I had a lesson on Carmen last Sunday. I was pretty sure it wasn't going to happen but then the weather warmed enough to thaw the ring and we could have it. Which makes a grand total of 3 rides this month.
Cordelia appreciates all weather. Here she is playing with a frozen chunk of horse poo
I'm not bitter, you're bitter.
Anyway, it was Carmen's turn and she was overjoyed. Which she showed by being stiff and spooky at the start. We were walking down the long side and she suddenly gave a huge spook and spun away. I could feel her thinking that she was going to build up a head of steam. I turned her into a small circle and said 'not today sweetheart'.
Jane has been honing in on our getting her rhythmic and pushing from her hind end. Carmen is really good at plowing on her front end. I swear that each leg moves at a different rhythm. Which makes me want to hold her. While the holding is good for keeping a lid on things, it really doesn't help with the whole dressage thing.
Jane had me riding her pushing her hind end in and then out. While half-halting and not holding.
you put the haunches in
and you put the haunches out
This helped to get her supple and listening without the big battle. It works too. One thing that has really consolidated this year is being able to actually work on things without having to spend the majority of the lesson working through things.
dramatic mare under dramatic sky
Jane focussed us on half-halts that move the weight back. It turns out that I need to half-halt with my seat and legs and then a little hand. I tend to use mostly hand and take my legs off. Which, of course, dumps her on the front.
But when I got it, I could really feel her shift back and get soft. The trick is to do it every few strides. It was (at least if I'm understanding it correctly) half-halt, soften, half-halt, soften. At no point was I to take my legs off and get grabby. It required me to pay attention to every stride and feel where she was and adapt my aids to keep her with me. Too strong and it shortens everything (and not in a collected way). Too soft and she can string out and lose her rhythm.
holding her just shortens her neck
better
Everything got better and better. It was nice to feel that Carmen could be 'hot' and still be working with me.
I love this
In the end both Carmen and I were tired. But in a good way, not in a phew that was a battle way. I still find her fun to ride. Even when she's complicated. And given that she's 15, I suspect she'll always be complicated, lol.
It's been a while since my post. I've had a few ideas but didn't actually write them. I'm a bad blogger. November has been the Novemberest November in a long time. So much rain or cold. I actually gave up on keeping the horses naked this year and put on blankets. Carmen is happy with this development but Quaid doesn't think he needs it. My problem is that there's been so much rain. Even on days that haven't called for it and they end up wet and cold.
But on Sunday I was able to have the long awaited lesson on Quaid. We started back to some light work once he was almost done with his antibiotics. He's shown zero complications from his most recent anaplasmosis infection. Our rides have been sporadic (see November comment above) but Jane understands and she's really good with working with what we present to her. I just replaced my ancient and failing iPhone 12 with 17 pro and I have to say I love the quality of the video and screen grabs. It also doesn't die half-way through my lesson which is a huge plus. This means I had video for the whole ride!
*almost* square at the halt.
Jane right away got after me to not keeping a steady contact and not using my legs effectively. I've fallen into the habit of 'nudge, nudge, nudge rather than squeezing him. I don't even know I do it. Jane was really after me to stop kicking him! And stop throwing the rein. Keep it steady, ask for straightness and squeeze with my legs to go forward.
Quaid had some feelings about this. He was generally happy about the kicking going away but had zero idea of what to do with me squeezing. And why wasn't I giving him free rein through transitions? Jane was after me to soften but not throw away the contact. Because then he falls on to his front legs and doesn't carry behind.
my handss are uneven here but not looking too bad
In watching the video of the lesson after I realised that I had been really focussed on riding him forward but not recognising when it was simply fast and falling on his front end. But on the good side, I didn't have to push him too much for energy. Now it's about balancing it.
see me kicking here? It's very light but still annoying I'm sure
As to be expected with young horses finding their balance he was would be above the vertical, behind the vertical and perfect. Above was find, behind was not because he was evading contact. The answer, as always, was to half-half and squeeze to get to follow the bit. Also to keep my outside rein steady.
sometimes I held too much and he was not happy. But, can we appreciate my seat in this? lol We had our moment, landed, and carried on.
We did a lot of sitting trot. Far more than I have done on him. It was much easier to sit this time. We practiced transitions with keeping steady contact and they really improved as the lesson progressed.
Overall, Quaid was really really good (picture above notwithstanding) but he had a couple moments where he locked his neck and tried to fling his hind end around. Fortunately, it was really short lived and the answer was to bend him, give him a sec and let him find his way back rather than escalate.
a little BTV but still really nice
I loved how the mini-meltdowns were just blips and we could carry on rather than causing the whole lesson to fall into chaos.
mini melt down. No fences were harmed lol
The progress from the first part of the lesson to the end was marked.
First part of lesson:
Near the end:
He's going to have a lovely lengthen one day. By the end of the lesson I could feel him getting tired so we quickly found a good spot and called it quits. It was one of our best lessons yet. I love how mature he's looking and he's really filled out.
I always have a little sadness when the riding time dwindles with the approach of winter. Rides will get fewer and farther between. But that doesn't mean we can't keep moving forward.
