The Next Step: Lesson Recap 6/20

No new riding pictures so here are some adorable puppy pictures

This was the weirdest I've felt during and after a lesson in a long time. I went into it feeling sort of emotional and vulnerable. Still not sure what's up with me lately but I think it's a combination of things from my previous post. At any rate, it probably wasn't a good time to bring up show plans for the rest of the year but I need to at some point so I asked Jane.

To make a short story shorter, we're sticking with Training level for the rest of the year. She's completely right and I don't quite know why I've been pushing for 1st. I'm totally in this for fun and I want to build a strong foundation with Katai which means making sure she's comfortable at shows and I'm comfortable riding her at shows before we increase the difficulty. I've mentioned before how goals turn me into a lunatic and this is one example since after we discussed this I felt completely defeated and just completely lost all motivation.

Luckily the beginning of the lesson was just about getting Katai moving forward, stepping under behind, and getting her rhythmic. For the past month or so our warmup has been to start with serpentines and get her bending but now we're in a different place (already) so using the full arena and getting her cruising is the answer. We also worked on changing the rein length at the walk and getting her to stretch down and then come back up without a pony melt down. Happily the answer on this is to just do it many times since she just doesn't know that sometimes the correct answer is a medium walk.

Doggy trifecta, tennis ball, rawhide, and sun spot

We got such nice work that I started to realize what a ninny I was being and was feeling better by our first real walk break. At that point Jane brought up that we were going to work on walk/canter/walk transitions!

Talk about an emotional roller coaster...

I had been planning a post on how I've been practicing these with Katai occasionally on the lunge. It felt very "exercising the Black Stallion at midnight" since at that point we hadn't even talked about walk/canter transitions. I just hoped that by introducing them there she'd understand them when we went to do them under saddle. On Sunday this past week she had NAILED them and gave me one, textbook perfect, transition on each side.

I mentioned this to Jane but neither of us were confident about what we'd get. I was betting on these transitions making Katai hot and explosive and tense and I think that Jane felt like we'd get that or just lots of running trot. However, Katai surprised both of us and stayed extremely rideable, mostly waited until I gave her the cue to transition, didn't run into the trot before the transition, and I was able to keep her fairly soft in the poll in the downward transitions.

Yeah, he's not spoiled at all...

Of course they weren't perfect. There were some trot steps, some tightness, some rushing in the walk, and going to the left she really struggled to step down into walk without some running in the trot first but they were really, really, really good for her first tries. Most importantly to me she stayed with me and didn't get explosive but she also did some really decent walk/trot/walks in each direction.

We ended on that but for some reason I still just felt sort of dull. I KNOW what a big deal that was but I was just struggling to be happy about it in the moment. Katai got lots of pets, a peppermint, and Jane and I talked more about the show schedule. She's going to look at the calendar and figure out when she can drive me. It sounds like there's a show at the middle of August that she's bringing her young horse to.

It will be interesting since her young horse hasn't shown before or even been off property much and this will be Katai's fourth show so two noisy baby mares. I'll be bringing earplugs and taking lots of Advil I'm sure haha. I'm hoping I can do at least one more show after that. The show in August is rated so my options will be Training 1 and 2 again. Hopefully that will be good enough that we could consider doing Training 3 at a schooling show later this year.

This is from last year (Veggie is two from the left)
but we've been doing more dog parks this year

Again, I'm really not unhappy with where we're at. I'm actually so, so, so happy and having so much fun. I love my time at the barn, I've been so motivated to go, and this past week I've been to the barn 5 days in a row and rode 4 of those days which would have been unheard of not that long ago. It's just this other stuff that's coloring my time at the barn and I think because I don't feel like I can make progress there I'm pushing that much harder at riding.

I'm working on perspective and finding other things that I can obsess and make goals about such as getting the Vegetable to the dog park every weekend :) Also, I want to mention that even though my last couple of posts have been a bit whiny and negative that's not really how my last couple of weeks have gone. It's just been a small part of how I'm feeling recently  and happened, in this case, to come up during my lesson.

Goals Redo

Despite never getting the formatting corrected on my last post about goals (I think I would have had to start from scratch and I haven't been motivated enough to do that) I have been making progress with my goal to reformat my goals. Mainly I think it's more of a conceptual thing but with goals that's the real struggle right?

What I realized, at work of all places, is that I already have the tools to structure goals for myself. After all I participate in coaching conversations with many employees on a regular basis and help them set goals. I just needed to start using my experience and not freaking out about how to structure these in a more standard way that doesn't work for my brain.

So I've decided to break these down into "buckets" and update at the beginning of each month. Thinking of these as buckets (or topics or whatever makes sense) just works better for me. There's more flexibility built into the idea of a list of "buckets" than there is in a more specific list or plan. Since it works for my brain I'm going with it and since it's the beginning of June so I figured this was a good time to start. 

1. Proper bend to the left - We've got it about 90% of the time to the right, not it's time to get it to the left

2. Stretchy Trot - This is so necessary for her brain and teaching her not to just run when we're stretching will help with everything else, plus it's an upcoming movement :)

3. Canter Transitions - Practice, practice, practice

4. Lateral Work - All of the sideways. After a recent break through at the Susanne Winslade clinic we've actually got this sometimes and I can feel when we have it. Now we just need to practice and get more consistent

5. Cavaletti Exercise - I'm currently on the struggle bus with teaching Katai to transition within gaits (trot right now) and she likes to take shuffly little steps and then just walk when I ask her to slow within the trot. I think part of it is strength but part of it is that she just isn't quite sure what I'm asking for. I tried out an exercise where I put three cavaletti on each side of a 20 meter circle with one side being closer together (shorter steps) and the other were further apart (longer steps). 

I didn't do one after the other since that would certainly have just blown her pony mind but I would do one a few times, take a walk break and then do the other. It was really rough but eventually she really started to understand and we quite on a good note. This isn't something I'm planning to work on regularly but it will be a good way to mix up our other rides.

Hands: Lesson Recap 5/7

I had my lesson on Saturday this week since I was riding in the clinic on Monday and we wanted to be sure to give Katai a day off in between. I got to the barn nice and early and it was gorgeous out. I was hoping to ride outside but there was thick, heavy smoke in the air from the Canadian wildfires so we decided to ride inside where they had the fans going and the air was a little clearer.

Katai has been on a roll recently and the lesson started off really well. She's starting to get the idea of walking nicely on the bit and using it as a breather rather than just always wanting to go as quickly as she can. We were focusing on getting the correct bend and again, doing movements from training level tests, just not in the order of training level tests.

One of my biggest take-aways was that I really need to have my reins shorter. I've been leaving them longer but then I end up with my elbows back too far when I need to shorten. As soon as I shortened them and put my arms further forward Katai relaxed and was more steady on the contact. I also tend to flatten my left hand so we worked on that.

The other big thing that I learned was to start preparing for the bend earlier. We were working on doing the 20 meter circle at B and I was on the turning struggle bus. It either took me half way around the circle to get the proper bend or I was doing too much with the reins. L told me to focus on getting her in shoulder fore before the 20 meter circle and it clicked.

Finally we did some transitions into canter and at the first one L said, "your body is so much better than it was!". It made me happy because I've been working really hard on getting my hip bones more even.

I'll have a recap of the clinic up soon!

The Recipe

I was thinking last night about how to structure my ride today and I realized that I had already found part of our current recipe for success and then promptly forgot about it. Earlier this month (I think it was prior to Katai's mounting flail thing) I was lunging Katai before riding her. Only for a few minutes in each direction but going through walk, trot, canter and really giving her a chance to warm up.

For Katai it's never about getting her bucks out since she is almost subdued on the lunge. Seriously, crazy things can be happening and Katai will just be in listening work mode the whole time. Every once in a while she'll break into a trot before I ask her to but most of the time she listens to everything I ask. I think that for her it's more about warming up, particularly her back, and finding her balance with the neck stretcher before I climb on.

This was working so well for the week that I was doing it but I don't know that I ever put two and two together and for that reason I sort of forgot about it. Today I started her out that way again and again had magical, floaty, dressage-unicorn pony.

She was hot but in this contained fun sort of way where she was lifting up and forward through transitions and it was all coming from behind. She was extremely light and floaty in front and all of her power was coming from behind. It felt like someone had traded my training level pony for a 2nd level pony overnight.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego anyone? 

I was also riding her like I was (closer to?) a 2nd level rider today too. I was able to keep my lower half softer and more relaxed and was posting very consistently so that she had to follow my rhythm rather than the other way around. It was a little more work to keep her connected since she was lighter in front but I never really lost her either at least not for more than a few steps at a time.

I was also able to use both of my hips independently and I don't think I was twisting or collapsing as much after a week of conscious work in sitting straight and working to strengthen and be more aware of that side. It also helped me make my canter transitions better.

I'll find out tomorrow if I'm actually managing to not twist as bad.

First Quarter Goal Review

Goals for Katai:

 

Speaking of goals, so proud of how we both look here.

Master our canter transitions

  - Nope, still on the struggle bus with this and I haven't been breaking these out and practicing them the way that I should. Of course it hasn't helped that Katai has had a few health issues already this year and we've lost over a month of riding. Not making excuses, it's just made it tough to make consistent progress. This is one of my main goals for the next couple of months.

Perfect Leg Yield

 - Not enough progress on this either but we have been practicing them more despite them not being perfect and that's a big deal for me. More practice needed!

            

Practice riding through at least two Intro tests and at least two Training Level tests

 - Nope, I have memorized Training 1 so that I can practice riding through it but now that I have an idea of what I'm going to do for the first show in May I'm going to focus on doing Intro A and Intro C to see where we have holes.

Sign up for at least two clinics

 - Done! I've ridden in one with Susanne Winslade and have signed up for a second in May. I have a feeling that I'll add at least one more later in the year so we should knock this one out of the park.

           

Go for a trail ride off farm property

 - Nope but that's the MN weather for you. This will happen multiple times this Summer and I have found someone to trailer me and go on trail rides with so that is some progress on this goal.

            

Attend at least two dressage shows

- Great progress on this one! I'm planning on at least 3 schooling shows and possibly a rated or two. I've got my entry form filled out for one at the end of May and am turning in payment for my stall this weekend.

Goals for Katlyn:

Continue with my own self improvement

- Yep! Great progress here and I've continued to experiment with vegan recipes as well as loosing some more weight and getting out more. 

Gain Strength

 - Another yep! I've continued with my work out at home and now I'm going to focus on getting a gym membership and doing more strength training. I'm also planning to do more running this year.   

     

Blog more often

- Meh - My goal is to average 15 posts per month and I just squeaked in 15 in March with way fewer in January and February. I'm going to keep working on this and hopefully do better for the rest of the year.

Better pictures and video both for blog posts and just for myself!

 - I think this is getting a little better. Still no high quality photos but we've also been stuck in the indoor so far with poor lighting. I'm pleased that I got some photos of the clinic and with more posts I've also been able to share more photos. This is another big goal for the rest of the year though. 

Purchase a set of show clothes and tack

- Almost complete! I've got a decent set of schooling show/clinic appropriate attire now. I'd like to add another pair of white breeches but that's not needed for schooling shows so it's not a big deal. 

Finish building tack locker with my dad

- Made great progress so far. Unfortunately my dad's been unavailable on weekends because my poor grandma feel and hurt her knee. He and my family are working on moving her to an apartment nearer to where my parents live so our next few weekends will be focused on that rather than tack trunk building. Priority on family always.