Flying On My Own
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. . . The break from the constant pressure of riding under instruction has made me more self-reliant, more focused, and ultimately more confident.
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Monday Morning Ride & Friday Reflection
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. . . I decided to be like a frog; I literally took my outside thigh away from the saddle in a highly exaggerated release of leg, and at the same time, I pressed my lower leg firmly against my horse’s side and – WOW! . . . I practically fell off my horse as I hugged him from the saddle, laughing and crying at the same time.
Read MoreChanges: Flying and Growth
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. . .The feeling of an effortless flying change is one of those almost indescribable moments in time. . . .Today, I gave my horse a liniment bath and walked him back out to his pasture, quietly savoring one more step on my journey. I now know that today is still a beginning. I have more flying changes to ride tomorrow.
Read MorePracticing Fourth Level Test 2
/. . . unless I have some sort of physical epiphany, I’m simply riding “ok” trot and canter half-pass zig-zags, shoulder-ins, and walk pirouettes. My changes are a train wreck and my canter quarter pirouettes are clearly still work in progress.
Read MoreFlying Change Frustration
/My instructor says that I should be able to ride a flying change whenever and wherever I want to in the arena . . However, Universo takes over and changes whenever and wherever he wants to in the arena.
Read MoreCanter Zig Zag
/I did not know that I was going to be practicing canter zig zig. I simply warmed up as normal. We went through all of the familiar exercises, checking in for accuracy and quality. What I did not know was that throughout the lesson we were stacking my skills on top of each other, making sure the foundation was solid as I worked in collected trot on shoulder-in and trot zig zag, did some single flying changes of lead, and checked for responsiveness by shortening and lengthening within trot and canter.
Read MoreFlying Changes Every_____Stride
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For the first time in my life – EVER! – the very first time, in all of the years that I have been riding dressage – I DID CHANGES EVERY 4 STRIDES across the diagonal and then every 3 STRIDES across the diagonal!
Read MoreWalk Pirouettes
/...it was time to move on to using the correct aids with the correct timing to execute a walk pirouette in both directions. It is incredibly difficult for me to accomplish this movement; I seem to get different variation of WRONG every time I do it. And if I get it RIGHT in one direction and try the same aids with the same timing in the next direction, it is inevitably WRONG.
Read MoreDiscombobulate
/. . . I am a bunch of random moving parts, each with their own set of instructions and none of them working together in cooperation. That is what discombobulated feels like when riding.
Read MoreLearning to Halt-Halt: Part II
/Then there was that one magical moment in my lesson: My stomach muscles held and my seat deepened as my legs continued to drive into my resisting rein aid, the minute I felt the hesitation of my horse, I released my holding seat, and used a driving leg into a yielding rein - and, the result was incredible! I felt my whole horse’s body change as the hindquarters lowered creating more engagement and lighter steps.
Read MoreLearning to Half-Halt: Part I
/…Okay, here I go. I am cantering down the long side of the arena. Now I am concentrating on holding with my seat. About the time I reach the corner and round the long side, I am concentrating using my driving leg aid, and then I remember to hold with rein. Down the next long side, I release the rein or provide an opening with my hands, drive with my legs, and at the last minute, remember to open my hips and allow the increase in motion, which I think I was actually supposed to do first, since the order of sequence is always: seat, leg, rein. Apparently, it takes me roughly one lap around the arena to half-halt! I don’t know how I am ever going to execute one single half-halt before the corner, much less the multiple ones that my instructor is asking me to execute around the arena…
Read MoreSeat & Legs in Canter
/Something incredible happened today! It was an amazing feeling to have my seat and leg working together in coordination. Today I was all smiles.
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