Cob Jockey

This week is Connor's last week at CGPs. Originally, I had planned on staying a week toward the end of this full training and taking a bunch of lessons, but between COVID and my, um, high energy new doggo, that plan got shelved in favor of me driving over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week for lessons. It's long days and a boatload of driving, but it's worth it.

Husband: "YOUR DOG escaped every time I put her in the backyard today, please take her to the barn or something."

On Tuesday (yesterday) it was a lesson extravaganza. First up was Mary on Connor, then I had a lesson on Aeres (which I'll write about later), then after a long break (and a trip to Dover), I had a lesson on Connor myself.

IDK who needs to know this but Dover's house brand has paisley silicone full seats

 

Watching the Mary lesson was good for me. Mary is a very educated H/J rider, but Dressage is not her thing, so she asked me if she could take a lesson on him before he came home so she could understand the way he was taught. 

CGP gave her what was basically a "first ride with Mary Wanless" lesson (all the MW people in the audience nod their heads), and Mary described it as "feeling like I was driving on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic". It was really good for me to hear CGP explain why certain biomechanical things were important especially on Connor in such detail.

CGP demonstrating the difference between the mechanics of a H/J post and a Dressage post.

Despite her feeling like a "drunken monkey" up there, he went really well for her. It struck me how much he knows now, that he can take someone who doesn't know Dressage at all and at least go around in a straight and level First Level frame. In fact, seeing how well he went for her without her really doing anything to shape his body besides sit well made me wonder if I was somehow doing too much to him.

My horse can teach people Dressage now

As if reading my mind, my lesson later that day ended up being about exactly that. "You're doing too much, your aids are too loud. You're riding him the way you used to ride him and he's a different horse now, you have to be a lot more subtle to ride him."

It was about halfway through the lesson that she said that, and suddenly I had a completely different ride. He was soft and fluffy but firm in the contact, and easily directed with just my thighs, even for things that were hard before like 10m canter circles.

GUYS THAT'S MY HORSE OMG

Part of the reason she harped on this was that she had me doing SI with mixed results, largely because I was pulling on the inside rein in both directions. She does not pull punches when it comes to telling me what I'm doing wrong, and I LOVED hearing things like "No - that would score a 3, and here's why" or "That can only be a maximum of 5 because it has too much neck bend" and then "OKAY, THAT was a seven, now we're getting there."

And there's no video evidence of the SIs because #pivothings

Things really started to come together when she told me to think about putting my left shoulder forward, because I'm STILL riding with my left hand behind my right hand. "When you pull on the left rein, it makes the haunches go right. And the left side is his hollow side to begin with."

 

And that was just Day 1.

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.

Thanks to a number of things - work travel, holiday travel, it being so cold my fingers stopped working within minutes of being outside for what seemed like forever - my lesson on Saturday was the first time I'd ridden since my lesson in mid-December.

First thing I did: take off that goat beard!

It was my first time trying out the Back on Track, and I was determined to be as objective as possible about it.  To give it a fair shake and follow their best practices, I put the saddle pad on under his blanket while I groomed him, then put the quarter sheet on once I'd tacked up.

I did end up putting the quarter sheet under my saddle for lunging.

My trainer suggested I lunge since they'd been in for a couple of days due to ice.  Not because she thought he'd be silly (he wasn't, can I just say how much I love not riding for three weeks AND him being stalled for two straight days and him coming out totally normal like nothing is wrong?) but to be fair to him and get him moving.  So he also lunged in the quarter sheet and saddle pad.

I'm so used to seeing massive horse-sized quarter sheets on him, one that fits looks too small.

I did not expect a great ride.  My trainer has ridden him once and lunged him once in the last three weeks, but otherwise, he's just been a bum. 

And...it was one of the best rides we've had in months.  What?!

The second I got on him he was reaching over his back for the bit.  He came onto my aids pretty effortlessly and very early in the ride, especially considering our normal slogfest warmup. 

He felt incredible, and, trying to be fair to him, I requested we quit early because he hadn't done this in so long, AND he was getting the message today.  The Equisense confirmed we quit at roughly the 30 minute mark.  WOW.






So was it the Back on Track?  Lots of people have said they get shorter warmups using it.  I am inclined to say it was not, as tempting as that is.  Two things happened during the lesson that I think contributed:

1. The exercise we did, shoulder in to small circles, really made a point to both of us.  My trainer made sure I was keeping my leg in the right place per my last lesson, using the right parts of my leg to ask for the inside hind to step up, and I figured out the right rhythm in which to ask.  If the inside hind wasn't stepping forward, I was instructed to reduce the angle of the SI and get the inside hind before trying a circle. 

Any time I felt him get flat or grab the inside rein, I applied the top part of my lower leg in the right rhythm to engage the inside hind - and very quickly that had other side effects too, like his poll coming up when I used it like that.  (Big thank you to the blogger, I can't remember who you are, that wrote about that this week.  It helped me a lot!)


2. My fingers were f-r-o-z-e-n thanks to trying out a new glove setup (and white, thanks to the Reynauds).  And I was really focused on keeping my elbows forward.  I think both of those things combined meant I physically could not pull on him.  My trainer said "If anyone could find something positive about this weather, I guess it's you!"

Even just as a quartersheet without taking into consideration the magic Chinese whatever, I really like this thing.  Full review soon.

So, did not expect that ride to be that amazing, but I'll take it!  And it's always nice when the Equisense backs me up after a ride I feel good about - this is tied for our highest symmetry score ever, and definitely our highest score for a ride this short:

I'll spare you guys the long-winded lesson recap today and try to summarize, even though (because?) I'm bursting on the inside with how good it was.

Look, a real live picture of me riding my horse from Tuesday!  Courtesy of FBR.

It was better than last week and last week was great.  This week, we really focused on my position in the shoulder-in, and it made a huge difference.

She gave me a couple of positional cues that really helped:
- Align your whole body toward A or C on the long side like you're going across the diagonal but don't let him travel toward A and C.
- Fill out your lower back
- Carry left elbow closer to body and wrist almost cocked out, to compensate for my wandering left hand and encourage better left bend

I added one of my own that really helped: look at A and C down the entire side, rather than down at Connor.  (Duh, I know.)

Selfie time!

He was also just a bit spicy, and between that, my better position, and a strong focus on his balance and straightness, we got the following compliments:
- "Most effortless sitting trot I've ever seen out of you"
- "Excellent bend"

Aligning my whole body toward A and C had the biggest effect in the bend.  Before, I was aligning most of my body that way, but not really my outside leg.  Once I, you know, put my outside leg on him, he straightened up and really had to step under with the inside hind.  This was hard work for him, and he let me know by being extra spicy - and extra on my aids, so suck it up, pony!

Hard to get a picture of him without his ears up.  That's just who he is.

Filling out my lower back made the biggest difference in the way he went.  He started to make his transitions up instead of forward, which felt REALLY cool.  He also slowed his cadence at the trot and really shifted his weight back over the hind legs - not a feeling I get to experience all the time.

JK on what I said last time, it is totally possible to take non flattering pictures of this place this time of year.

More more more, I want more of that!

I've had two lessons since I last wrote - Thursday, which was a Dressage lesson, and Sunday, which was "we'll jump when he's ready" and he came out firing, so the whole thing was a jump lesson.

Thursday, I finally solidly figured out my shoulder in aids.  I know that sounds weird since I've been doing so much of it, but I finally figured out how much bend we need and how much inside thigh is takes to get that much bend.  That also meant that I was able to "just put him in position" in the shoulder in and leave him alone, which you'll remember she's been asking me to do more and more.

I AM SO GOOD AT DRESSAGE GIVE ME MRS. PASTURES COOKIES PLZ.

In fact, the shoulder in was so good, she wanted to revisit half pass at the walk, which we started last summer and haven't done a lot of since.  It's really hard, since neither one of us have ever done it before, so I have no sense of feel for what it should be, but with my trainer saying "Yes that's it" or "No that's not it", I'm developing an understanding of how to get the "Yes"'s.


On Sunday at the makeup lesson, I didn't get to warm up on my own - thanks, traffic, for making me late.  I started out with a lap of walk in shoulder fore, then she told me to get trotting right away - and to both of our surprise, it was really good.  None of that 'flat tire' feeling, just straight, through, and stretchy.

Then the canter - even better.  "This is the best canter he's ever given you!"  The best part was, I wasn't even trying.  I was up in a half seat with light contact, and he was round, stepping under himself, and felt like a powerfully coiled spring.  Yes, in warmup.

She took that as an indication that we should jump, and we did.  Much of the lesson was spent combining our favorite (as of late) canter exercise, which is shoulder in with as much angle as he can give us without losing the bend, to canter, and then come off the rail to pop a crossrail in the middle of the ring.


It. Was. Awesome.  We did that, we did a skinny, and we even jumped the inflatable liverpool for the first time.  I expected it to ride like a ditch, and while he gave us a big effort the first time, he didn't scare himself doing it.  "We're jumping him so much right now because his canter is good, and he's learning that jumping can feel good.  He's gaining confidence in the ring that will translate over things like ditches when we get out in the field in the spring."

Seriously, that canter.  I was like "Why can't we get this all the time?!  How many carrots will it take to bribe you into being this awesome?"

Several.  The answer is several.

Hopefully that continues, although I'm betting being in the outdoor had a lot to do with that canter, which is sad.  So dreamy...

Last night's lesson was more of the same: in-hand to warm up, followed by shoulder-in at the walk, followed by lots of walk-trot-walk transitions in shoulder-in.  This time, we ended with the same exercise she did at the clinic, which was adding a walk-canter transition out of the shoulder in across a diagonal.

"Is that black thing in your hand edible?"

We're continuing to explore this idea of do less.  Here are some paraphased trainer quotes from last night:

- "You're too busy, sit still.  Do less."

- "You eventually want to just position him in shoulder-in and let him carry it from there rather than constantly adjusting him. Ride with that goal in mind."

- "Sometimes you're too quick to correct him, and he gets flustered.  Give him a split second longer when you feel him about to make the wrong decision before correcting.

[Cob Jockey in: three months ago I couldn't coordinate my aids fast enough to keep up with his errors.  Learning to ride at this stage feels like learning advanced chemistry, where they tell you to "Forget everything you learned in Chem 1" on the first day.]

- "He's about to swing his croup in, guard it - no, you were too fast and too dramatic with your leg, now he's swung the opposite direction.  Be tactful with your aids so we get less of this bouncing from side to side."

- "Don't immediately grab him if he doesn't come back to a collected walk fast enough after the trot.  Ask for flexion, and wait with quiet aids, and he'll start coming back faster."

I'm listening!

I always say I have to start my lessons yelling and I end whispering, and in a lot of my rides on my own (which haven't been great lately) I'm yelling the whole time.  But last night, as soon as I sat still and whispered my aids, even when I didn't think he was ready for that, he became more sensitive in response.  I still had speed control issues, but all of the rest of my aids could be soft and quiet.

It makes me wonder: am I causing my own "yelling" problem?  Is the reason my rides on my own suck right now because I am not self-aware enough on my own to fix my position and my 'too loud' aids?  Is he reacting to what I'm giving him, and if I gave him less right off the bat he would require less?

Probably.  Good thing we're taking extra trainer rides/lessons this month!

Boredom behavior: flapping his tongue around

I had the most amazing lesson on Sunday.  I could not ride my own horse.

Let me explain.

We started out with the aforementioned in-hand work to get him light and thinking.  Then once I was in the saddle, it was shoulder in, shoulder in, shoulder in.


I could feel a change happening.  My trainer noticed it too and said, "He's experimenting with a whole new way of going right now."  That way of going was AWESOME.  Forward, balanced, and listening so hard to my aids.

In fact, too hard.  About halfway through the lesson, every aid I gave in the walk produced a collected canter.  And we're not talking cowboy kicks: we're talking moving my hips forward to ask for the trot.

For me, the person who usually has to start most rides yelling the aids, those are tiny aids, but they were no longer tiny.  The scale of yelling to tiny had changed with Connor's attentiveness, and I had no concept how to ride something that sensitive.

My trainer was ready to play, "This is not a bad thing right now.  Now pretend like you cannot use leg aids on him at all for a few minutes and use just your seat and core to communicate to him."  And let me tell you, there is no cooler feeling than asking for a transition by sitting up just ever so slightly taller, maybe not even visibly from the ground, and getting it.


"Part of it is that it's cooler and he's clipped, but part of it is that we're making him more sensitive to your aids, and now you have to learn how to ride that.  You have to sit absolutely still when he's on your aids like this, because every movement is overload."

I've ridden him when he's sensitive before (see also that Dressage test where he broke to the canter in the trot last spring), but this was a whole other level.  At the end we talked about ways I can get that kind of responsiveness in my rides on my own, which I continue to struggle with, and I think we have a game plan going forward.

I picked up an extra lesson this week to make up for one of the ones I'll miss while my trainer is out of the country the next two weeks (gulp).  Yes, I absolutely can ride without her, but at this specific moment, I am at the "aware of what I don't know" stage with this new body position, and it will be hard to not let the rails fall off while she's gone.

Favorite Barn Rat taking a walk break on her ride du jour.

My little drylotted air fern.

It's the mooost wonderful tiiiime of the year: dapples!