Lesson(s) Recap

My, apparently doubtful, co-pilot for Christmas shopping this past week.

One thing I’m hoping to do in the new year is more lesson recaps. I started this blog to journal what happens with Katai and my journey and since not much has been happening over this past year I’m not too disappointed that I haven’t been blogging as much but I do still wish that I’d been documenting more of it. With that in mind I’m going to try to catch up a little on what’s going on now so that I can start the new year in a good place.

First, I don’t think I’ve talked much about my current lesson format or it was a long time ago and we’ve all forgotten so let’s start there. I’m currently taking e/o week lessons with the trainer that works at the barn and rents the house there. She has a lot of training horses (and a couple of her own) and teaches lessons to a good chunk of the people who board at my barn. We’ll call her K. She is also how I found this barn. I’d followed her on Instagram knowing that she was in MN and she has a fantastic account. I always drooled over the really cute arena and after commenting on one of her Instagram stories and having her respond I finally asked where she boarded and found out about my current barn.

The results of our labor. Lots of tasty things, a few gifts, and some yummy alcohol

 There were so many reasons why I moved but the ability to work with her as a coach was a big one and luckily it’s proving to be just as great as I’d hoped. K is so, so low key. She can get really intense when needed but she’s just much more relaxed than previous instructors I’ve worked with and I really love it. I’m an adult and I do this for fun but my fun is to work on it really intensely and take myself way too seriously so having a coach who just is a little more relaxed and not such a perfectionist (which I so am) is extremely refreshing and really helps me not stress or dread my lessons. She’s really great about pushing and asking for new things but also not pushing past a point of comfort and even better she’s really got Katai pegged (probably since she’s very like her own mare) and is very thoughtful about how we approach things so that we don’t push Katai so far past her comfort zone that she hates the work. She does this in her own work with her mare too sometimes doing just groundwork, taking her out on the trails, or riding in a side pull. I can’t even tell you how nice it is to work with someone that knows how much those sorts of things can still help progress with dressage and just building a relationship with your horse.

Don’t get me wrong, I still miss Jane who was almost like a second mom, therapist, and friend. I’m not sure if I’ll work with an instructor who is so keyed in to what I need to do to improve and who holds me to such high standards again. Hopefully I’ll have that opportunity but if not, the skills she taught me are helping me in everything still so I’m incredibly appreciative.

 

One of the bf's extended family Christmases.
This was only about half of the gifts that showed up.

Back to the lesson recaps though! Our first couple of lessons were really allowing K to get used to me and Katai. Both of us were also incredibly unfit (and getting used to riding in a very small arena) so they were pretty messy and there were some mini meltdowns on Katai’s part. Fast forward to about 3 or 4 lessons in though and I had a HUGE breakthrough with the canter mechanic. Jane had been using the wording of keeping my body up and down which I think was making me shut down Katai’s stride and causing her to get sticky and pissy. I’m sure that Jane didn’t mean what I was doing but I couldn’t figure out how to do it differently. K had me concentrating on sitting up into the stride, without getting light in my seat, and half halting at the height of the stride. I had been thinking more of half halting on the down feeling and holding myself into her back. With K’s help calling out when I should be half halting I was able to feel it and it was such an amazing thing. Since then I’ve been able to replicate it and with that we’re finally getting Katai’s canter (and my canter mechanic) truly under control.

We’ve also had some nice breakthroughs with some of the items, or one main item really, that were getting us stuck in our 2^ndlevel progress. Basically Katai doesn’t listen to my halting cues or she gets so upset that she has a meltdown and we can’t continue. K has been so great about making it more light and playful and helping make the change without demanding it and then just moving on. We’re working on all halts and half halts. Everything from when I’m leading, to lunging, to riding at all gaits and in all movements. That leads us to my last lesson which was on the evening of my birthday.

 

So tough to choose exactly the right thing for Mimosa's. I decided to get bf's opinion

Unfortunately I’d had an awful day (really tough conversation with a staff person right at the end of the day) at work and my anxiety was high which I let K know when we walked in. K is really good at not babying anyone but I think she could tell that I was a little shaky and emotional so she let me know that we’d try to keep it pretty easy and just do stuff that I felt like handling. Recently there have been a couple of days where the canter wheels fell off the bus so we decided to work primarily on walk and trot since she knows I can handle the on my own as/if it comes up and it was unlikely we'd make progress with it that night.

To start we worked on getting her really through at the walk and really “oozing” forward on the bit at the walk. I did some leg yield to get her accepting the leg aids without dropping behind the contact and coming up. After a good long walk warm up with lots of lateral work we went to trot and really focused on keeping her down and forward. We worked on me pushing the contact forward like a wheelbarrow and really allowing her to find her balance at that lower place since her default is to come up. We actually got some really good work like that and did a few nice leg yield in either direction. We took a walk break and talked about what we were going to do next and we decided to work on her 2^nd level balance.

 

Sneak peek of some of my gifts. These were from K, my new trainer

The exercise was to do a shoulder in and then halt part way down the wall. Trot halts are pretty good but still a slight stretch so that goal wasn’t to get a perfect halt, just to introduce that it’s a thing we do and it’s ok to stop, with her weight balanced back, and then trot forward again still in SI. Once we started working on halt, while in a lateral movement, the wheels fell off a little so we did a lot of work accepting the try and making it into more of a game. By the end she was at least trying to understand the question rather than just getting tight and resisting. I’m really happy with how far we’ve come in such a short period of time with only e/o week lessons.

In addition, K is the first training I’ve worked with in a while who will ride her clients’ horses. Because of that and because of my goals for moving up to 2^nd level for at least one show at the end of the year this year I’ve asked if she could start putting a couple of rides on Katai. She’s going to ride for part of my next lesson and then we’ll talk about how many rides and when. I’m not going to be able to afford to do it on a really regular basis at this point but I do think it would help us break through this barrier that we’ve been facing and hopefully, at the least, help K know some of Katai’s quirks that much better as she’s teaching us from the ground.

No new Katai pictures, I've seen her a few times this week but didn't have much time for pictures.
I can't wait to work with her tomorrow!!

Because I've been taking e/o Tuesday lessons and Christmas and New Years are on Tuesday this year we haven't figured out when my next lesson will be yet but likely the week after New Years. I can't wait!

There are some other exciting things that are starting to materialize in my life so fingers crossed I'll have more to share soon :) Also, Merry Christmas!!!

PS of Sweden Flying Change Bridle Review

I've been doing my seasonal "favorites" posts but haven't had much to review recently since I haven't been purchasing much. Thanks to saving up some money I was able to spend a bit more on presents (for everyone including myself) this Christmas and finally got the PS of Sweden bridle that's been on my list for over a year.

Based on the information I had I decided to order the pony sized bridle. I had messaged asking for the bridle size but never heard back. I really should have messaged again before ordering as you're about to see.

Unfortunately when the bridle arrived and I compared it with a bridle I had at home that fit Katai I was pretty sure it was going to be too small. I brought it out to the barn, tried it on her and sure enough it was way too small. Not even close enough to be able to punch extra holes. So, I brought it back home and got it packaged up to return.

In the meantime I spent a lot of time admiring the pretty sparkly broadband

After a couple of emails back and forth and many days later (I shipped it back on 12/5 and it didn't arrive until 12/19) I finally received confirmation that it had arrived and they would be sending me the exchange. They were incredibly helpful and kind throughout the whole thing and I completely take all responsibility for any issues since it's on me that I both ordered the wrong size and was trying to ship back during the Christmas season.

With everything else going on this really wasn't at the top of mind and I've been more worried about figuring out my car. Once I heard that the bridle arrived safely I put it out of mind. It was a bit of a rough week since my car went into the shop mid week last week and I spent a week without being able to get to the barn.

That made it that much more wonderful that through some Christmas gift from the universe the package was waiting for me when I got back from my parent's house on Christmas Day :)

It was more fun and less stressful to open up the package this time since I knew it would fit. I took my time checking every inch and I have to say that I'm completely in love. I should mention that I've only ever owned cheap bridles (under $100) so I don't exactly have much to compare this with but after some of the comments about the leather I was curious what it would be like. Although I may not have an educated opinion I will say that I'm really happy with it and feel like it's completely worth the price.

Perfect for my princess ladybug

I went back and forth on what to order but my total order from PS of Sweden was the Flying Change bridle in cob size, a sparkly broadband, and the throat latch. I was tempted by the reins but in the end I just couldn't justify getting them for $80 when my favorite reins (so far) from Horze were $23 for Black Friday. I may be a bit of a tack hoe but I'm also a cheap tack hoe for the most part ;)

I really like the shape on her face!

I was able to bring it with me to the barn on Tuesday for my lesson and get it fitted to her. As the leather softens and everything starts to mold to her I'll need to adjust again but for now it's, amazingly, right in the middle hole on both sides. So, yeah, my 13.2 hand pony has the same size head as some 16 hand thoroughbreds ;) The only thing that was way too big was the flash but that's easy enough to punch holes in. I haven't used the throatlatch yet as I really got that just so that I can legally show in this bridle. 

She's so tough to get pictures of because
she just wants to follow me around

Sorry for the wonky flash in these pictures. I took these after I rode and I always take the flash off right away. I had it in a loop on top of her nose, like a lot of people do, but she had a mini "Bobby" tantrum and kept running her nose into the walls of the arena so I adjusted it for the princess.

My only complaint is the crank noseband. I've never had a crank noseband before and while I love the extra padding for Katai's face I'm a huge believer in leaving everything really loose so I'll never use it as a crank. Plus, it's just so fiddly to get fastened up! It does make us look very official though so that's pretty cool.

I'm sure that this will end up on one of my seasonal favorites posts in the future after I've had more of a chance to use it!