Cob Jockey

It's been a while since I last posted some Pixio GIFs.  This is not best ride we're had lately (and the Equisense backed me up on that), but he got pretty decent toward the end.  I think he came out a bit sore and distracted after the day before's ride.  Gotta get back into a routine - both of us.

But look at us actually riding on the left rein now!  Maybe too much, lol.

LOOK AT ALL OF THIS LEFT REIN WORK! #ambiturners


At the end, I decided I was going to come up the quarter line, get him as straight as I could, and shoot for a ballin' halt.

For once in my riding career...nailed it.

You may notice all of these GIFs are trot GIFs, because I completely admit the canter is a hot mess right now.  I've made improvements elsewhere, but my default rein length is too long and my default hand and elbow position is "holding", hence the head bob.  You can see it so clearly in the GIF, it looks like my hands move backwards with each stride.  Frustrating to see it on the video and think I'm working on it but not really be making progress - I need a lesson.

Blegh.

At the end of the day, there's always something else to work on.  Gotta savor the good moments and let the "needs improvement" ones motivate you.  Dat halt though...

During one of my rides last week, I was a little bit frustrated with both of us.  Just a smidge.  Mostly with myself, for still being crooked after all these years.  This horse doesn't WANT to pop his shoulder to the outside.  I make him do it.  Accidentally.


We had already had a long hot ride, but I was tired of picking at him and not accomplishing anything, and he probably felt the same, so I let him cruise at the trot of his choice.  He picked a big, strong, forward, consistent, metronome trot that he told me he could do all day.  The type of trot NK had us get at the beginning of our lesson with her last summer.

He still felt pretty balanced, but I guarantee my JLC-following trainer might have raised her eyebrows if she was there.  We did 20m circles and changes of rein across the diagonal in an extremely consistent strong trot, with long-ish reins and his throatlatch open, for probably 15-20 minutes.


I sat that big strong trot.  And in order to sit it, I had to engage my core.  And I noticed my reins were wide and long enough that my shoulders were open and down, so I rolled with that.  Because I wasn't doing any complicated exercises, I was able to focus on keeping my right side tall, my hands forward, and my thighs off him.

And...it was the best he was all ride.  Once I got him forward and pushing, I could supple him and put that forward to work.  And I was sitting more straight and balanced than usual after focusing on just that for 20 minutes.

#besthair

At my next flat ride, my lesson with my trainer, I warmed up like that: a few quick transitions, then put him straight to work developing that same trot before I asked for anything else.  We got it, and we ended up having an awesome lesson.  It goes against what we've been doing for a while - slowing it down so he's not rushing over his chest - this may have been the wrong answer six months ago, but it feels like the right answer now.  And my trainer agrees.

My trainer said I was one of her most perplexing students last night.  Achievement unlocked!

Perplexing is as perplexing does.

Connor was awesome last Thursday and Saturday (both Dressage rides), and then a complete rat for Tuesday's Dressage ride because Sunday's ride in between there had been a conditioning ride.  It was an honest temper tantrum that I didn't know how to handle, I mean, eventers have to be able to switch gears like that, right?

When Thursday's lesson started out like Tuesday's ride, my trainer correctly diagnosed that I had let him go on his forehand for the conditioning ride, and the temper tantrum (head tossing, turning his entire head and neck to look outside the arena, overreacting to aids, generally being anti-submissive, a horsey 'No, I don't wanna') was in response to being asked to carry himself in a Dressage manner again.

I want my horse to be a willing partner and all, but sometimes you just have to stamp your foot and yell, "CONNOR, YOU'RE GOING TO CLEAN YOUR ROOM NOW!"  Which my trainer helped me achieve through quiet, relaxed 10m circles until the gerbils returned, and he was focused and relaxed from there on.

I let him out for some post-ride rolling afterward.

It was then that she slowly and tactfully (like she could possibly offend me after 3.5 years!) said I was one of her most perplexing students.  On to the lesson!  She said she has a hard time figuring me out, because it would appear that I'm doing everything right, all the right exercises, but there's something holding me back on Connor that doesn't hold her back, so there must be something in my position, and she thought she knew what that was now.

Looking at the trot, she says she thinks I do two things

1) I work too hard.  My fitness works against me, because I am strong enough to do the wrong things easily, where most people would relax.  So when I post, I do a lot of the work for Connor and do not relax my joints and lower back, rather than sitting deeply on Connor and letting him toss me up.  "He's got off easy for too long," she semi-joked.

2) The first direction of my post is actually slightly backward, because I do what my CrossFit trainer would call a "booty wink" or duck butt.  The first motion of my post is my hips tilting forward and going slightly back, before going forward.  I never would have noticed it if she didn't say something.  I'm conducting Connor's energy from his hind feet in the wrong direction by doing this.

She had me halt and post at the halt, and made some major position changes in my post.  It felt like my glutes were firing more, but my lower back was more relaxed.  When we got back to trotting and she corrected me every time I went back to my old ways, Connor moved in a brand new way.  More suspension, less jarring of a motion, and I was able to sit the trot easily.  It was really good, and she was just as delighted with herself for cracking the code as she was with me for getting it.

Who knew, you sit on your horse and your horse sits more too?

Gratuitous adorable tiny Husky picture

Sweet hair, dude.

Without my Sunday ride (in which I struggled to get Connor's attention) and my Tuesday ride (in which he rotated through a different evasion with every step before giving up and giving me good work for the final 10 minutes) I don't think our flat lesson would have gone so well last night.  Our first Dressage ride after a few consecutive jump lessons is usually a trainwreck.

But as my trainer said, jumping and Dressage are starting to work together for Connor now instead of against each other.  One improves the other now, in both directions, and a month of jump lessons isn't going to kill our Dressage anymore.

My lesson last night was all about behavior replacement - for me.  "Sometimes his neck gets so short that he doesn't have any mobility in his shoulders.  Every time you think you should put any backwards pressure on the reins, counterbend for a couple of strides, then normal bend - DO NOT PULL BACK while doing that."  After a few minutes of that, I had a loose swingy Connor that almost felt like he was melting, he was so soft through his entire body.  (Funny, I get soft and then he gets soft...I know.)  Add some impulsion and we were really cooking.

After he was soft and bendy, the second half of the lesson was sitting trot and 10m circles.  First, we established a good sitting trot.  Then, we went through the following exercise at the sitting trot, which she said could have been done as a serpentine but she wanted to give us more time in each bend to establish good work.  It also could have been done without the poles, but she wanted pinpoint accuracy:

Let me see if I can describe this.  Starting at the top, left rein 10m circle through the (4ft) poles once, then again, but the second time we turned right to go 10m circle right through the middle set of poles, then the second time through  the middle set we turned left, rinse, repeat, all the way down.  We did basically 1.5 10m circles involving one set of poles before turning.

In between, she would sometimes have me come out of the exercise and get a massive "give it all you got!" trot out of him so that he didn't lose that impulsion.  He felt GREAT, which is good, because those two previous rides made me rethink my big Dressage goal for next year (still coming, promise).  We also worked on me relaxing through my lower back with my new leg position, and sitting trot felt really good - which is good, since we probably did it for 20 minutes straight last night.

Now to get that on-demand in the show ring...

My last bareback ride on Connor was all about getting over the fear.  Sunday's bareback ride (also because I forgot my tights at home...) was all about progress.

She's only put one ride on him so far, but what a difference it seems to have made!  The only details I have came via text, and the ride was described as "awesome!" and that the canter work went "really well!"  I've promised not to canter him again until she has a chance to split a lesson with me and teach me what she's doing, but I can already tell a big difference at the walk and trot.  Not that he's usually lazy, I mean, he has his moments, but he was hot off of my aids on Sunday.  Unlike other "hot" days, though, he was hot in an easily containable way.  He just felt sharp and on top of it, and I can tell that she did a lot of transitions with him.

This led to some of the most explosive, driving trot we've ever gotten.  He felt like he was really sitting and pushing with his hind end.  Maybe it was the work my trainer has done, maybe it was how between my leg and hand he was, maybe it was the indoor footing, maybe he's felt like this all along and I'm just now noticing it because I'm riding bareback, but it was an incredible feeling, and something I've never felt before.

Riding bareback after our outside rein epiphany allowed me to evaluate straightness based on spine and shoulder positions, as well as back musculature.  For me, riding bareback always drives home the "ride the shoulders" idea, which is probably why my big sitting trot revelations have all occurred while riding bareback.  With the big, expressive trots like Lisa's cobs have, it helps me to focus on the connection between his shoulders and my hips, which move in sync.  A good sitting trot, (which I have only ever been able to do on Connor), in which my seatbones stay in contact with his back the whole time, requires more side-to-side swing through my pelvis than I would have thought.

I need to get some video, that feeling was indescribable.  Maybe soon.

I was tired.

Tired of being told that what I was doing was "good".  I wouldn't have even called it "good enough" let alone "good."

I was tired of figuring out different ways to contort my body to do what I thought was right, and not getting corrected.

And now, all of that has changed.

My trainer has the keenest eye of any equestrian I've ridden with.  Nothing gets past her, not even the slightest turn of the foot or the the tiniest misalignment between hip and shoulder.  The best part is, though, that she'll explain why correcting my body in this way matters and what it does to the horse, both at that point in my ride and in future rides.  She's never harsh, she says she wants her students to have positive associations with their riding, but she points everything out without failure, and I thrive on that.

As a result of that teaching style, I'm seeing big improvements already in my third lesson.  By "big improvements" I mean she only has to remind me not to brace through my ankles every five strides instead of every stride.  But it's progress!

Today was primarily a lunge line lesson, on Dillan in a French-made Dressage saddle (with no keepers, how weird is that?).  Now that she's gotten to know me a bit better, she had a couple of specific goals in mind for me.  First, she entirely took my reins away and worked with me on my position, and then posting trot.  She worked on getting me to feel like my hips were pushing the horse forward instead of coming down on his back, and on feeling as if my hips were a piece of toast popping out of a toaster, and they were doing all the work instead of my shoulders.  I quickly learned that if I didn't stay in the correct position with my hips underneath me and my shoulders up, I couldn't post from my hips.  Ding!  Lesson learned.  Hips, heel shoulder in a straight line, but not in a bent over straight line like in hunt seat.  Sitting back so far feels like I'm making fun of a western rider, but it's really sitting up straight - it just feels odd to me.

My ankles/feet have been a primary source of concern with how they point out all the time, and when they point out, I'm bracing.  Today I rode in tall boots, which gave me much more ankle flexibility, and I really focused on letting them relax and swing like in the videos of upper level Dressage riders I've seen.  I made significant progress here as a result.

Next we worked on sitting trot, and on feeling like my hips were driving him forward with each step rather than coming down on his back.  It made sense, especially in the context of Dillan's swinging trot.  I can tell we're not moving on from this until I get it totally right, and that makes me happy.  More than anything else, my sitting trot has been a terrible case of using my body in all the wrong ways to get something sort of passable, and I'm happy to finally be working hard at it and picking it apart like this.

We also did some canter work, which felt really wonderful, and drove home the idea of the position change.  When I got it right, the saddle felt better and the motion was so easy to sit.  It just made sense.

The final portion of the lesson was spent driving home the idea that we ride with our outside reins to inside legs.  Yes, the old Dressage mantra.  To over-emphasize this, she had me take up my outside rein, then tied my inside rein in a knot.  She took a short crop and had me hook both thumbs over it so I would get the feeling of the outside hand doing more than the inside, but both of them working together.  Then she had me move him in and out on the lunge circle using only my inside leg and outside rein, even if we were moving in.  It was amazing how something we both worked so hard on but didn't really get last time became so crystal clear in this exercise.

I'm tired and having a hard time keeping this short and coherant, but it was a fantastic lesson with great progress and I'm so excited for next week now.