Lesson #152: 20m 'Ugh'

J was teaching our lesson Sunday and we worked on jumping. I knew, that going in, I was tight in the hips and off kilter on the (surprise) right side. We started with a brief warm up and then got into a large canter. No trouble from Ariel and we went round and round at her pace *sigh* Sitting up was having some effect and she did slow down when I used my weight but then she would slow too much so I leaned off some and she sped up but sped up a little too much... finding that balance was really tricky. At one point, Ariel did a series of Tempi changes along the long side and I had no clue. After J pointed it out, I did realize that it seemed like her canter was a little more 'lofty' than usual but I didn't intentionally ask for it so that's... bad. Then again, since she's a sensitive mare and I'm physically a dud, it's possible that my hips were shifting just enough to ask her for the lead changes and since I've never done it before, I wouldn't have known. But more than likely, it was because I was unbalanced and she was just trying to sort out balance for both of us. *le sigh*

Seriously. What is Deb doing up there???

Since I complained about being tight, we did some non-stirrup work with leg stretches. I was laughing a storm when G had said that a few times stuff was cracking and things felt like they were out of the socket! HAHAHA! It was her birthday the day before so we made the joke that she's just gettin' old. Oh the jokes with this bunch of people.

We started simple courses on a figure 8 with 4 jumps at either horizontal or cross poles at the rising trot. There were two jumps on the long side and 2 more on an angle with 2 corners of the arena. With a lower level, jumping over things wasn't TOO bad. I made it over with a 50/50 success rate of good position. Then he added in an extra jump... a horizontal jump on a 20m circle. I figured it should be fine but O-M-G, it was as if it was all too much for my puny little brain to sort out! Coming in was fine but upon the approach, things just went to poop. My eyes would drop or I'd look to the outside of the circle. My body would also seize up because I was clearly freaking out about what I should be doing and with Ariel, she's been known to run straight into a wall if asked (fearless, this girl). Even at the trot that was hella scary for me to do and the more we drilled it, the worse it got. I have no idea what went wrong but I couldn't seemingly look far enough into the circle and get through the jump. Ariel isn't the problem, I am.

I finished the remainder of the course just fine but that 20m circle one just sent me reeling back into a prior state. I'm okay at 20m circles at canter or trot on the flat but the addition of obstacles clearly is a problem at this time. I wonder what I could do, to address that seemingly unreasonable problem. Maybe I'll need to do ground poles on the 20m circle like we did last time where they were put at a "cross" pattern...

Lesson #125: She's Baaaack!

I arrive with the expectation to ride Bons or another again. As long as it wasn't Hank... he's SO MUCH work and on a Thursday night, I just don't have it in me to deal with more work. When I see Sheri, she tells me that Ariel's back in work and that I'll be back with her! Hooray!!! Not surprisingly, when I go to get her, she's rippin' around her old paddock and making stops on the dime. I know... she's got to slow down! She seems pretty happy to see me and we get going to get tacked up.

Hiya! Sometimes I wish Deb would just keep quiet up there and let me do my thing.

I hop on Ariel and giggle a little because from having ridden Bons, I feel like I"m on a pony (though Ariel is taller than a pony at 15.1hh). G's riding today and we get started with a posting trot warm-up. I make it my point to pay attention to diagonals. Next, add in lots of bending lines... circles, serpentines, shallow serpentines etc. We're on quite the pace today and now get into the canter. I've been working on proper canter transitions with Bons and Hank and I think it's better today. I don't have any of that crazy pony trot into the canter and she initiates precisely.

Then next exercise is a series of trot poles and an X jump. I'd say the start of my loss of control starts here. I don't know what goes on in my head but it's as if I stop riding every stride. I mean I'd suppose that's sort of natural considering it's a lot going on. Ariel's okay for some autopilot when we're puttering around the arena but once she's put into work, she needs clear direction well in advance of every single action. We worked up to a small course of 3 jumps and I had zero straightness--keep in mind this is the trot. We were webbling and wobbling all over the place and I couldn't get her into the jumps on a straight line. Our goal? Getting through things on a straight line.

One of the problems was incorrect bending. She'd turn her head out and then lead with her inside shoulder. I needed to flex her head back in and maintain her from dropping inwards. This led to my man-handling her during the lesson. At least I thought it was man-handling. Apparently, that's what she needs and I wasn't doing anything wrong! I rode so long trying not to mess with her mouth because I know she hates it, that I pretty much lost contact with her mouth. So I spend the lesson working on keeping her flexed where she needed to be and adding to that with my inside leg. Half halting was another thing I had to employ to get her attention and refocus on going at jumps with a steady pace. And a hard lesson to learn when I don't have a plan... coming out of the last jump, I wasn't sure which way to go and nearly flew off when she made a turn to avoid the wall. I still struggle with riding through the autochange because it's a skip in the stride and often my position isn't in the right place to absorb it.

Needless to say, my equitation was miserable. But, focusing on one thing at a time and in some ways, being reminded that I needed to be more assertive with Ariel.

Lesson #123 & 124: It's not about Perfection...

Thursday's lesson was a flat work version of "Sheri Says" and I rode with J and T. A little intimidating, considering both have been riding since they were tots and each are riding their own horses. But it's time to learn. We didn't canter at all, during the lesson. Instead, the exercises were solely focused in the trot and walk gaits, with lots of transitions, bending and collection. We ended the lesson on some leg yielding and Bons is a beautiful mover even though he hates doing dressage exercises. I've also been getting the incorrect diagonal for a few lessons now... and it's making me crazy. I don't seem to notice it until Sheri calls me out on it. Otherwise, the lesson was relatively uneventful.

Come Sunday, I was assigned to ride Hank. He's a chestnut... one of the many chestnuts at the stable. All I know about Hank is that he needs A LOT of leg and that he otherwise knows his job in the ring. He places regularly places at shows with his rider, and is ridden by both beginners and experienced riders alike. I should have no problems. WRONG. I didn't anticipate what "a lot of leg" meant and I spent the entire start of the lesson trying to keep him from slowing down or dropping in, on the left rein. It was maddening. There I was smacking him and man-handling him to do what I wanted of him. I was usually too late when I realized he was falling in and so correcting him was a real pain: inside flexion to get that bend and then lots of inside (left) leg pushing him back out while maintaining the contact in the outside (right) rein. He's miserable on the left rein and the rider has to do most of the work. I was riding square corners and they still didn't look square.

As we were going into corners (and circles), I needed to first, prep him but keep him 'straight' and continue to go straight until the end and just nudge ever so slightly to turn. I literally have to ride every single stride. After lots of circles over the arena, we continue on cantering around and maintaining deep corners. Hank has a wonderful canter transition from walk. It's not launchy or all over the map; he makes my transitions look good! Then we move onwards to a very small X jump... Hank steps over it. So Sheri ups the ante by having me go at it in a canter instead. Again, a lovely transition into canter and an autochange! I don't know when I"ll get used to those things; it feels like the horse is doing a little skip mid-stride. I think the reason I'm "not prepared" for it is because my seat isn't always as secure and so my weight is actually off-center. I do spend some time with remembering to post appropriately and keeping my posture etc. It's probably something I need to focus working on in the next few weeks while I can.

I do see what others mean when they say that Hank knows his job and does what he's asked to do without any major issues. As long as I tell him what I want nice and early (and clearly), he's good as gold. I think my biggest lesson is recognizing that I didn't do as poorly as I thought I had. I was lamenting that I didn't feel like anything went well. Sheri corrected me and reminded me that I hoped on a new horse, got the walk, trot and canter and added a little jump. Each horse is different and most riders aren't immediately perfect right at the get-go nor do they get perfection every single time. In addition, they often have to work a lot of up there.