Training Update........

Training Update!

God I MUST blog more regular lol! Where were we……..

Ok, so we have mostly been working on ‘forward into the contact’ and ‘power from behind’
We have definitely upped the anti this last couple of weeks and I think its been hard work for both of us…physically and mentally! For a start off, now we have a more powerful trot I am struggling to sit to it and can tell I am blocking Antsje and I rather suspect I have been for a while and this is why the trot has gone down to MY level and I suppose this has also suited Antsje lol! A bit humbling I can tell you when you realise its always the rider that’s stuffing up the horse lol! So I have been working more in rising trot to really free her up but she is grumbling about it a bit because now she has got to put a bit more effort in!
So I have been really concentrating on her reactions to my leg……….if she doesn’t react to it STRAIGHT AWAY and just lollops into trot, then she gets bought back to walk, ‘animated’ by use of my voice and a couple of taps with the schooling whip. We then do a succession of transitions until I can feel her really ‘waiting for it’ and once we are “there” a lot of things fall into place because she is ON THE AIDS! We had both got a bit DULL I think and Antsje was taking her own good time before she reacted to my requests and I was merrily accepting this!

We have had another lesson since the dressage tests too and the instructor had a little sit on Antsje too! It was good to watch her and I got good feedback on Antsje’s way of going. In the lesson it was just re-affirming Antsje being forwards into the contact, making sure she was reactive to the aids and we also played about with collecting and lengthening the stride in trot….done on a circle. We also did work on serpentines really asking Antsje for more suppleness through the changes of rein. I was very pleased at the end of the lesson ….. Antsje really does have a good attitude to her work which is more than half the battle (bad choice of word! But that’s the saying lol!)

We have also been working more on schooling the canter too and it is becoming just more ‘everyday’ rather than Ooooo shall we do ‘CANTER’!! lol!
The last couple of session’s I’ve noticed that although the contact is now very consistent and she still needs to be taking more weight behind and be getting that feeling of her rising up through the wither. We are getting moments of this and it feels bloody brilliant! But its time to move towards this being the normality rather than flashing glimpses.

So things I’ve been doing to help are:
Reinback to trot
Walk to canter
Shoulder in and Counter shoulder in
Leg yield to canter
Travers in walk and attempts (!!) in trot lol!
Half pass in walk and attempts (!!) in trot!

Although the travers / half pass in trot is pretty rubbish it is still having an effect of collecting her and bringing her together more, so I think its worth persevering with!
Fridays are her day off and she gets an all over massage with an electric massager which she LOVES. She worked hard last week so she had 2 days off with massages both days and felt loads ‘boingier’ on Saturday! And we also did a bit of jumping at the weekend for a change and some fun!

So its been all good! Oh, and for improving your seat, work without stirrups in SHORTS lol! Your skin sticks to the saddle and you gotta keep your butt in the saddle or it hurts lol!

Resistance is futile.............

But she's gonna have a go anyway hahahaha!!!

I think Antsje is testing out my commitment to the 'power trot'........ Two stubborn mares together = KABOOOM!!

Well after a days rest we had an absolutely AMAZING session last night!! I did some poll flexions before I go ton last night and she was quite resistant to start but after a few she started to soften up and relax her jaw. I also did a little girivolta work in hand just a couple of circles either way, but with my hand on top of her poll to encourage relaxation and flexion.

So I got on and worked on the lengthening the neck / bringing together / lengthening idea on a circle to really try and get her thinking of working forwards into my hand. I think I really need to work more on this ‘connection’ as I think we have just got into a little comfort zone with both of us coasting a bit!
Well she seemed to get the hang of it better and we did some trot in the same manner, working FDO and then bringing up and then FDO – trying to get it really fluid and Antsje not backing off the contact or my leg!
I also rode without stirrups for a while so I could stretch my hips and deepen my seat too.

We did a few walk / trot transition from this deeper connection and although the swing was quite nice it was a very sedate lumber into trot! So next time I gave her a flick with the whip and made a bit of a noise at her and she LEAPT into trot lol! All or bloody nothing with this mare lol! BUT! I clicked and treated the effort because I did want an immediate response like that – perhaps not quite so leapy though lol! So Next trans we did was blimmin fantastic – surged up into trot and you could just feel the lift through her shoulders. And the trot, god it felt like we were flying, just so much power and lift in it, I was just grinning like a fool! And we had this for the rest of the evening – consistent contact and powering from behind, into my hand and a lift from the wither………very addictive ;o)

We went on to do a bit of canter, and she does have a tendancy to fall in on the circle. My sister was watching and she suggested I rode or rather ‘thought’ SQUARE rather than circle and I have to say it worked so much better to think of riding her straight.
The downside in canter is that I feel like a bag of shite! I tense up, draw my leg up, go stiff and tighten my arse and therefore cannot sit nice and deep in the saddle. Part of it is because im trying so hard to stop her falling in on her shoulder that I feel like my body is contorting in an attempt to keep her straight. I think I need to do some canter work without stirrups to try and get out the habit of drawing my leg up and loosing my seat.

Other than that though I was very very pleased with her efforts and I can definitely feel the difference in the quality of trot and what we need to be aiming for from now on.

This mornings session was another matter completely! She was back to being resistant again and wouldn’t come forwards off the leg and seek the contact down. Grrrrrrrrrr! She would either rush off all hollow, of stretch down in the lumbering granny trot we had got ourselves stuck into. So after asking nicely in as many ways as I could think of, I ended up loosing a bit of patience to be honest and was rather firm with her that she got off the leg, and that she gave to the contact. Probably not very classical and I really don’t like falling out with her, BUT, it worked and when she gave I softened immediately and from then on we had some nice work and a nice ‘connection’ Is five minutes of ‘bossy riding’ better than half an hour of half hearted nagging? My gut feeling is is that she is just finding this work harder (I know I am!!) and she is seeing how committed I am to it!! Because when we have ‘got it’ I am not having to hold her ‘in a frame’ she is just ‘there’. Thoughts???………….

Well anyhow, I got some nice trot work and transitions and I left it there and gave her plenty of praise for the GOOD stuff.

I will just go out on a nice relaxing hack tomorrow so she can have a stretch and rest before our lesson again on Sunday. I know My hips ache today and we are both putting in more effort this last few sessions so I am mindful that although I want to be firm that this is the way its gonna be – I also want to be fair and realise she will need some recovery after these harder sessions.

So………..another mixed bag! Lol!

A little bit hit and miss..........

So I have been working on the ‘lengthening / bringing together / lengthening’ and the deeper position of the neck and it just seems to take forever to get some consistency in the contact. I can feel a bubble of frustration in me partly because Im sure she understands my requests and partly because Im not sure what im doing wrong! All I know is that it’s a weird feeling when she is not accepting the bridle, and I can give her the reins or take up the reins but she not really **there** and the half halts etc just do not work! Because Ive only got a limited amount of time in the morning the frustration is intensified and I KNOW I am getting a bit ‘handy’ by nagging with the rein and I KNOW that this does no good what so ever because even if I do get her to give this way as soon as I ask her to take the rein down she doesn’t follow, she just ‘holds’ at the wither. GAH!
BUT! When we DO get it, its bloody fantastic! Maybe I have just got to accept that it will take a period of adjustment for both of us to settle into being more focussed and obviously working a bit harder lol! The annoying thing is, is that I just don’t KNOW how I’m getting it when we DO get it!! But I can bet my bottom dollar its summat to do with me! And most likely my tension lol!

Just to be sure I am getting her teeth checked at the weekend just to rule out any discomfort in her mouth.

I gave her the day off yesterday so Ill be interested to see if a rest will help tonights session. And I have got to CALM DOWN mentally and keep a lid on the old ‘frustrated perfectionist’ that is ever lurking just under the surface Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

A bit of exciting news……….Ive entered two dressage tests!! My sister said she would take me as my Birthday pressie and I have finally got the courage up to do a Novice test as well as a Prelim! The trot is certainly good enough and well, you gotta start somewhere hey!! REALX and BREEEEATHE!!!! Lol!

A LESSON!!! WOOP!

I had a lesson last Sunday – the first in a few months! The lady rides at Intermediere level and has trained her two TB’s herself. She enjoys working with non-typical dressage horses and has a good eye for horse and rider ;o)

She picked up very quickly on mine and Antsje’s strengths and weaknesses and this gave me a lot of confidence in her instruction.
She was very complimentary about the work I have done with Antsje so far, so that was a relief!! She said I have done well in getting her neck out as so many horses like these are ridden too short in the neck and she was also happy with my position in general, which again was a bit of a relief.
She also picked up on my tendency to ‘tip forwards’ and Antsje not quite being ‘through’.
So we worked a lot on getting a proper and honest connection from back to front with Antsje, which meant her putting a bit more effort in lol! And also me being really strong in the core and encouraging action from the HQ’s and holding it with my seat and “not touching the front end” so Antsje was encouraged to be confident in the contact.
She also recommended working Antsje a bit ‘deeper’ to really get that connection over the back and into the hand. Now before you all go ARGH!! This wasn’t with her head on her chest!! Just a slightly lower position with the neck to really tie in the back and the withers as the energy can get a bit unconnected at this point. Its always something Mike has got me to do too, so I was happy enough with the idea. She also said that with a horse built like Antsje you will never have a problem getting the neck ‘up’ because of the way she is built so we can afford to ask her to work a bit lower without any problem.
So we worked on getting her to take the rein down, then bringing her together a bit, then taking the rein down again so we were able to keep the neck coming forwards fluidly whether we were in a stretch or more ‘together’ Once we had this feeling she got me to think ‘leg yield’ but not actually let her step over but just hold her with the outside leg and rein so in effect it acted like a half halt and encouraged her to activate her inside hind more. From this position we asked for a transition into trot and I have to say it was SUPER! F noticed that although our upward trans were good, the downward ones were not quite there. Once she got me pressing Antsje ‘forwards’ into the walk and me really raising my rib cage lo and behold we got some excellent downward trans too! So, if we don’t the horse to collapse – the rider MUSTN’T collapse lol!! Obvious hey!

In the trot we concentrated on asking Antsje for more POWER but not to go any faster or come out of balance. To do this I had to be really strong in my core and control her with my rising and just try and keep a consistent steady contact with my hand. The trot felt REALLY good and REALLY connected and I could see that now both me and Antsje have improved in strength and balance we need to move up a gear as we are both capable of it!!

F had a look at the canter and again was pleased with what we had achieved. She thought improvements could be made by again keeping this nice connection that we had going in the trot and not let her back off as she went up into the canter trans. So she got us working on a really strong powerful trot on a 10m circle, getting Antsje to really release over the back and through the neck, once I felt that nice powerful SWING I asked her to leg yield out for 2-3 strides and then go up into canter. It really worked WELL!! On the left rein we got some excellent ‘direct’ transitions and because she kept the connection over the back and through to the hand the quality of the canter was much better and therefore we also got some nice downward trans into the trot again. On the right rein she seemed to need a few strides to organise her legs before we got the canter transition, but she didn’t rush and she didn’t loose the connection and both me and F were pleased with her efforts.

To finish, we did serpentines in trot with a 10m circle each time we came back to the track. Antsje struggled a bit with this exercise and didn’t want to keep the ‘power on’ and we lost the connection a bit – although maybe we were both getting a bit tired too! F asked me to let her take the reins down but to still keep the connection and not to just throw them away! And we finished by doing a few figure of eights in a stretched out swingy trot which F said would be good to start and finish our sessions on as it gets that ‘forward neck into the contact’ attitude and also will really help stretch and unlock the top line muscles before and after the main work.

I was really pleased with the lesson and it has given us lots to work on! Im having another next Sunday!! Hahaha!

Im BACK!! bout time hey!

God Ive been bad with this blogging malarkey **hangs head in shame** lol! A quick update to get me back started again! Thanks Patti for a kick up the proverbial arse lol!!

Well we had an excellent lesson with Heather Moffett at my friends yard and its been great value as im still working on the same lines now hahaha!

I wanted Heather to help me work on greater engagement and self carriage with Antsje as although she has great paces, she still needs to take more weight behind to really start working properly – this becomes apparent when we do lateral work in trot as she tends to do her famous evasion of rushing / powering through my seat / hand to avoid the slower deeper steps ;)
So we did a lot of work on lateral work in trot, reinback to trot and even a little bit of work on ‘half steps’ at the end!

Ive put the video up but as its in the indoor school the lighting isn’t that good! But I think you can get the general idea!! At times Antsje gets against my hand as she tries to speed up in the lateral work, also as Im trying SOOOO hard I am a bit stiff and rigid at times which also doesn’t help lol! And although im a LOT fitter now, I STILL struggle to maintain my seat when Antsje tries to ‘set sail’ and therefore I use my hand more than id like…….

Things Heather got me to do that have helped LOADS are;

1.Shorten my reins and keep my elbows towards the front of my hip bones as Im having the tendency to end up with my elbows behind me and a feeling of a more backward hand!! This stems from trying so hard to keep a bend in my elbows in the past that ive completely overcorrected hahaha! Mike also reminded me of this naughty habit! This will give me a better ‘forward feeling’ contact

2.When doing lateral work, think about ‘stacked hands’ with the outside being lower than the inside hand to help with the inside flexion.

3.Try not to take my outside hand over the neck……

4.Try and maintain a rhythm in the lateral steps by counting out loud and using the leg in time with the swing of the belly, and also tapping the HQ’s with the schooling whip where necessary (partic in travers) Antsje tended to be a bit hesitant in her steps and not really stepping through properly – I could feel the difference when Heather was shouting NOW NOW NOW when I should be applying my leg! :)

Sorry about the links but Ill never get time to embed them all lol!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_NuYEbDSBo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75nQpcqOc5c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcp2g56fT6Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps29CoDiPXc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiLKDkpBeSI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3SkpFZ7R9U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHQOH3vvWeM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8fVBas2R1Y

Feel free to ask questions about the video, it might jog my memory a bit!!

Super Trot!! BOING!!

I was right!! We had been lacking some lateral flexion especially on the right rein ;o) I really concentrated on flexing the poll while ridden today today and did some bending / counter-bending exercises on a circle, inside flexion of her head while keeping the shoulders straight on the long side and also the ‘deeper’ (eeeek that word!) stretched position in shoulder-in and travers that we did with Mike both down the long side and on the circle. All of this was to try and get her to really release the neck from the base but also keep the gait steady and not loosing balance and rushing and falling onto the forehand.
We didn’t really do any more than those exercises today as I think it was enough for her to think about and I do believe this is one of the things she does find difficult.

So after we had done a bit in walk I asked her to step up into trot trying to keep the same ‘connection’ of the base of the neck and slight inside flexion. She did try and rush at times (her evasion) but I kept asking her to slow down and once she did I used the inside rein in a slightly upwards / outwards manner while also pressing her with my inside leg to ask her to flex to the inside – and all of a sudden, she released her neck and we had ‘SUPER TROT’ which feels just bloody brilliant! Not any easier to ride I might add because the lift is amazing! :-0
The release down into the inside bend seems to also release the back and free the inside hind because the change in the quality of trot is unmistakeable and the words ‘elastic, supple, through, swinging’ all come to mind. The best way I can describe it is the hindlegs ‘sink down’ and then as they push off the energy comes through the whole of the body like a wave. Of course we have moments of unbalance (both of us) but I am finding techniques to successfully re-balance and re-gain the ‘super trot’ at least on a circle anyhow! To finish we used the whole arena and we both found it more difficult to maintain ‘on the straight’ particularly as she has more scope to ‘set sail’ down the long side! But I do think its important to venture off the ‘safe circles’ and try and test our balance on the ‘straight and narrow’ so’s to speak hahaha!

Oh yes, I am still incorporating the clicker work into the training – not prolifically but for when she does something really special……..like super trot!

The poll flexions were better today also.

GOOD day today! :-D

'prelim' type work

So to finish with I like to end the session with the more 'prelim' type frame concentrating on Antsje following the contact forwards a little more but NOT rushing! this is hard for her - and me! lol! I also like to do the canter work with this frame at the moment as I think its important she gets established with stretching over the back in canter even if it does mean she is a little on the forehand. Once she becomes more relaxed and confident then I will swing between the 'up' work and the longer frame as I do in the trot. At the minute I am confident that I can put her neck in a stretched position in trot and she will respond straight away - if I wasnt sure I could do this then I wouldnt do the work that does shorten her neck somwhat as she is naturally prone to that postion. So if at any point she wont follow the hand down, we leave the other work for a while until this is re-confirmed.

Im quite pleased with the video in general but can see ALL the points that Mike picked up in my position Gggggggrrrrrrrr!!! I AM rounding the shoulders and although not really tipped forward I have that 'feel' about me! esp in sitting trot where I really DO need to open my chest so my abs DONT collapse! I can also see what Mike means about the hands.............
Yes, they are too far 'back' now, so I MUST ocus on this and think of my elbows more towards the front of my hip bones and not the back! lol! My hands also look a bit 'dead' and as Mike says, if I shorten my reins up a bit, hold my arms a bit more forwards than it will bring some life back into my hands and our connection. Antsje is SOOOO sensitive about being jabbed or fiddled with in the mouth that as usual I have swung the pendulum too far the other bloody way! ***rolls eyes***

But lets hope now I can ***SEE*** it I will remember to do something about it!

Forward and Straight!

Or should it be straightforwards?? hahaha!

After realising I had probably overdone the riding after the chiro session I gave Antsje the day off completely yesterday, although I did notice she seemed quite ‘tight’ again through the poll when I was putting her headcollar on. I am beginning to worry I have overdone it to her detriment and also wonder why a bodywork session should put her so out of whack – almost to the point of feeling crooked again?

This morning I rode again but I focussed on forwards and straight work and it was actually quite nice to do some different type of work and also found it very interesting the information it gave me :o) First off when I got on she felt very like she was throwing me to the outside on the right rein and I was starting to panic my last session had put her pelvis out or something!! ARGH!! But I just though, forward and straight and tried to get an even contact into BOTH reins and to imagine my legs being ‘pillars’ which she had to remain straight inbetween. On the right rein I asked for a bit more activity from the outside hind and concentrated on her HQ’s not trailing to the inside – this automatically made her feel more ‘level’ through my seat. On the left rein I had to focus more on her neck being straight as she tends to naturally flex to the inside and trail her HQs to the outside. So I kept more of a feel through the outside rein until I could feel some contact into the inside rein and also using my outside leg to keep the 1/4s straight.

I also did a bit of slowing the walk right down using my seat but still asking for forward and straight – we did get a few wiggles from side to side but in the main she kept pretty straight and maintained it when I asked her to walk more forwards again. Then we went into trot and applied the same kind of aids. To start with she wanted to go a bit quicker than I wanted so I slowed her down a bit – but I did find it harder on straight lines to stop her getting a bit onward bound than when I ride circles. So from a very slow almost ‘counted walk’ which was STRAIGHT I asked her to step into trot and we then got a much slower and balanced trot. I was mindful of plenty of downward trans so she didn’t get tempted to ‘set sail’ but in the main I was very happy with the work and we were able to get some nice ‘straight and even’ strides down the long side.

I also kept away from the outside track and used the inside circuit as she does love to ‘lean’ against the fence lol!! I felt her keep trying to wander back to the track at the beginning but at the end she seemed much more balanced and was happy to stay between the ‘pillars’ of my legs.

So on the left rein the ¼’s swing to the outside and the neck naturally kinks to the inside with the weight on her outside shoulder. On the right rein her ¼’s tend to swing IN and her neck kinks to the outside with the weight more on her inside shoulder. So she is not quite a straight line but more an oblique line lol! Now although the work we have been doing on the circle has been good, it has been harder to identify the weakness on the left rein as she automatically flexes to the inside and therefore it **feels** like you have her in the outside rein and she is not hanging on the inside rein, but in reality she is not taking ENOUGH of the inside rein and she is LEANING on the outside rein and falling out of the circle. Its very subtle but far more apparent on the straight line than it is on the circle!
On the right rein it’s a different story! On the straight t line she feel much straighter on this rein because her neck doesn’t flex so well to this side and its not until you go on a circle that you realise that she falls IN through the shoulder and slightly flexes to the outside and therefore leans on the INSIDE rein.

So……………what does this tell me?? Well actually nothing new! I already had this figured – BUT – it DOES tell me that I need to ride as much straight lines as I do circle work and I DO need to focus on having an EQUAL contact in BOTH reins and an awareness that she is leaning on neither ;o) The best way to judge this at the moment is how she feels on a circle to the right and on a straight line to the left. So all in all a positive session where Ive learned a lot about the benefits of straightening work and why its important to work on both circles AND straight lines!

At the finish Antsje felt very even on both reins and I didn’t get the ‘pushing my seat to the outside’ at the end – so I calmed down a bit hahahah!!!

Oh! And she seemed a lot looser through the poll today too! :o)

Musings from the weekend……

On Saturday I thought Id try and be clever and set my camera up on the fence and try and get some video!! I thought Id do a bit of lunging / work in hand first and then a bit of ridden.
Well as she hadnt been ridden for a few days she was proper BOINGY and we didn’t really get much loose calm work on the lunge :o( In fact I think she spent more time airbourne than on the floor lol!! Perhaps best I didn’t get on straight the way!! One thing I did notice is she was quite ‘on the shoulders’ particularly on the right rein where she was looking to the outside on the circle and wieghting her inside shoulder. I brought her in and did some girivolta work with her concentrating on corssing the behinds and moving the shoulders to the outside. I put her back onto a circle again and we did finish with some ‘stretchy trot’ which I rewarded with click n treat :o)
I stopped the camera, and restarted it and got on to ride. She was VERY forward but at least she was also attentive to my seat so although she was boingy she didn’t try and tram off at a million miles an hour lol!
After a few circles etc I could feel that she was struggling with the flexion to the right again and I felt as if we had gone back several weeks in our progress. We also did a bit of canter and if felt absoloutely AWFUL on the right with her wanting to look to the outside and dump on the inside shoulder falling in terribly :o( She was very boingy though and chucked in a couple of bucks which ended up with me loosing a stirrup lol! Im not sure if the bcuks were down to a bit of WHOOPEE or if she couldn’t organise her legs / body?? I was worrying that the chiro work had caused a problem – or maybe im crooked and putting her ‘out’ and she hasn’t got a problem at all! Or maybe there is something kinked in her body ‘normally’ and it became more obvious again after being manipulated back into alignment? Im not sure really but its made me a bit concerned!
I did my normal ‘straightening’ exercises – riding with the reins in my outside hand and working the shoulders / hind legs by touching her with my schooling whip with the inside hand. Finally she ‘let go’ and came into the outside rein and therfore released the inside rein of her own accord :o) We went back up to trot and although it was better she was no where as consistent and kept loosing balance / inside flexion. I worked on both reins in a similar manner and by the end of the session she had definitely improved but I was left feeling a bit discouraged and a little confused by the sudden setback.
Oh! And about the video! I wasnt very clever and it seems my camera wont video without the button being held down. I got 30 secs of my arm in each clip and that was it!!! DOH!

SUNDAY
Today I went into the school for about 10 mins and worked on the girivolta circle with the one handed riding again :o) Today it was much better and I was pleased she seemed to remember the work we did yesterday. I had a brief trot on each rein and again she was more consistent so I left it at that and we went for a hack out :o)
Out on the hack I concentrated on her keeping a nice long frame with swinging strides and an even contact down BOTH reins. I was pleased that she seemed a lot straighter than the last time we hacked out so I definitely think she is improving and getting stronger.
On the way home we did a bit of trotting and in her eagerness on the homeward bound journey she went into ‘flying friesian trot’ I probably shouldn’t have let her get so onward bound and no doubt I will pay for it, but in all honesty she just seemed so thrilled to ‘trot out’ and I was so thrilled that she was thrilled that I let her lol! It truly is quite spectacular and its damn near the closest thing to flying on horseback other than being astride pegasus hahaha!!! The thing is as I looked down her neck, it was very reminscent of how it looks when you are sitting in a carriage and the horse is doing their spanking carriage trot! I really do think she would LOVE to be hitched up and be free to really trot out in true friesian style. Maybe one day…………………

Expectations = dissapointment!

Another early morning ride this morning! But before I rode i decided to do the little poll flexions and again she wasnt quite as free as normal.....
I worked on her until I got a few definate flips of the crest then we went out to the school. No time for in-hand work this morning and whether it was that or the cold mornings or the floodlights we didnt get the same kind of work today.
It wasnt bad - not bad at all, but now Ive felt that 'super trot' its hard to not get greedy for it! which of course is counter-productive and its inevitable im not going to achieve that kind of excellence every ride, particularly in these very early stages. So I was quite proud of myself that I didnt get all angst and frustrated and tunnel visioned about it all as I once would have done. And as part of me STILL wanted too lol! But I was quite pragmatic about it and took a detached 'trainer' approach and thought how I could best work towards more engagement.
We did some travers / shoulder in on a circle and we did some rein back before trot transitions to try and encourage the flexing of the hind - and it did work to a certain extent as we had moments of some very nice trot work but it was just inconsistent today as she was rushing slightly. What was nice was although the right rein wasnt as spectacular as yesterday, it was still GOOD in relation to the last few weeks and the Left rein WAS better than yesterday! So all in all it was a positive session.

I did forget to say that at the weekend I put my stirrups down a hole as I feel I get a better response from a longer leg when I warm up without stirrups. I had them a bit shorter to help with MY balance but I think Ive improved enough to let them down a hole :-) Now Ive definately felt a stretch in my hops and thighs but didnt feel any less balanced over the weekend :-)

Today, towards the end I felt my back aching a bit nothing awful but enough to suddenly become aware of it. I checked out my position and I think because she was rushing a bit today I was starting to fall into the trap of tipping forwards and bracing my legs Ggggggggrrrrrrrr!!!! So immediately I thought about rising 'on my knees' and stretching my midsection 'up' and the trot improved instantly! DOH! I MUST be more mindful of my position! Also after mulling the ride over on the way to work I think instead of concentrating on re-creating that 'SUPER TROT' Iwould have been better served tohave concentrated on transitions, particularly the downward ones to get her back 'with me' rather than letting her get a bit onward bound from too longer bursts of trot. DAMN! I need to be a bit quicker on the uptake - it would make it a whole lot easier hahaha!!!

So at the finish I decided to let her have a bit of a canter - i didnt have time to 'school' the canter as such, but I just let her canter a 20m circle, concentrating on her establishing a consistent rhythm, a nice stretch over the back and as much as possible to have that stepping out on the circle feeling that I doin trot. Obviously this is harder as she isnt as balanced in canter - but I do think that if she can establish a nice relaxed canter that is supple through the back and reaching into the hand it will be the foundation for improving the canter in the future.
Thoughts???..................

We have LIFT OFF!!!! :-D

Had a FANTASTIC riding experience this week which has helped put some more pieces of the puzzle together.

As it was the weekend I had time to do some work in hand before I rode – I really do think it makes a difference :-D We did some girivolta work, some leg yield from the centre line to the long side and also a bit of reinback / walk / reinback transitions. For some reason she find it harder to keep straight on the left rein than the right.
The last few weeks I have pondering the left rein – I have figured out what was causing the issues on the right rein and have found solutions that work and I can definitely see the improvements. But on the left, where she flexes easier, in fact I have realised now overflexes to the inside I couldn’t really nail WHAT I need to improve on this rein as it does feel pretty good but not quite there……..

So on Saturday we did the inhand work and then I got on. Once in the saddle I kind of repeated the in hand work, doing girivolta and then bringing her straight onto a circle but still trying to maintain that leg yielding feeling of her pushing from the inside hind into my outside rein maintaining the inside bend from my leg. She was feeling pretty good actually so I picked my moment to ask her into trot and BAM out of nowhere I got this flipping FANTASTIC trot!! Never felt her use herself in that way before and MY GOD did it feel good! REALLY good – I cant begin to explain the feeling it gave me but boy is it addictive hahahah!

I really feel that by working on this genuine submission to the inside bend it has unlocked her inside hind leg somehow – but not only that because she is soft through the poll it has allowed the energy to go right THROUGH and the difference in her back was amazing! Now I would say she HAS been working through her back and even now I hold to that statement, but I don’t actually think she has been fully relaxed and there has been some kind of bracing / tension along the energy line of HQ’s to Hand until now.
Its difficult to know if it was the relaxed poll that allowed the hind leg / back or if it was the engagement of the hindleg that gave proper use of the back! In Antsje’s case I rather suspect it was the first ;-) Tension in the poll has always been an issue and I think finally we are starting to see it melt away.

So, back to the transition – as I asked her to go up into trot I could feel her take the weight from behind and step into trot but as she did so her back was just ‘so full’ and ‘bouyant’ it really lifted me up!! But not only that she also sought the contact with an open throatlash area and inside flexion. Now this is a BIG thing for her because she always struggles with that tiny bit of ‘nose out’ reach and can often curl back as a result. The trot was very slow but had far more OOOOOOOMPH than her usual trot and the suspension was unreal lol! So although in some way it was easier to ride because her back was so lifted and carrying, I really had to work hard to keep MY balance as I didn’t want to mess hers up lol!! It just felt DIVINE! I was so flippin pleased with her she got herself a whole heap of treats

So then we changed onto the left rein and I really struggled to get the same feeling out of the trot. So I finally figure out that on the left rein she is too flexed on the inside and is not engaging her HQ’s really at all! And when I do ask for a bit more engagement it becomes a bit like pogo stick steps and doesn’t really come forwards into the hand – not the deep activated steps that flowed through the whole of her body on the right rein!
So I really started to try and FEEL how her body wasn’t straight and what I needed to do to try and remedy this. First off, she has kind of tricked me with the inside flexion! Although she is a lot better at this ‘leg yield’ feeling as in stepping over and feeling her in the outside rein – I had kind of missed the point that she was barely IN the inside rein! Just like I struggle with the right rein in being barely in outside! I had got so fixated with the concept of the inside leg to outside rein that I it had just not dawned on me that although she shouldn’t be LEANING on the inside rein, she did actually have to take some weight into it in order for her body to be straight BIG DOH! So I spent some time asking for her neck to become straighter on this rein and she found it quite difficult. I could almost feel her HQs warping to the outside – in fact complete opposite to the issues on the right rein – which would make sense wouldn’t it? Good Lord I am slow on the uptake! So with a straighter neck but a little inside flexion I started to ask her to take more of a ‘travers’ position with her hind quarters to get some bend though the lumbar region which she had been resisting. I could tell she was finding this more difficult but once she got the idea I could feel her take a deeper step with the inside leg.
I also then had a play with walk pirouettes on this rein – at least I think I did!!! I need to get Mike to check if im doing this correct lol! But it felt like it was a good exercise in getting her to control her HQ’s and flex through the body to the inside.
I let her walk on a long rein and left at that for the day.

VROOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooom!!!!!

Well this morning was fun!! As I hadn’t done any canter work for the last couple of days I thought we’d do some today! We started of walking circles making sure that she was stepping ‘out’ onto the circle at all times and was bending around the inside leg and not off the inside rein. I always start off in this way, on a circle, both reins in my outside hand and a long schooling whip in my inside hand to either tap her HQ’s or Shoulders over as necessary. We are correct from the start then and it seems to form the basis of GOOD work. In the right rein to start with every ¼ turn of the circle I can start to feel her come in on her shoulders and move her neck towards the outside, but if I tap tap tap her shoulders so I feel her pushing back out and filling the outside rein then activate her inside hind we get that ‘leg yieldy’ feeling again and also inside flexion WITHOUT having to use the inside rein!

We moved up into trot and today the right rein felt far more consistent and I really worked on achieving the same work as I did on the walking circles. Then I played a little bit with bringing the trot as slow as I could using my seat and putting her on a 10m circle without her falling back into walk and after half a circle of really slow trot send her forwards again on a bigger circle but trying to keep the activity of the HQ’s generated by the slower trot. She tried really hard with this and I was pleased with her as she was very submissive to my seat and I really only had to use the rein to re-balance her now and again but NOT to stop her tramming though my hands!

So finally we moved onto canter………………and………….she was very forward!! Lol! Although I did walk to canter we didn’t get the same kind of slow controlled canter that we had at the weekend………….BUT………she did not get any quicker and it actually felt quite balanced in the fact that she wasn’t motorbiking round the corners and weighting her inside shoulder. She was reaching for the contact at all times and was round and relaxed through her back, so it was actually quite comfortable to sit! :-D Nothing like when she is rushing and braced through the back and neck.

Onto me! For some reason I just didn’t seem to have much strength today so although I was effective in rising trot when I went sitting I could tell I wasn’t quite there because I was tipping forwards and drawing up my leg gggggrrrrrrr!! I think this may be why the canter was more forward too as I just couldn’t keep her on my seat! The odd moment I DID get my seat right she slowed down! So although she was perhaps a bit more forward than late I do think that I was part of the problem as I couldn’t dictate the tempo so she did instead hahaha!

So not a 'perfect' ride but not awful by any means – in fact I was quite impressed that Antsje was able to balance herself in canter so well in a longer frame than we have been working in. I have seen the time she would have fell on her nose – or at least had her ears up mine hehehehe!!!!

Ramblings and Musings......

Another productive ride this morning :-D We did very similar work to yesterday morning to reinforce the flexing at the poll. One thing I did do different this morning was to do the little poll flexes in hand before I got on. This entails standing in front of her head, with my hands either side of her poll and just flex her poll either side so the the crest of her neck ‘flips over’ each side. I do this practically each time after I ride nowadays and I do believe it releases any tensions in the poll area which is an area where she holds significant tension if im not careful. I can tell it works because after a few ‘flips’ to each side she starts chewing and blowing through her nose ;-) It is also interesting because it is easy to flip the crest to the left but harder to the right, where she will try and bend more through her neck rather than make that little flexion right at the junction of the poll. Im not sure it is any great issue, other than just natural crookedness because after a few goes it becomes easier for her – she just seems to find it harder to isolate this spot on the right side for some reason.

Whether this had an impact on the ridden work its hard to say, but she definitely found it easier to flex on the right rein today – not perfect, but better and BOY can you feel the difference through her whole body when she has that ‘genuine’ bend rather than relying on the inside rein for support – FANTASTIC!! It somehow unlocks the inside hind and the back and she feels ‘buoyant’ to ride. Im experimenting how I can achieve this flexion under saddle as it really is just a tiny flexion right at the poll – I find it more difficult to isolate this area from the saddle as she does prefer to bend her neck!! But raising the inside rein up and out slightly seems to be having an effect – in no way does it work if I pull back!! She is teaching me well lol! I also find that she doesn’t ‘fill’ the outside rein on the right rein for, im guessing, much the same reason. Going back to the one handed girivolta work I always find it harder to get inside bend on this rein until I figured out that I need to move the shoulders over. I am almost trying to get that ;falling out of the shoulder’ feel on the circle on the right rein and then I seem to get that correct bend without the use of the inside rein.
Its all fascinating stuff and we are brave enough to leave the ‘head’ alone and let the horse make their mistakes it gives us valuable information on what and where we need to address to get the horse straight and balanced.

Back to morning rides! BOING!

We had a nice session this morning although I have got to get back into the mindset of short productive early morning rides after such a lay off from them!! I didn’t want to get off this morning and subsequently spent the rest of the morning dashing around like a lunatic so I wouldn’t be late for work Eeeeeeek!!

We didn’t do any canter today but stuck to walk and trot, particularly at obtaining a nice flexion through the poll. Antsje find this hardest on the right rein and will get a bit onward bound in an attempt to resist this. I did a lot of warm up in walk on a circle both in Shoulder in and then travers (can you tell I’ve been watching PK again lol!) so I got her really supple through the body and in a correct flexion to the inside. We did the same exercises in trot and she even managed a few steps of baby travers on the circle which I was pleased about as she finds this difficult.
To finish I did what I call my ‘prelim riding’ which involves us riding the whole arena in test like figures, thinking about forward activity and a longer frame in her body concentrating on her reaching for the contact at all times but also STAYING WITH ME!! You can go round in a lovely trot only to realise that when you ask for a downward trans she is about 3 miles ahead of you hahaha!!! I always do this in rising tort as she is more relaxed and I never seem to get sitting in such a short space of time! So we go down the centre line, do 20m circles, frequent changes of rein, trot / walk / trot transitions, serpentines and really think about the accuracy which is always an eye opener to whether she is falling in / out or tramming! Its actually good practice to ride a test as part of your schooling because it does highlight any problems that you don’t realise you have when you are merrily tootling around the school!! At first she was a little too quick on the right rein, but soon got her rhythm and I soon had her bent nicely around my leg without having to overuse the inside rein (big fault of mine!). In fact it felt so lovely I overran my time limit by a good ten minutes! Oooooops!! She did look mildly amused at my frantic mucking out and running around the yard as she casually munched her brekkie though hahahaha!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

I rode!!! YAY!!!

I think the rest has done us both good as Antsje felt very relaxed and supple and I seemed to be able to absorb the trot better the an normal too :-)

During the break I have been watchin my Bettina Drummond 'work in hand' videos and feel re-inspired to do more of this work so before riding I did 10 minutes of basic giravolta type work in hand, really asking for a stretch down and her stepping away from me with her shoulders as well as her hindquarters. We then moved onto leg yielding from the centre line to the long side and then into shoulder in, finishing with her circling around me in a stretch position as a reward. We did this on both reins. Then I did a little backing up and moving forwards and backing up again - really concentrating on her stretching her neck forward and down (FDO) throughout the exercise.
When I got on she immediately felt nice and soft and light and we did some nice large circles in a forward rising trot in a forward out and down (FDO) position, changing reins frequently and working on keeping the same rhythm throughout.

We then did some backing up exercises while mounted and this always really helps to supple her back as when we went back into trot, her back felt much stronger and 'up'.
So using this, I began to collect the trot up slightly and took sitting trot and worked on 10m circle going into a few steps of shoulder in and then back onto the 10m circle down the long side - we did this on both reins. I also did a bit of leg yield work concentrating on her keeping her hindquarters in line more as she does trail them somewhat esp on the right rein. The quality of her self carriage is becoming quite lovely on the left rein, although I do have to be mindful that she is actually reaching for the contact as sometimes she can collect the trot up but just back off the contact slightly, so when she does this I like to go rising and send her a bit more forwards down and out (FDO), before slowing and containing the trot again.

Then I decided I would do some walk to canter transitions today as she was feeling so good! I was so pleased with her efforts - she is still fallin in a bit and balancing on her inside shoulder but with the walk to canter trans she was able to maintain a slower canter and I was able to ask her for a few leg yield type steps on the circle to try and encourage her to get off the inside shoulder a bit more. Today she really rounded up her back and felt distinctly different and more controlled than I have felt her before :-) We did the same on the right rein, doing a couple of walk to collected trot first to get her off the leg and more forward into the contact as when she anticipates canter she can get above the contact to make the transition but then her back is very braced. As she isnt as strong on the right I didnt expect such a clean transition and accepted 1-2 very cadenced trot strides but I was happy with that as she did stay round and took off on the correct leg. The effect was still the same though and she was able to keep the canter much slower and controlled and again I really felt her lift her back. I clicked and treated and got straight off and made a big fuss of her.

I hope to get some more video soon as she does feel improved again since the last lot :-D

A New Year........some NEW VIDEO!!! YAY!

Got more video yesterday!!! She was a little bit “tramming” yesterday and running through my hand a tad – especially when I was rising the trot. You can see at the end of the first video what I mean **rolls eyes** Now I know my sitting isn’t perfect by any means, but I still seem to be able to ‘hold her’ with my seat better despite this! The absorption problem still affects my hands more than id realised although she doesn’t seem terribly put out about this?? Perhaps I am still holding with the reins in sitting trot and this is why she is more contained? Although it doesn’t **FEEL** that way – and Im sure my hands don’t look as backward as the last set of videos?? Her mouth doesn’t seem overly busy / gapey which is a sure sign when im HOLDING her with my hands? So guys……………..what do you think??
I do think there is improvement from the last set of vids. Antsje trot rhythm look less disturbed than before and I do think my position looks better? BUT!! I can see Antsje still looses balance at times and I can see that I still need MORE strength through my core plus I am not absorbing the movement quite right either in sitting. I am belly dancing and still tending to tip forwards slightly. Back to the drawing board!!!!

ps - canter is still a work in progress lol!!!

RISING TROT


LEFT REIN


RIGHT REIN


SERPENTINES

more reflections of a Dressage Junkie!

So after watching the video, I have been working hard on a genuine bend on the right rein. I can see that I am using the right rein for the bend and it is disrupting the quality of the trot. So I spent a few days really trying to get Antsje to bend from the inside leg – I went back to two exercises that always help ‘unlock’ her, and that I always seem to forget about lol!!!
One is reinback, for whatever reason this really seems to release her back. When she gets blocked somewhere and I rely on the reins and I do this exercise she seems very ‘stuck’ to start off with, but if I persevere and keep asking her to back up – even the length of the long side – all of a sudden instead of her neck raised she will round up and I can feel the difference in the quality of steps and also a different feel to her back. So I repeat this exercise several times on each rein until she is backing up softly without any resistance.
THEN the next thing I did was a “girivolta” step on a circle with the both reins in my outside hand. First on the left rein I asked her to do leg yield steps with her facing INTO the centre of the circle, then I asked her to change position and face out of the circle. At all times moving away but bent AROUND my inside leg. Then I rinse and repeat on the right rein. Now on the left rein, she is more bendy through the neck but lack engagement, so I keep the neck a little straighter and touch her HQ’s with the whip to ask her to step under more with the inside hind.
On the right rein she steps through better with inside hind but struggles to keep an inside bend through the neck. Now I had a eureka moment as I asked her to move the shoulders over and hey presto, bloody inside bend!!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!

The when I returned to a normal circle and asked for trot it was so much lighter off the inside rein and when I felt her leaning I just tapped her inside shoulder with the whip! So I think I may have just figured out how to sort the problem! Well for now anyhow lol!

WE HAVE VIDEO!!! hehehe!

So, finally got Amy to take some video of us both today - I think we have made improvements this year although I STILL need to SIT UP!!!! and also the angle in travers is way too steep but thats what video is for! My sitting trot is still woeful I rode my sisters horse tonight and was able to sit nice and tall and relaxed but I still cant get it on Antsje! Im afraid of it I reckon!!! I tense up and I BOING everywhere! plus...................I NEED TO SIT UP!!!!

First few vids are of trot and canter on both reins, then the last one is collecting and lengthening the trot with Antsje staying with me! you can see she'd rather canter! I can see on the serpentine video I am blocking her with the inside rein on the right - she still gets a bit jittery after canter work - but NO excuse for overiding the inside rein! NAUGHTY ME! But would be glad to hear what you all think............. ps - the abrubt halts after canter are a result of a 'click' and treat - not cos I yanked her head orf!!

CLEVER HORSE!!!!

TUESDAY

Another morning ride! Because I don’t have as much time in the mornings it does have the benefit of focusing my mind and not getting greedy and overdoing things when they feel good!!
I didn’t do so much work laterally today other than setting the trot up with the travers steps which work very nicely. I did lots of changes of reins, transitions and serpentines and concentrated on keeping us both in a nice balance throughout all the exercises. I am thrilled with Antsjes attitude to work lately – she tries so hard!
The lateral work in trot will really help the canter work as she has to balance herself while stepping under more with her hindleg. So today I thought id do a bit of canter work for a change! After speaking to Mike about the canter he said think about making the circle smaller by turning her with the outside rein and pushing her back out with the inside leg so I really get that inside leg to outside hand connection. So today I tried a couple of more like 10-15m canter circles and tickled her with the schooling whip to encourage the hind leg activity and lo and behold we got some really lovely lift to the canter with her STILL reaching into the contact!! WOOOHOOOO!!! And this was on the RIGHT rein!!! I changed rein and asked for the same exercise and she did such a beautiful ‘step’ up into canter and some very nice slow yet lifted canter strides that I just clicked my tongue and jumped off and made such a big fuss of her and fed her her favourite extra strong mints hahahaha!!!!

Thursday

A similar combination of work to the last sessions
Travers steps to set up the trot. Counter canter down the long side, working up to maintaining position up the centre line. She was working so nicely that I got brave and asked for a few steps of travers in trot!!! And bless her she did try!! She moved her quarters out but struggled to maintain the inside bend for more than a few steps and it ended up more like a leg yield hahaha!! BUT! I was very pleased with the effort as I know she would find this hard.
We did a little bit of canter work but she was a little gung-ho and when coming back to down to trot we lost the nice stable connection in the contact with her being very busy in the mouth and not seeking the contact but bobbing her head in and out of my hands. I was just starting to feel that bubble of frustration on why she was being so unsettled that I just suddenly realised that she was ‘setting sail’ and out of balance completely!! So I put her on a smaller circle and just concentrated on working on the ‘neutral’ trot and hey presto!! Connection restored!! I clicked, treated and left it at that.
Hacking for the weekend – she has worked hard this last few weeks!

Sunday 13th December - Mike Lesson!!!

What a great day! I have so missed having a lesson but I was also relieved that Mike didn’t pick up on anything horrendously wrong while I have been left to my own devices lol!!

So after working in, Mike got me thinking about engaging the HQ’s more by doing some lateral work. First ShoulerIN in walk down the long side – I AM working at too steep an angle and once corrected the lateral work flowed much better **grins** We then did some shoulder In down the centre line which was a good test for both horse and rider to maintain position.
We then did a small circle and did a few steps of travers up the long side which really is the exercise to get Antsje in a more collected frame. After a few steps of travers Mike asked me to step up into a sitting trot and we worked on getting and maintaining what Mike called a ‘neutral’ trot. Which means neither ‘setting sail’ (antsje's speciality) or being too collected but concentrating on everything being in balance, the hindlegs really stepping through and for her to be soft in my hand and held with the seat. It was bloody hard work I tell you for my poor abs working in sitting trot for most of the lesson lol!!! At times it felt awful, but at times it felt just AMAZING!!!

We then started to do some lateral work in trot – I was struggling a bit with SI, so Mike got me to work in counter shoulder in, using the fence to give both me and antsje some guidance. This worked REALLY well, and once we both got the feel of it, we turned up the centre line in counter shoulder in and was able to keep position!! So naturally we then progressed to Shoulder in down the long side and it worked MUCH better!! We got some really excellent walk / trot / walk transitions too as Antsje was really off my leg and listening and trying so hard bless her **smile**

So what did I take away from this lesson?

*Travers is the best exercise for Antsje to get her to step under and shorten her frame
*Go into sitting trot and hold the neutral trot with the seat keeping the hands soft but supportive.
*Think of my lower leg being a little further forwards and sitting on my seatbones in sitting trot as I have a tendancy to collapse forwards with my lower leg sliding too far back. Grrrrrrr!!!! *NOT a chair seat though! It’s the thought more than anything to help me sit UP!
*Work in counter shoulder in first as the fence helps maintain the position until we both get the ‘feel’
*Keep the counter shoulder in position around the turn of the short side and up the centre line to really get Antsje to step under
*Rise down the long side in a slightly bigger trot, sit and collect the trot around the short side – rinse and repeat!!

Thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed the lesson although I was bloody knackered at the finish!! I need to do more work in the sitting trot and build up my ABS!!!