Leaving Almostland

Last Saturday Carmen and I had a lesson. Once again I could feel us moving forward. We did most of it on a 20 metre circle and I was to get Carmen forward and bending. Turns out that when she pushes back against my leg I give up and don't carry through with the bend. To paraphrase Jane "you are living in 'almsotland' and I need you to leave it". 

So I sucked it up and worked my tail off to insist on bend. I could definitely feel that it helped and where on the circle Carmen is happy to bend and where she is not (no one will be surprised when I tell you that it's where she can look over the neighbouring field towards the trees).  At one point she gave a little scoot away and Jane said' you've lost the rhythm. Get it back'. I had to laugh (which was probably her intent). 

Not from this lesson but a nice sure halt 
and listening ears

Jane also identified that I tend to grip with my knees which takes my calves off of her sides. To compensate I twist my ankle in weird ways that, funnily enough, does not help things.  And we also worked on my relaxing my *ahem* groin area so it wasn't so tense and popping me out of the saddle. So, as per usual it was a great lesson, I learned a lot and was exhausted and happy at the end. So was Carmen. As soon as I dropped the rein she marched up to Jane to receive her accolades. It's kinda hilarious. 

I don't know if you can see it here but she's got
her haunches a little to the inside and is not
bending around my leg. 

Then we went on our fun hack. On Monday the fine fall weather had turned into angry autumn weather. All week it rained and blew and was generally miserable. I was okay with that because it also coincided with a very busy work week and it allowed me to rest rather than push myself to ride or feel bad that I couldn't. 

Then I booked a lesson for this Saturday. I wouldn't normally book one so close together but I'm finding that Carmen and I are gaining ground after every lesson that I am hungry for more. I also have her surgery date looming and I want to get as much training in as I can before we have to break. It's hard to predict what the weather will be late November for riding so I'm squeezing in as much as possible. 

I rode Carmen on Friday. She was cranky in the barn but pretty mellow for the ground work. When I mounted she immediately began throwing her shoulders around pretty aggressively and building up to picking a major fight. I could feel her getting ready to launch and she wouldn't even stop by the gate so I could put my crop down.  In the past I would have dismounted and I seriously considered it. But I recalled that none of these things bothered her during the groundwork and it felt like her behaviour to get out of work.****

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 I don't believe that Carmen plans this nor do I think she has evil intent. What I do think is that over the years she has learned that certain behaviours result in less work. I've been actively tackling that for a year and it's so much better. But training is never a straight line and I am not surprised that this surfaces every now and then. 

An oldie but a goodie

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Anyway... instead of dismounting I thought through what Jane would have me do. And I figured it was three main things: 

1. outside rein

2. rhythm (see comment above)

3. bend

So I put her on the 20 metre circle and we focussed on those 3 things. We did figure 8s and small circles in the big circle and I made sure I had her on the outside and bend. When we lost rhythm I corrected. In about 30 minutes she was like butter and we were able to go out and around the ring. I even played with the canter. When I first asked, I slid my outside leg back a bit and she immediately threw her haunches in. I fixed and asked again and same thing. then I remembered how Jane wanted me to ask for canter: have Carmen under me, sit and tighten my upper core. She lifted right into a lovely canter. 

Our lesson was the next morning. IN the barn Carmen was really cranky and I had to correct her a few times and re-establish some boundaries. In my ground work I made sure that I was clear and had clear expectations that she was going to focus and not tune me out. Then I mounted and as we started to walk Jane arrived. 

I filled her in on our 2 rides since our last lesson. And then we went to work. Partway through Julia arrived and took some video for me. We worked on bend and me being softer with my aids but strong as I need them to be. Jane has been having me soften the inside rein to invite her to stretch but not throw it away. We worked a lot on building her trot.  

As always, Jane was very patient with the multiple reputations of outside rein and insisting that Carmen respond to it. Then soften and stop fiddling with your hands.   I can feel how this work is changing us. Even on the ground Carmen is carrying herself differently. 

 

She's not driving into her forehand but lifting up more and more. When she gets tired and as we warm up she do what Jane calls 'rolling over her shoulders and falling. Jane wants us to be able to set back and then , when the hand softens, carry rather than fall forward. 

Our canter work is miles away from where it was. I tighten my upper core and we canter away. I have to be careful to keep asking for bend so her inside hind is under and lifting. It's hard. (Carmen: you're telling me!). Our canter to trot is a lot better. It doesn't take me 3/4 of a circle to get her rhythm back. 

Because she's pushing more she can reach more with her front end and not lose her balance. Near the end Jane asked me to do a half walk pirouette and it was pretty good: 

Then I got over excited and in my head and literally got lost in the next few ones. It doesn't help that Carmen is like 'oh turn around, sure, here, hold my beer' and takes exception to me saying that it's not correct. Especially when I'm screwing up my aids. But we did get one more and ended on that. Carmen was much more happy at the end. I wonder if she missed me last week? 

I am loving this work. It's hard and tiring but I can feel it coming together. I love the hard work because it makes sense and is making us better. I realized that I've stopped hoping she'll be 'good' for the lesson but instead just being excited about it. I think we're almost out of almost land.