Cob Jockey

One of the things CJF said to me was, basically, you're pulling a lot less but you're still pulling.  And because of both of your combined conformation, you're both pulling and you're bracing against him especially into things like transitions.

So like...it's not like I haven't heard that before.  But given that I've felt especially stuck for a long while now (THANKS SECOND LEVEL), I did some soul searching and deep thinking.


I AM pulling less.  A lot less.  There's a lot less weight in the reins now than a year ago and a year before that.  If you look at me riding, it doesn't look like I'm pulling back, because it's pretty subtle, but it's still there.  Just because I'm pulling less doesn't mean I'm still not pulling.

My torso position also continues to not help that.  I can sit upright, but I still struggle to push my breastbone forward, which leads to flagging backwards especially during downward transitions, and that plus pulling = bracing against him.  That's not helping my horse engage his hind end and elevate his front end.

Me and my sucked back torso, September 2017.  PC: Paul Wood Photography

For my first ride on my own after the CJF lesson, I focused on nothing but my position and transitions.  On the rail.  No lateral work.  Don't care where his head is or what he looks like.  It was practically a self-lunge lesson.

It took a long time, maybe 20 minutes, but then I finally felt him raise his back under me into an upward transition.  And then keep it there in a downward.  And then again.  And even though he started seeking the bit, he did not lean on me and I did not pull on him.  It was just a nice, even, elastic contact.

When I felt that, I finally realized that although EVERYONE has been telling me to do a lot of transitions with him right now, but all the transitions in the world won't help if he's not also responsible for carrying his own head. 

This is literally going backwards to go forwards, but I'm still enjoying the process.

I haven't posted a lot lately, partially because life's been crazy but also because I'm just getting hit over the head with second level lately.

That's a true first world problem - woe is me, riding horses is hard - so I'm not going to dwell on it, but it's definitely coloring my world right now.  I'm struggling to even put into words WHAT is so hard, because I've never been up the levels before.  But, the decision not to show this summer was a good one.  There's nothing to be gained by going out there and getting poor scores right now.

The decision to go watch Nicole compete in CrossFit Regionals last weekend, though, was a good one.

Last night I rode with CJF for the first time in maybe four years, and she gave me some really clear takeaways:
- Forward, but not too forward for his balance
- Transitions, lots of them, between gaits and in gaits*
- My position is much improved but our collective conformation (his long neck and my small person) really works against us, because the easiest thing to do is to lean back against him and pull against each other.  Same general posture, but think breastbone and hands forward.

* - She said I'm going to have to sacrifice some roundness while I develop the engine through transitions, because right now he's using his roundness against me.  He can either be round or he can sit, but he can't both be round and sit right now. 

So, we'll do that.  And we'll keep on going, and we'll see what happens.

Wedding #1 of 6 over the next 8 weeks was last weekend in a land far, far away, so that meant no pony time.

I'm sure he's surviving.

Love those September dapples - even if I hate what they really stand for: summer coat out, winter coat in.  Oh well.  Can we get a closeup please?

Mmmmmm. (All photos courtesy of my momma, who is coming to watch Jump Start at the end of the month too!)

I almost forgot to share one of my favorite stories of the clinic.  On Sunday, CJF said, "I got to the barn this morning and felt so bad for the Super Pony, because his grey buddy had him by the neck and was just moving him around by the neck, but then he got loose and turned around and kicked him in the ass - I stopped feeling bad for him after that!"

(Don't worry - those two are best friends.  They just roughhouse like the boys they are.)

(But they're not herdbound.  So they're the best kind of best friends!)

Atta boy, Con.  Small package, big attitude.

So where does all this leave us?  Videos at the bottom.

Connor is too regal for this photography business.

A lot better off than we were before!

Some random CJF thoughts:
- On his canter: "His canter is phenomenal, so much better.  He didn't have a canter when I first met you (May of 2012), he was the king of trantering.  It's a testament to [you and trainer] that you have made so much progress with his canter, because it's a lot easier to improve a trot than a canter."
- He's a lot stronger in his body, and has a lot more "tools behind" to create that compact canter.
- "Balance first, then move".  The canter has to be balanced first before you can go forward.
- On Geometry (video here, for those of you on RSS readers):


The first time I rode this line, it was good, but a little awkward at the purple gate because I took the first vertical slightly off to the side and rode a straight line instead of a dog leg to the gate.  That video is the second attempt, after she explained to me that "With a careful horse, the geometry of your ride becomes very important."  Basically, he's not just going to jump anything well from anywhere, he thinks so hard about where his feet are, that he is going to jump better with as much time to take the fence in as possible.


Another video clip - (normally I edit the sound out, but you can't hear much of anything in these besides instructions on where to go - CJF gives feedback after you've returned on XC)


One more - I get lost on this one.  Can't be ballin' all the time!


So this weekend gave me the confidence to enter one final event this year, Jump Start HT at the KHP the last weekend of September.  Anyone else going?

If I learned the lesson and figured out some new tools on Day 1, Day 2 was the applied test.

Poll up, hind legs engaged in a short compact canter, light contact, and BONUS: my left leg is not a foot behind the girth!

So compact!  I can hardly believe this is the same pony, and neither could Cathy.

What a great weekend!

All photos courtesy of my momma, who was one of the reasons this weekend was so great!

I got a little bit of everything out of the clinic, and it was exactly what I needed to hear.

Saturday was stadium day.  She always starts out by asking what we have been working on, and I said "Developing a short, powerful canter between the fences in order to solve our problems".  She laughed and asked what our problems were, and I said hesitating, jumping up instead of across, and things going too fast for his little brain in the ring.

The first time I picked up the canter, Cathy exclaimed how different it was from the last time we rode for her.  "Phenomenal!"  she said.  And she pushed us hard according to the progress we had made, as we started with hind leg engagement by "extreme leg yielding" on a circle, trying to bring his shoulders around first.



She had me think about hands forward all the time, and hands low.  She said I needed to make my half-halts with an upward motion to encourage him to keep his poll up, but then make sure my hands came back down closer to his neck - and to check that by thinking "pinkies closer to his neck".

This has nothing to do with anything, but check out that foreleg extension!

Connor and I's last flat exercise was canter-trot-canter-trot at 12, 3, 6, and 9 on the "clock face".  She was so delighted with our progress that she pushed us hard with something like this, and it paid off.  This was designed to help us find that short, powerful, canter.  This, I have video of:


The jumping, then, felt a lot better.



She used related-distance ground poles both as a warmup, and then in between fences, to help all of us adjust our horses' strides - in my case, always more compact and more powerful.  They really helped, as T Myers noticed in the photo I put up in yesterday's post.

Long spot over one pole - you can see his teeth!  Haha!

Long spot, defensive riding, and Connor being a total badass over a teeny tiny oxer.

Takeaways from Day 1 were that I need to use transitions and half-halts to produce a shorter, more powerful canter, so that we have options when we get to the fences, and so that he feels like he can fully utilize his "stronger body".  That led to a big breakthrough the next day on XC...


And for the record, I'm underdressed because our escape artist Husky/Malamute got loose right as I was leaving for the clinic, and I had to slide tackle the little jerk (grass stain on left knee), and then roll over him onto the concrete with him having some sort of yelping meltdown about the whole situation (torn right knee of breeches + skinned knee).  If I hadn't, he would have continued running for miles and I would have been late.

Since that's my only pair of tan breeches with belt loops, used for clinics and shows, time to go shopping!

Jump videos:

I'm spending time with my mom instead of doing a day one clinic recap today, but it's been great so far!  Lots of praise for the progress we've made in his canter.  Looking forward to XC day tomorrow.

It's been a while since we talked about airs above the ground - I mean jumping.

THE FLOOR IS LAVA!

That's because we've almost done nothing but Dressage since FRVPCHT in June.  This is how this barn rolls, and I like it.

Our jumping is always better after long Dressage spells.  Increased Connor body control + increased hind end strength + probably really happy to see something other than an empty sandbox in front of him = good stuff over fences.

(Plus he's mentally strong enough, and the things we're doing now on the flat are challenging enough, that he's not bored doing Dressage.  A good thing.)

Our 5th Cathy clinic, our first in a year, is going to be really helpful.  For one, she saw my XC warmup at FRVPCHT, and then chatted with me, my trainer and teammate over dinner and drinks at the competitor's party about Connor's levitation over the table on course.  

She also saw the next day's show jumping round in which Connor totally lost his mind in the ring after a great warmup:

No gerbils here, folks.

On my clinic entry form, even though I knew this line is more for people my trainer doens't know, I wrote that I wanted to work on "jumping confidently across the fences."  Because riding this to a solid fence:


is not safe, even with a pony with the hind end to jump a 2'6 table from a standstill and a crazy strong hatred of touching the fences.

I know it's because he's careful to a fault, and briefly pausing to check things out is the fault, and that he did get over this at Starter height fences, but I need him to start trusting himself and me enough to just jump it.

Extremely displeased with himself for touching a fence.

I've talked before about how beneficial it is to have a "sometimes trainer" like Cathy, who has known us since we couldn't jump a crossrail without coming to it like a broken shopping cart, and sees us about every six months.

She sees things that my trainer might miss, just by virtue of seeing us all the time.  Looking forward to some great rides this weekend!

"Where do we go from here, Cathy?"

"Up and out!"

A lot has changed since the last time Cathy saw us, in March.  He still approached fences like they were going to eat him, I still was just a passenger, we weren't really talking to each other yet.

March 2013 Cathy Clinic

Cathy saw a huge difference in him this time.  She said we'd (my trainer and I) really done a good job with teaching him to carry himself and to step underneath himself behind, and that she was happy with where he is right now.

September 2013 - really carrying himself and stepping underneath now!

In the beginning of the clinic he had really tuned me out:

Dressage llama is not playing your reindeer games right now.

 But that was the angle he took the photos of the line from, so...butt shot!

I am so thrilled with how the clinic went, and how Cathy talking to me about the inside hind dovetails perfectly with what Nancy told me about the outside shoulder.  I see a winter of lateral movements and gymnastics in our future...not that I want to think about winter yet.

And today, pony got a well-deserved walking-only hack out:

They told me it was futile, but my mane-training I've been doing all summer is working!