Pre-Show Thoughts
/The day before my last show this season I am relaxed and happy. That sounds almost too simple, but the most important aspect of incorporating competition into my riding has been to achieve these two goals.
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Rider Failure
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. . . Today, I learned the lesson and share the lesson with you, that it does not take a curb bit or rowel spurs to mistreat your horse. Sometimes it is just your determination as a rider to succeed at the cost of your horse’s physical and mental development.
Read MoreMental Epiphany Turns Physical
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Today my mental epiphanies began to translate into physical epiphanies.
This morning I drove to the barn determined to ride with a positive attitude and an open mind. I wanted my open mind to examine my body and my horse’s responses when riding; I decided to listen to myself and my horse.
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 MoreIntroduction to My 2015 Show Season
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Universo and I like the minor changes in Fourth level, Test 1; the flying changes from counter canter at M and H feel more fluid and easier to accomplish than riding through the corner to change at C, adding the 3 changes of lead across the diagonal increased the level of difficulty, and moving the walk pirouettes off the rail to the line between M and H actually made it easier for me and Universo to execute them correctly (you may remember my post last year about working on walk pirouettes in preparation for showing).
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 MoreThe Ability to Carry
/Today, I rode my horse and actually felt him load his hind end. There was no mistaking it when it happened. Whatever I had felt before was only an illusion of what my horse actually felt like when he began to carry himself.
Read MoreWintertime Lesson
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It was difficult to leave my cozy home office, where I was writing in my journal and drinking hot tea, to venture out into the cold gray day for a riding lesson. I set up the riding lesson on purpose, since I knew that I would need some outside source of motivation to get myself to the barn on a day with the temperatures below freezing.
Read MoreOut of the Arena
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In the field, we watch deer watch us from the edge of the woods. In the woods, a leaf spirals down. Hoofbeats silent on pine needle paths. A turtle slides into the pond. We walk past paddocks where horses nap in the sunshine.
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 MoreSitting Trot and My Lower Leg
/One of the high standards I have set for myself is to ride sitting trot correctly; perhaps like Dr. Reiner Klimke, although I would have to be put on the medieval stretching rack in order for my body to at all simulate his long elegant frame. Regardless of the hopelessness of achieving that quality of perfection, at least I could hope not to be bouncing around in the saddle, nodding my head, leaning back in a perpetual chair seat, flailing my arms out like chicken wings, or swinging my legs wildly back and forth.
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 MoreRiding Bareback
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...what did I expect, after all these years (I am now 50 years old) of riding in a dressage saddle, when my instructor told me I should ride my horse bareback to give both him and me a break? It would be relaxing. Ha. Relaxing! Perhaps she would be relaxed, but I had visions of me clinging and bouncing on my 4th level dressage horse. I figured it would not be pretty, but I was game to try anyway.
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.
Read MoreLeg Aid in Canter
/I keep on learning new skills! But, once again, the skill of applying the leg aid it is not as easy as it sounds. We started by working on my seat. Then we focused on my legs. After all of my body parts were moving in concert with each other and following my horse’s motion, I could concentrate on closing my legs for a canter leg aid. For me, it helps to feel like I wrap my legs around my horse’s barrel and pick him up under my seat using my legs. Now I feel like I am making the canter happen with some control over the length of stride and activity vs simply following the canter. I have leg aids in canter!
Read MoreLeg Aid in Rising Trot
/I am learning to use my leg aid in rising trot. I don’t think I ever thought about how to use my legs in all of my years riding beyond gripping to stay on, banging them against my horse’s sides for go, and taking them off to slow down. Pretty rudimentary.
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