LESSON!!! WOOP WOOP!

Saturday 14th Feb

Mikes Lesson:

A fab lesson! Learnt lots again and much to work on :0)

First I started off in a loose walk / trot to warm up then Mike asked me what I had been ‘mostly working on’ **snigger snigger** as each time he comes I have been mostly working on something hahahaha!! This time though I didn’t have a definitive answer! Which I actually think is quite a good thing as I do realise that I can get a bit ‘tunnel visioned’ sometimes lol lol! So I said, we have been working on a few things but I think ‘engagement’ seems to sum it up! So I showed Mike our more ‘together’ trot which she did nicely but I said we seem to collapse downwards!! So we worked on nicer downward trans.

First off Mike had a fiddle with my position. I am still having a tendancy to TIP FORWARDS!!! ARGH! Which is made worse by my lower leg now being a bit too far back so my position isn’t as strong or stable as it could be so although my position is definitely better than it was which helps with the ‘setting sail’ issues, it is letting me down in downward trans as Antsje tips me forwards and is able to collapse into walk rather than step down into walk. So Mike had me put my leg a bit more forward – which felt a bit odd and I said I was concerned about getting back into that ‘water skier’ position but Mike showed me the difference between the two and I could feel it was not the same! So we moved off again and mike told me to ‘open the chest’ and ‘open my shoulders’ and to also shorten my reins but to hold my arms slightly further forwards. Again I was slightly worried about the arm thing as I had a dreadful habit of straight arms and again it seems I have over corrected it! Now Amy did some video of me the following day and I can see EXACTLY what he was saying as I was still in the OLD mode for the majority of the time URGH! But hopefully me now SEEING it will help me to remember it and therefore SIT UP! For gods sake lol lol!

So, back to the lesson……

With my leg a bit more forwards, my chest / shoulder open and my arms a little more forward I DID feel the difference in our connection for the better – and this time when we did a downwards transition it was a lot better! Amazing huh! Also Mike said to think of ‘holding the reins with my back’ which was a really helpful comment for me as it made me focus on being more upright and strong through my back and not rounding the shoulders. I hope I can break this sodding habit!
After a few good trans on each rein we then moved onto working large round the school and doing some lateral work. We did some shoulder in and Mike got me to first SLOW THE WALK!! Half that speed!! And then to lessen the angle slightly and to really open the inside rein for Antsje to release the neck down but still maintain the SI position AND the slow walk. Very hard for Antsje as it took a lot of core strength to balance – very hard for me as it took a lot of core strength to keep the walk slow and the SI position and NOT to interfere with her neck! Mike says he has nightmares about the friesian neck hahaha! He said although in this position Antsje look to be going a little deep, its where she need to be for the base of her neck to be tied in to the rest of her body and as long as she maintains position and does not rush off then I shouldn’t worry about her head positioning as such right now. Mike also commented that with most other horses working this low would probably start to disconnect the neck but with Antsje it works. One thing we need to get her used to is adopting this ‘released neck’ when you ask her to start lateral work rather than to shorten and bring it back which really does disconnect the base of her neck and keeping the base of her neck tied into her back / HQ’s is so important. It obviously had some effect though as she was snorting and blowing throughout the exercises. We then did shoulder in for a few steps down the long side and then into sitting trot on a 20m circle keeping the connection and the energy created from the shoulder in. Antsje was starting to feel really good and ‘connected’ especially when I got my act into gear when Mike reminded me about ‘Open Shoulders’ Or ‘reins forwards’ or ‘weight the outside toe’ which I found really useful at stabilising me leg! But could I do them all together???? DOH!!

Finally we ran through a repertoire of suppling exercises I can use for helping Antsje step and ‘fold’ her hind legs more………….

Ones we can do!
Shoulder In: Less angle, deeper release of the neck
Travers: Less angle (again!!) and aim for that neck release again
Renvers: Quarters Out – same angle / neck release as for Travers
Walk Pirouette: Ask for a few steps of traver, then straighten then ask for the pirouette. If she gets sticky make it bigger – most important is that she keeps moving forwards.

New stuff!

Half Pass! Ooooo!!! We are getting posh lol!
We did this out of shoulder in and asked her to move over from the outside leg into the direction of the movement. A good little tip Mike gave me was in the movement open the OUTSIDE rein as this ‘anchors’ the shoulders. This worked really well! Difficult for me to explain but if you try it you will ‘feel’ what I mean ;o) The only thing is this can only be done ONCE the bend has been established so works well from Shoulder In.

Reverse Pirouette:
Now we are getting complicated and I need LEFT and RIGHT sewing into my gloves! As mike would say track left, and then say – NO, your other LEFT!! Pmsl!!! So we did renvers down the ¾ line, butt towards the long side – then after a few steps you ask the haunches to rotate around the forehand 180 degs until you are facing the other way and coming back up the ¾ line in travers! GET IT?? I hope so! It’s a very good exercise for mobilising the ¼’s but because its all new and both me and Antsje get all tight it didn’t look to pretty to start with hahaha! But Im sure once we both get a bit more confident then I can ask for a more released neck during the exercise. FROM US BOTH! Hehehe!
Again, Using the outside rein AWAY from the neck helps to anchor the shoulders and bring the ¼’s around the forehand.

I was really pleased with Antsje – we learned a lot of new stuff today and came off on a real HIGH

And how it SHOULD be done!!!

I found these video clips of Bent Branderup riding some lateral movements. They have really clarified in my mind the movements that I was trying to achieve in my last lesson. I also admire the lack of tension in the horse. Although Bent does have a slightly braced lower leg!! Well thats how it looks to me anyhow! Please correct me if Im way off the mark lol!! The picture as a whole is very beautiful though ;-)

Shoulder in to Renvers



Travers



Shoulder In:

THANK GOD! For the .................

WEEKEND!!!!!
WOOHOO!!! I rode! Only hacking mind as the field was unsuitable for schooling, saturday to frozen and sunday too wet! Sounds like a line out of Goldilocks and the three bears! Im waiting for 'JUST RIGHT'
Went hacking with Amy and Barney on Saturday and had a play with dong a bit of lateral work along the lanes hehehehe!!! Trouble is I forgot exactly the combination of what we did in the lesson (hence the late post) so I ended up doing SI to travers and Counter shoulder in to Renvers lol!! Still, although not quite what we did, I actually had a lightbulb moment with Renvers out off Counter Shoulder In :-) I did actually find the positioning for renvers easier out of counter SI as I already had the bend and just had to change the angle. I did this by re-positioning my hips to face the 'inside', held the 1/4's in position with the inside leg behind the girth and then asked the forehand to come off the track. Does this sound OK? Im finding it hard to explain?!?!? Well, at least I have got it in my head the positioning of renver which I was having a bit of a mental block with! I actually tried some passade to Renvers succesfully! I tried doing this a while back but realised I was taking the passade round to far and doing counter SI instead!! Ive not tried since as my mind couldnt seeem to grasp renvers at all!

Antsje is in season :rolls eyes: and on Saturday she had her real obstinate head on, and was very resistant to putting her ‘HEAD DOWN’ This is always a BIG sign of her being ‘not with me’ both on the ground and ridden. I swear to god you could hang off her head and she still wouldn’t put it down if you tried!! What a madam! So I did some ‘Head Down’ Exercises which helped but she wasn’t really ‘with me’ 100% - as soon as I released the pressure within seconds up she popped again Grrrrrr!!

Anyhow, time being of the essence, I got on and off we went. One thing I noticed that without very much arguing or effort at all, the lateral suppling exercises softened her whole body and mind :-) In fact in the end, we were able to trot with left bend – then straight – then right bend with NO resistance and just from the seat. Was lovely :-) And when I got back, the head down was breeze – no resistance whatso-ever, I could just move her head wherever and she complied willingly. Isnt suppling work a wonderful thing?!?! Im hoping it will be just as effective when schooling proper!

On Sunday morning my friend Helen came to visit - was GREAT to see her (((HUGS)) In the afternoon I hacked out Antsje on my own – which I LOVED!! I haven’t done this now for months and it was just a lovely hour spent with my horse. Again we practised some of the lateral movements and used the stretching into the contact to make a nice transition into trot! We don’t seem to get quite so sticky out on hacks – whether this is because Antsje is naturally more forward on a hack or whether its because I’m more relaxed and care free about it (guess which one lol!) Im not sure, but we seem to flow better.

Again, the work had really relaxed her up mentally and she was nice and ‘soft’ when we got back home :-D

We have a new horse at the yard – a 16.2 TB, which I had a little, ride on Saturday. Does make me realise how BIG Antsje moves – although this horse is bigger than Antsje she was FAR easier to ride and to keep in balance with! Antsje will train me to ride ANY horse I think!

Lesson 04.01.09

Well, its took me a while to write up!! We did quite a bit of new stuff and not being able to ride since the lesson until this weekend has made it difficult to crystallise my thoughts!! I ended up asking my long-suffering instructor Mike for clarification lol!! (poor Mike!!) And as his descriptions are so more lucid than my own I have stolen them Mwaaaa haaa haaaaa!!!!

Quoted from Mike Aylmore:

We worked initially on shoulder in, 10m circle, then continue in travers. This works well as the shoulder in gives a natural position to move onto the circle and you are also in a perfect position for travers as you return to the track. The shoulder in and travers have the same bend but you are right, they engage different hind legs. I always find this makes it harder to move from one to the other without a circle in between, it just doesn't seem to flow. When we were changing between exercises on the long side we would have gone from shoulder in to renvers and counter shoulder in to travers. In lateral work, the general rule is that the hind leg that steps in front of the other is the one that is being engaged. So, on the right rein for example, shoulder in is engaging the right hind. If you change the bend, then you are in renvers position, still engaging the right hind. Likewise, counter shoulder in on the right rein (essentialy shoulder in left!) engages the left hind. Change the bend to travers position on this rein and you are still engaging the left hind. This is why I like to combine the exercises in this way. As you move from one to the other you aren't changing the hind leg that is engaging, just changing the bend. The exercises just seem to flow better. It is particularly useful for Antsje as you are stretching one side, then changing the bend and stretching the other while engaging the same hind leg. For a horse that finds it hard to reach for the contact, being able to encourage the stretch down one side, then the other, will be very useful. The other reason I want you to become familiar with the exercises is so that you find it easier to correct her when she twists in the trot work. As she finds the work harder to the right, she will probably carry her quarters to the left i.e. a natural renvers position on the right rein and travers position on the left rein. To help correct this you need to ride her in an "opposing" position. i.e. "think" travers on the right rein, and renvers on the left rein. Obviously you can only do this if you are familiar with the full range of straightening exercises. In this way, every time you feel her twist and warp and lose the connection to the contact, you can quickly apply a combination of corrections to counter-act the warp!

My thoughts!!!

Well, this was a hard lesson for me and Antsje – neither of us having done Travers or Renvers before!! It was like the blind leading the blind lol!! In actual fact I had been playing a little with travers coming out of the circle, but not having ridden the exercise before I haven’t done too much for fear I was doing it all wrong!! At times I knew I was doing more a leg yield t the wall, rather than travers DOH!!! But it seemed I was not too far away in what I was doing which helped my confidence J Antsje is familiar with moving laterally in the opposite direction to the bend as in leg yield and SI but is not quite ssure WHAT to do with her feet when asked to move laterally into the same direction of the bend as with travers and renvers!! Looking at the video it was quite amusing to see her hovering with her feet really * thinking * where to put them. She does try hard though, and like me, once she UNDERSTANDS the concept she will try her best to do what is asked J She wass getting a little ‘sticky’ at times with the movements but Im sure this will improve with her understanding and physical strength. As for me! Well, I can see I need to be far more helpful to Antsje – but again, difficult when Im learning too L Things I SHOULD be doing is keeping a better position with my seat for one. I am trying TOO HARD and it is affecting my position to the detriment GRRRRRR!!! I have to think more about a relaxed longer leg, as I am gripping up with the effort lol!! I also have to stop holding my leg away from her body for example in the travers, I am pushing with the outside leg and holding my inside leg away from her body instead of wrapping it around. I also have to learn that the energy is produced by the inside leg and the outside leg just ‘holds’ the ¼’s in position, as at the moment Im trying to push her over with the outside leg and I feel this is one of the reasons we are getting ‘sticky’ and loosing forwards.
Mike stressed to me that the exercise doesn’t HAVE to be perfect for it to have the required effect! Do you think he could tell I was trying too hard hehehe!! It was interesting watching the video how after straightening back up after the exercise how Antsje stretched into the outside rein. It is here where I need to be quicker with my reactions and allow her to come through and use the energy created by the lateral movement. I could see I was blocking this at times. *sigh * It was also encouraging to see how the trot improved when asked for directly after straightening after travers! Although my trot was horrendous as by that time my legs had gone numb lol!! I thought the activity in the hocks was much better.

So things for me to bear in mind:

· Horse and rider have to be relaxed for their bodies to function efficiently! STOP trying and let it happen! :rolls eys:
· Think stretched relaxed calf to deepen the leg & seat rather than heel down – this seems to help me stretch rather than force! STOP Trying and let it happen!!
· Keep hands, elbows and shoulder soft – STOP trying blah blah blah!!! :rolls eyes:
· Be quicker with my reactions to be able to help Antsje and get more benefit from the exercise ie, don’t BLOCK by being rigid…STOP trying blah blah blah…………
· Hips to the inside (of the school) for shoulder in and renver – hips to the outside for travers and counter shoulder in.
· Inside leg (of the bend) for bend and impulsion – outside leg for positioning.

Is there a running theme here lol!!!

So for the video:
Please note that this is just the BEGINNING – it is NOT the finished product in any shape or form * blush * I realise my riding needs improvement, particularly with relaxing my seat (but HECK it was COLD!!) but sadly I am out of practice L Also my hands are to rigid, for same reasons! So please keep your comments constructive and help retain the fragile bit of positivity I am desperately holding on to!!

SI – Circle - Travers


Travers on the right rein!


Travers showing the stretch into the rein when straightening


Trot after travers

EDIT - added links as I failed to embed the video Grrrrrr!!!