – circle in the center of the bigger one. This exercise the pony got but I didn’t and I kept throwing her away when we went out and not supporting her. I eventually got my act together and then we went on to another exercise that L said should look like a YinYang where we changed directions in the middle of a 20 meter circle. This exercise I was better at but it made pony very, very fussy. She didn’t want to have to balance and is still green enough that it feels like I’m trying to drive a semi truck around a 10 foot circle rather than a small maneuverable pony around a 10 meter circle. We were both starting to get this figured out so we gave her a break. I’m always so happy to have new things to work on and I could feel how much better this made her and how she was carrying herself better after so I’m really looking forward to doing this exercise this week!

 

Finally, after a nice long walk break, we went to the canter. We started in her easier direction and again the focus was on not letting her counterbend her way around the 20 meter circle. L also had me work on getting her canter more forward which felt WAY better! This is another time where I was so thankful that I had someone telling me what I needed to work on because I’ve been happy with her slow, poky canter but now I know what a better canter feels like so I can work on it :) Then we switched to go in the opposite direction, Katai's tough side, and all hell broke loose. Of course it was an adorable pony sized hell but still. She was fussy and bouncy and wanted nothing to do with bending in the correct direction. I'm sure it was tough and we were asking her to use muscles that she'd not used before so I have no issue with it but it got a little rough and then suddenly I thought she'd bucked but L yelled "let her have a walk break!" and once I'd gotten her slowed down L told me that she'd just done a clean flying change. 

Think this -> 

Combined with this ->

I was thrilled! Obviously it wasn't correct and we wouldn't want to teach her that now but the fact that her answer to being upset about something wasn't to buck, bolt, or rear but to do a clean flying change made me really happy.

Then we went back to the canter and got her to do the bend correctly on the correct lead and I was even more thrilled :-)

Nice pony lipstick