First Lesson!

Last night I had my first lesson with the trainer the UW equestrian team is working with, Deb. And it was amazing. I haven't really experienced what a real trainer should be like (because I may or may not have ridden with a crappy one my whole life) and she was really an ideal one. She pointed out flaws, explained the corrections she wanted you to make, and overall was the epitome of constructive criticism. Nothing she explained was necessarily incredibly new news to me, but it was all stuff I was rusty on (like.. a lot..) and needed to be pushed on. She also walked us all through some concepts that I knew in practice but not in theory, which was really cool.

Another girl from the team, not me, but this is Mr. Ducati!

I rode an adorable old man horse named Ducati, which is kind of an awesome name. He reminded me of Brownie in a lot of ways, the first being the droopy lower lip that just hangs because why not. He required A LOT of leg (more than I have, and getting him in a frame was something I gave up on at the walk because I just don't have the leg for it), had a big swinging bouncy trot, and a rolling canter that he got strung out through very easily.

Biggest things pointed out that I need to work on: I ride like a dressage rider with my seat, so I need to close my hip angle more and sit on my seat bones for hunt seat. I need to keep my hands up and reins short so they don't get in my lap. Even if I'm not riding in a frame keep my horse upright and pulled together with a more upright hand. Keep hands together! I spread them out way too much.

We did some trot and canter lengthening and then collection, which was actually surprisingly difficult although it seems to basic. Ducati was willing enough to move forward, but he would get heavy on his forehand and strung out and required me to pick up him and add leg to get an actual decent canter lengthening. He was super sensitive when I sat down for collection, but I had to keep keep keep that leg on because he definitely transitioned downward a couple times instead of just collecting.. oops!

We worked on going over a little crosspole on a trot circle to finish up. This was surprisingly difficult, as everything I ever learned flew out the window and I probably looked quite foolish. The first time around I was so focused on just keeping Ducati forward enough to actually get over the jump that I forgot about everything else (ie turning) and we almost ran into the wall afterwards. Oops. It took a couple more tries before I was able to split my attention between keeping enough impulsion and actually focusing on where we were going. Once Deb got after me about not keeping his bend through the circle I got my act together. Oh, you mean that if I make him bend to the left and then look left before and over the jump he'll go left afterwards? Okay!

I think most of it is me being on a completely new horse and not really having any idea what kind of ride it needs. But it's good that I'm getting this practice, because that's what happens at IHSA shows and I need to be able to look pretty while riding a new and potentially difficult horse. I'm really going to have to get my act into gear and strengthen up these legs though, because man all these other horses are just destroying me. After cantering around and then coming into the center while Deb focused on one of the other girls I made a remark to the assistant trainer about how I didn't have enough leg for this. And then she said, "Has it been a while since you rode last?". Yeah.. about 24 hours. Talk about embarrassing.

Let's Bounce!

Yesterday was a pleasantly chilly day, in that I wore three layers of clothes and did not take them off to ride. It was gratefully sunny all day so I didn't have to worry about riding in the rain, since Rush has taken a disliking to the indoor ring and every time I ride in there it turns out.. interesting.. to say the least.

I was really pleased with how our ride went; I feel like we made some good progress and worked through some things. I have a tendency of avoiding problems and ignoring them instead of working through them because working through them is boring and takes patience, but I've gotten better at making myself slow things down and focus on getting her to respond well regardless of what we're actually doing. In this case she got a little hyped up cantering and was very tense trying to anticipate my canter cues, so we slowed things down and worked on her waiting for my actual cues at the walk and trot, then worked back up to the canter.

I did some no-stirrup work at the beginning of the ride, as per No Stirrup November, and my legs are still pretty pathetic but I think I'm getting better. Usually I do posting trot without stirrups to warm her up without asking anything demanding so I can focus on myself. This time I interspersed it with sitting trot whenever I thought I couldn't post anymore, and really focused on staying centered. I don't usually take the time to catalog where my body weight is shifting but noting all my imbalances and trying to fix them was a super cool feeling and I'm definitely going to start coaching myself more through my rides.

I didn't want to do too much jumping because I didn't have much time to cool her down, so we went through a little gymnastic set up at the bottom of the ring. It was a bounce of a pole to an xrail to a low vertical. The first few times we went through she was a speed demon and it took her a long time to settle after running through but she progressively slowed down and came back faster until I was really satisfied with how she was going through it. We ran through a couple times after that so I could focus on me; I really aimed for staying soft and upright up to the first jump, then staying up and out of her way over the bounce, and gathering myself and her back quickly afterwards. All in all I'm really proud her and I think we're figuring out the whole bounce thing!

First Frost

The girl who usually drives me out of the barn on the weekends flew home for her birthday, and it's a three day weekend and I couldn't justify not going to see my pony so I reserved a zipcar for this morning (and tomorrow morning!). I was a little apprehensive about driving cause the roads around here can be kinda crazy and confusing and I haven't driven in a while so I'm a bit rusty, but it was early enough in the morning that there was pretty much no traffic and it was a lovely drive and made me realize I actually really miss driving! It's super relaxing and also coincidentally the only time I can crank up the music obnoxiously loud and sing in my incredibly horrific voice without worrying that I'm bothering other people (re: anybody who lives on my floor because these walls are paper thin).

It was actually ridiculously cold this morning and I'm really glad I put on a last-minute third layer before going out, because I definitely needed it! I usually take off my layers while riding because I get too hot, but I kept everything on today and then some and was still a little frozen by the end. There was frost EVERYWHERE and even some icicles hanging off of jumps! This was my first riding experience in actual coldness and I have a lot to learn, like how to tack up without killing my fingers on cold metal.

Anywho, I ended up taking Rush out on a trail to warm up at the walk cause I actually had time to explore. It ended up being a really long gravelly road that crossed actual roads through some housing developments, so not really the type of trail I'd typically choose, but now I know what's down that direction and can explore the others.. which reminds me, I need to do some aerial recon to hopefully figure out the trail system a bit better. She was a little spooky at the road crossings, but it was just balkiness and some looking and nothing worse than that and we worked through it with some firm squeezes and maybe some teasing about scary landscaping rocks.

We probably trailed for a little under half an hour and then came back to the outdoor arena to get some real work done. I got some nice consistent trotting in, where she was solid and steady in the bridle instead of ducking under it like she's prone to do when she has energy. She started off a little fast and hollow but relaxed after I did some wacky patterns and serpentines to get her listening a little better.

There was a crosspole line set up down one side of the ring, and since I'm focusing on slow and consistent solid jumping I took her through the line at the trot a couple times before cantering. She was a trooper at the trot and didn't pull any shenanigans, although I did need to straighten her out a couple times. I really focused on pulling her together after each jump, since my bad habit is to throw everything away after a jump and praise her for just getting over it. I have to keep reminding myself that this is BAD and she needs to know that just jumping it isn't enough anymore, she has to keep listening afterwards.

Anyways, we trotted through it each direction a few times then cantered through it both ways. She was super responsive about waiting for the short spots and slowing down through the line. I have to be careful about asking for a longer spot because she shoots off after the jump. The first few times through cantering were a little iffy but each time through we focused on refining one more aspect (first time: wait for the short spot, second time: stay straight through the line, third time: stay slow after the second jump) and at the end she was cruising through pretty well :)

At this point I decided to make it more 'course like' and did some continuous jumping at the canter to work on staying in one rhythm without freaking out after each jump. She did pretty well until I asked her for a long spot over a downhill jump and then we became a freight train, but after I halted and made her turn around, trot over it, then canter back down in she settled back down. This is actually kinda huge because usually when she gets in trouble for something she freaks out and gets really hollow and anxious and ignored everything, so us being able to work through that was awesome.

I'm definitely going to start working on lead changes, but I have to figure out a plan of attack for them before I start because last time things didn't go too well and I ended up creating another problem even though she did start executing lead changes.