Cob Jockey

I'm not sure what I expected from Connor being with my GP trainer for 6 days and 3 rides before I got on on Saturday morning, but I definitely didn't expect her to totally transform him.

Excuse me, is this mine? I don't recognize it.

From the moment I got on, even before I picked the reins up, I could tell she'd been on him. When she's been on him, even when we're walking on the buckle in the beginning, every little movement the bit makes means something to him, and he tries to follow it.

Next, I noticed that the contact felt completely transformed and so solid. He was reaching down into the bit with every step no matter how I rode:

Practicing for our HUS debut

She walked over after my warm-up and could not stop gushing about how good he feels. "If you didn't have a big show coming up, we would be working on flying changes hard right now, the canter is ready for it," she said.

I'm not even sure what movement this random screen grab is from, we definitely didn't school half steps or super collected trot yesterday, and yet...

We started out by working on the turns on the haunches, which is an easy place for us to score more points. She explained that he still wants to walk forward with the inside hind rather than weighting it like he should be, and she explained in great detail that my inside leg has to be asking that inside hind to step up and down in place, higher, rather than forward.

"What you're doing is fine for Second Level, but this horse can do Third Level work in this, actually, he can do a Fourth Level-quality walk pirouette already, so we may as well raise the bar."

When I did it right, it involved a lot more body parts (of mine) than I had been using in the past. Every step required inside leg to outside rein applied at just the right moments with a guarding outside leg. This is something I am going to practice a lot in the days leading up to Pony Cup, because doing it right is certainly not automatic for me yet.

Once those were passable, we did an exercise that was 

1. TOH
2. 10m canter circle in haunches-in 
3. Canter-walk straight into another TOH 

And in the middle of that exercise she yelled, "THERE'S your collected canter!" It felt amazing.

She said I might think he was going to break in it because it was more collected than anything I'd ever ridden before, and I said surprisingly I didn't feel that way. It felt powerful and light and like it wasn't a struggle for him.

 After we'd done that a few times, she told me to take my 10m circle haunches in feeling straight up the centerline.

...okay...

And then she told me to get the bend solid, sit to the inside and apply some outside aids (massively paraphrased)

...okay...

And then she said surprise, you're doing a canter half pass!

Was it amazing quality or steep enough, no, but it was my first time riding the movement, and I love the way she just snuck it up casually on me without giving me a heads up. Unfortunately the Pivo was in a horrible spot to capture lackluster half passes (lol), but I had to take a GIF anyway, for posterity.

Baaaaaarely moving to the inside, but we're doing it, lol. Gotta start somewhere!

We ended the lesson by drilling SI and HI on the rail, more for my benefit than his. She talked about how consistency of shape is important to the scoring and how I needed to get the correct angle and keep it. To the right we were a lot more successful than the left, in part because I'm sure I'm sitting crooked in some way to the left, but we ran out of time to figure it out in the lesson.

That trot tho

He's staying with her the rest of this week before I pick him up on Friday, then he'll have six days at home before we leave for NDPC on the following Thursday!

I'm treating Pony Cup as the pinnacle of my season this year, and am pulling out all the stops for it, including sending Connor to CGP's for two weeks of full training this week and next week.

(And, you can probably infer from yesterday's post that anytime he's at CGP's I'm not doing his stall, which is a nice "in case of emergency break glass" option for me as a co-op member. Although I'm still taking my feeding/turnout shifts).

On Tuesday morning I got a call from GP trainer. Of course I answered it immediately.

Dropping my kid off at "boarding school" (as my husband calls it) on Sunday

"I just got done riding your pone pone and I just want to BRAG on YOUR RIDING these past seven months! It seriously feels like I last rode him yesterday, the contact feels fantastic and everything is right there. I even schooled half pass, and it was great," she said.

"That's amazing, because I definitely have not touched half pass myself," I joked.

"Here AGAIN? Okay I guess"

I was tickled. I knew deep down that he was still going well, but to hear it validated from her was amazing, especially after I'd been so terrified to take the ride back when I brought him home from full training in January, and then was unable to lesson with her until March.

In fact, he'd been going so well leading up to Waterloo, part of me wondered if it was worth it to spend the money on two weeks of full training, if he even needed a tune-up. But then a never-before-accessed region of my brain kicked in and was like "There's are no broken fundamentals on this horse anymore. He's GOOD. You can send him to her to IMPROVE things now, not just to fix all the problems you created."

Whoa brain, whoa. I'm not used to thinking about myself as anything other than a heavy-handed problem-creating amateur.

Natural selection did not provide me with arms long enough for horse selfies

"It's so much fun to have horses in for training like him," she said. "We can really make a lot of progress now." And then she touched on why the simple changes are sometimes there for me and sometimes not, and what she's doing about it, which is the best thing she could accomplish for me the next two weeks, IMO.

She ended the call by telling me she "survived" riding in my jump saddle. Yes, for the first time I'm forced to ask my 5'10ish GP Dressage trainer to ride my pony in my literally-used-to-belong-to-a-child shortest-flap-they-make CWD jump saddle. But she's a trooper and has a firm policy that she rides training horses in the horse's saddle no matter how poorly it might fit her because the horse's comfort has to come first. 

At least she can take comfort in knowing a Dressage saddle she approves of is on order for him!

Scale is hard to convey in photos, but y'all know how small this horse is. This saddle brings 'postage' stamp saddle' to new heights (CWD SE02 1C flap for the CWD nerds out there)

I was supposed to have more or less back-to-back lessons on Connor last weekend, with one on Friday and one on Sunday, BUT on Saturday our roommate called to let us know he had taken an "exit" COVID test for school even though he had no symptoms at all, and tested positive, so we are now quarantining until Dec 2.

It is the most first world of first world problems to say that the only thing I'm upset about is that I'm going to miss riding and lessons, but I think you'll understand when you see how Friday's lesson went. Connor is educated to the point that every lesson, I'm learning in leaps and bounds and I'm so bummed to have to pause that!

On Friday, she asked to get on him first to "show me where he's at", and I had a hard time keeping my jaw off of the floor watching them go. Since mid-September, just over two months ago, she's taken him from being a maybe First Level horse with an incorrect understanding of collection to where all the pieces for 3-1 are passably there.

Full disclosure, her standards for someone being ready for the level are pretty high, so I'm not saying she WOULD show him 3-1 tomorrow, but she COULD.

I got on after her, and I'm going to put the two GIFs of both of us doing the same things on him to show you how differently he goes for her vs me. Not to throw myself under the bus, but to show the difference between a skilled rider that remembers to half halt and me, lol.

Even just warming up, he's a different horse. Look at how different his neck shape is, how the top of his neck is longer than the bottom:

Her warmup walk

My, uh, "just got on" walk

She's militant about never letting him get stiff in the bridle, and told me that "95% of the time, if he feels stiff, the right answer will be to apply the right leg and right rein and hold until he softens". She also said "It means something to him if you close your legs and then briefly close your hands now, put him together." Hello yes these are the kind of first toolkit adult amateur slow learner instructions I am here 👏 for 👏. 

I know the medium trots below aren't scoring an 8, but WOW you guys, the feeling of closing my legs and having INSTANT POWER is something I am not used to. This required a whole other level of core engagement to stay with him. 

Her medium trot

My medium trot, where you can see my abs just completely peace out in the middle from the unexpected force of holding him together

You can really see the difference in her canter vs mine. Mine has less energy (although this WAS 40 minutes into the ride) and the balance isn't nearly as good. Those two phrases could sum up the major differences between our riding in all gaits and movements. I'm not upset about it though, having a horse that I know understands how to go well means I just have to learn how to ride him well, I no longer have the responsibility of also teaching him to go well.

Her collected canter

My collected canter

She didn't intentionally show me any flying changes, but she did attempt a canter half pass (she hasn't done many with him and warned me it was a work in progress) and he gave her a change as a wrong answer. I think it's pretty cool that he knows what a change is well enough to be willing to see if it's the right answer to an ask he doesn't quite understand yet.

She also did a few things I didn't get to do but was happy to see, such as this extremely balanced counter canter. No more motorcycling and hanging on for dear life! 🙌

I did get to do shoulder-in but the Pivo missed it, so you'll just have to watch this clip of CGP and trust me when I say it is so accessible and easy now, it's kind of amazing. No more struggling to manufacture a S-I that's mostly neck bend for me!

I was just on cloud nine. More to come.

I had no idea what to expect from my first lesson in *coughcough* a month.  (How dare my job interfere with my hobby, I mean, really!)

All photos from the warmup at the IDS September 2018 show PC: Karen Taylor

Ahhhh our warmups are always so beautiful #noshame

That warmup turned into this ride, so, y'know.

My husband's company is somewhat loosely based in Austin, TX.  For the past two years, they've held their holiday party and annual meeting in Vegas, but this year, they decided to move it back to Austin.  The second I found that out, I texted JenJ.

Guess who we pestered?!

I ended up getting to spend an entire day with Jen, Michelle and Taran soaking up some 74 degree weather while my poor husband sat indoors at his annual meeting.  AND IT WAS AWESOME!

World's weirdest "one personal item": my helmet shoved into a Rent the Runway bag containing two formal gowns.

I've met Taran several times in the past - twice at home in Texas, once in Indiana and once in Kentucky - but I've never gotten the opportunity to ride him before Saturday.  Jen got him warmed up then threw me on his back.


I learned SO much!  Taran is really truly a confirmed second level horse, which makes him the most well-trained horse I've sat on since I started focusing on Dressage, and JenJ proved to be a very effective (and patient) teacher. 

After I got to know him a bit, we first focused on straightness using the mirrors at the other end of the arena to help me see where I was crooked.  Not that I needed mirrors to tell me that I was crooked - Taran tattled loud and clear when I did things like sit massively to the left while on the left rein or overused my inside rein to the right. And JenJ patiently helped point those things out too.

Proof that we did eventually get straight.  And then probably promptly lost it the stride after this one, but hey!

JenJ asked me on the drive home what the most surprising thing I learned was.  I had a hard time answering that because although the ride was very eye opening, nothing was surprising - Jen got after me for things I have been gotten after for before but the surprising part was feeling the effects of fixing those things on a horse that knows more than I do.  I can't tell you how impactful it was to feel the effect of those changes on T vs Connor.

T is so unimpressed with these grown women acting like 12 year old girls.

On further reflection, the most surprising thing was understanding the extent to which I allow Connor to tune aids out, and how little conviction I have when it comes to things like leg yields.  JenJ asked me to leg yield Taran, and I thought I did, and then she was like "No, MEAN IT.  Leg yield to B right now," and I did and he WENT SIDEWAYS.  And forward.  Neither of which I expect to happen when I ask C for a leg yield, even though that's what I think I'm asking for.  I've never ridden anything that felt like that.


I rode things I've never ridden before, like trot half pass.  I genuinely felt like I was sitting better by the end of the ride.  And I figured out what level of impulsion and forward was necessary for him to be on my aids and for him to be able to perform the movements well.

Oh and I rode IN A T-SHIRT IN JANUARY which felt amazing.

This is going to be one of those rides that leaves me thinking, digesting and unpacking for a long time to come.  I am so grateful to both T for putting up with me and JenJ for being willing to patiently tell me to shorten my reins every two strides for an hour.  She's done a great job with him, and I wish they lived close enough to see more often!

Ahhhhhh, a lesson recap post.  It's been a while.  My lessons have been sporadic and uninteresting lately.  But tonight!

Tonight was fun, if formulaic.  The formula:

- "My horse isn't straight!"
- Trainer suggests an exercise, horse slowly gets straighter.
- We do something more challenging with newly straight horse, shit's hard, yo.
- The challenging thing gets easier after I remember how to ride.
- Tired horse.

He was standing evenly on all four feet here, but the only angle I got was from above.

To get him straight and balanced, we started with switching back and forth in the walk between half pass left -> slowly allow him to come straight -> half pass right.  At first, it's the entire length of the arena in one bend, but as he got more on my aids, she challenged my to change halfway down, then more often.  I need to remember, when I do these things on my own to try to get him straight, that even with my trainer it takes patience and time to get him to come around.

Once he was straight and on my aids, we moved on to doing it at the trot.  We can basically summarize this whole exercise like this:

Me: "Sometimes when I put my outside leg on absolutely nothing happens."
Trainer: "When that happens, you don't have enough bend.  It means his body is literally not in a position where he can do what you're asking."

And what do you know, I REALLY asked for more bend in the corner before our next attempt, and he moved off my leg!  Biomechanics is some black magic, I tell ya.

Although he was a bit heavy tonight, he was moving pretty well.  I was grateful for one of those rides that reminds me why I do this whole Dressage thing.  A good ride is absolutely therapeutic.

February 2, 2017: I am officially so far over winter, it's hard to get out of my warm car.  Come on, spring...

Connor's been in full training now for almost three weeks.  I've only ridden once a week during this time - for my weekly lesson - on purpose.

#badselfies

The first two lessons were...just okay.  But last night, now that he's three weeks into being ridden by my trainer 5x a week, made me realize why I'm paying the extra $$$ this month.

He's getting stronger.  He's getting suppler.  He's getting used to being ridden the right way, which means when I ride him the wrong way, he sends telepathic signals to my trainer that she can read like a billboard, and she calls me out on it.

I literally got to the barn for my lesson, went "...it's animal cruelty to ride him in 70 degree weather with that much hair," and gave him an Irish clip on the spot.  Took about 30 minutes.

The whole way she teaches me is different too.  She's way quicker with her commands and way quicker to call me out both on the good things I'm doing and when I'm doing something she doesn't want me to do.  She almost becomes possessive with training horses, wanting to see them ridden correctly.  Her training style has always been to teach as if she's the one riding, but it's like that times a thousand right now.

Aaaaaand it wasn't enough.  Although it IS 70 degrees.  In November.  In Indiana.  When it was snowing this time last year.  I'm not complaining...kinda.

It's not a bad thing: he was amazing last night.  I am noticing that he's a lot more aware of my aids, and it takes less time to get him in "work mode".  We were switching back and forth between half pass bend/direction in the sitting trot last night, which is amazing, although the right is still our worst direction just like leg yield.  We even made progress in that, though.

So far, so good!

The bulk of my lesson on Thursday was spent on two things: counter canter, and bend.

So cute.  Much mud.

We started out with a bit of the spiral in and spiral out through the half pass, and it just wasn't working too well, so my trainer seamlessly switched gears to what I assume is an exercise that she thought of to fix the things that she saw were not working.  It is kind of amazing that she can so subtly switch gears in a lesson like that without calling us out.

We moved onto "pick up the counter canter on the quarterline and think about moving toward the outside rail" i.e. thinking about half pass in the canter.  It took about one trip of that for Connor to get into super Dressage horse mode.

Horse is totally blanketed to the 9's, and yet, I still have to chisel him out from under mud on every exposed surface.

That doesn't mean the exercise got easy once he was that on my aids though.  He kept wanting to give me too much angle, or swing his hindquarters out.

Sometimes it was my fault, I didn't set him up as thoroughly as I could have.  Sometimes it was his fault, and despite my best effort, he picked up the right (wrong) lead anyway.  But he only missed the lead a few times, because generally I could feel when things were going sideways and just wouldn't ask for it unless it was right.

Toward the end, we switched to picking up the counter canter on the centerline, then turning toward the correct lead's direction and doing a half 10m circle back to the rail.  It required so much preparation that I totally did not give him the first time, and I buried him.  He did it, but it was scrambly.  Every other one was good after that though.

Gratuitous photo of Dog #1 (at a very unflattering angle - promise he's not overweight) trying to get husband to feed him.

I am beginning to see a theme as the work gets more advanced - we need more preparation.

My regular lesson slot (for five years now!) is 7pm on Thursdays, so since the last two Thursdays were Christmas Eve and New Years' Eve, I have some makeup lessons coming.



I took my first one on Saturday afternoon, and it was awesome.  I got on and could immediately tell my trainer had been on him lately - he was totally sensitive to my aids.

We did a couple of walk laps in shoulder in, and then picked up the trot.  It was...lackluster.  My trainer yelled from the opposite end of the arena, "Prepare for the corners by doing shoulder in ahead of time.  More bend!" and finally a lightbulb went off in my head to complement the "how much thigh do you need for shoulder in" lightbulb that went off a few weeks ago: lots of thigh PLUS asking him to soften his jaw at the same time with the inside rein is MAGIC SAUCE.  "Good!  I don't ever want to see another corner with him falling out," my trainer said.

"Yes, hello?"

I mean...I've done both of those things almost simultaneously before, although the AMOUNT of thigh I have to use is certainly a new discovery.  But I've never done the two at precisely the same time before.  It was like I flipped a "Dressage horse switch" in his brain.  (Really that's just called "Getting enough bend.")

It was in a break after that that I asked a stupid question: "It takes SO MUCH inside thigh to get where we need to be in shoulder in right now, should I be wearing spurs to accentuate my leg?"  The answer is "NO, spurs do not affect bend or spine, they only affect the hindquarters.  No spurs."  I know spurs don't affect the bend, but damn he is a thigh workout right now and it would be awesome if someone made a thigh spur.  Time to start weaning him off of that big of a thigh aid, gradually.

Gratuitous tail photo, sadly rubbed at the top by his blanket.

We moved on to a new exercise, which was a spiral in/out on a 20m circle, but through the half pass.  It is definitely not something I could have done without her constant guidance, but Connor loved it.  He was concentrating so hard and really thinking about what we were asking, which caused my trainer to complement how in tuned to each other we've become lately.  We've definitely moved to a new stage in our relationship, four years in.

I turned him loose this night after our ride, and he spooked at that sprinkler every time we went by.  Then what does he head straight for when I take his tack off?  The thing that's been scaring him all night, to investigate it.

You know that quote that's like "You can't grow unless you get pushed out of your comfort zone?"  At the end, we were doing that spiral in/out half pass exercise at the trot, and Connor was giving it all he had.  He was on the bit and on the brink - not past the brink, but he was where he wasn't sure he could do any more than he was doing.  It was an awesome feeling to feel progress being made like that.