Now I find myself in the: Wake up, get dressed, go to yard, ride, go to work, come home, muck out, sort ponies out, eat, go to bed, routine. I am sure all horse owners know that routine very well as it's one we all become familiar with during winter. With dark nights there isn't much time to get anything done in an evening so I am trying to shove everything into a morning. However, it does mean I get perfect rides on my boy in a morning where all I can hear is the birds singing. Moments like that are just perfect and remind us all why we do it.Last week I booked myself in for a lesson on Saturday after the riding schools lessons had finished. Ceaser had been going nicely but I was beginning to feel like we were hitting that winter block again, where there isn't many competitions going on and the weather seems to be restricting all we do. Thankfully I have been more on the ball this year and we have managed to keep liveries turnout open. Usually by now we have allocated what we call trash fields, shut most of the fields down and are working on a turnout rota. However after last years long winter we have done all we can to make this years as short as possible and are hoping to just shut fields for one or two days at a time rather than permanently.
The lesson was actually one of the best I have had with Amy. Firstly we worked on our warm up and getting Ceaser supple before we begun to work him harder. Amy commented that he didn't seem to take so long to give and relax which was great to see. Phew - my practising is paying off! I did lots of changes of reins, flexing left and right, circles and serpentines to get him focused and listening.Amy wanted to work on fine tuning our marks this week, so where we are losing out on 8's because of silly things she wanted to sort out. The focus went on Ceaser coming above the bit occasionally during transitions. It didn't happen all of the time, but it happened sometimes and Amy felt we could be aiming at higher scores if we sorted it out. So, she told me I needed to set the bend up in his neck and don't be afraid to hold him a little if he didn't give as he soon would. Then ask for transition, then ride forward and then ask for the bend again for the next transitions whether it is upwards or downwards. It seemed to go really well and from keeping that contact a slight bit more I noticed a huge difference in our transitions by the end.
Next up was some no stirrup work. Amy noticed I don't 'hold' my knees up so much when allowed to let my legs free so we did some no stirrup work which would help keep my legs long and get me more balanced. I don't really want to admit that this was my first time doing no stirrup work in months and after a lot of begging Amy said I could have my stirrups back but the lesson where I wouldn't be allowed any at all was looming as I need it! My walk and canter work without stirrups is fine but it's the trot where I struggle and seem to hold Ceaser back into his bouncy spring like trot, so I need to learn to sit to his bigger trot more and let him go. Easier said than done but I don't doubt I'll be doing it in no time during my lesson!
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| Ceaser's clip! |
the rein in the canter and cantering on the correct lead. I couldn't believe the difference in his counter canter from our first lesson and although improvements are slight I am finally glad to be noticing them. Doing this small exercise really makes a difference in his lift on the correct canter lead and definitely makes him more uphill. All this time I've been told he didn't work uphill and probably never would...and we've mastered it by doing a simple exercise!
Next up was using the corners properly and allowing myself time to prepare for transitions coming up by using them. We trotted down the long side, counted 1, 2, 3 and turned, then trot, counted 1, 2, 3 and turn. It's really hard to explain but a great tool for helping with using corners efficiently and helping to plan what is coming next. The turn then becomes a proper corner and not a circle which in a test gives you that second more to prepare. You have to imagine the words "and turn" are at the exact point you're going around the corner. Try it, it'll make sense.
Amy said we were going to have a look at my medium trot to finish us off as that needed a little work. She said all the movements we had done tonight should have helped him warm up and prepared him for producing a fantastic medium trot. Usually it feels rushed and is quite choppy so as usual I wasn't expecting anything different. We trotted up the long side, counted our corners properly and then Amy asked me to turn across the diagonal, give a little flick with my whip to show him I was asking for more, hold the nice uphill trot and then allow him to go. and.......WOW!!! Which is actually exactly what came out my mouth at the time when Amy asked how it felt. I was speechless. I had no idea all we had been doing had been to set us up for the most perfect medium trot and he had it in him! Coming round again we did it on the next diagonal and again he produced something I had never felt him produce before. "Do you want to do it again?" she said.... "Of course I do!!!" was my reply, and so off we went. Trot up the long side, count my corner "1, 2, 3 and turn, hold, balance, flick with the whip, then ask for the medium..." and he went... simply like a dream! Soon enough it was time to cool down and Ceaser was definitely going to be on the carrot list tonight.
Feeling on cloud 9 I asked Amy if that was definitely worth an 8. "Nope" she said, "there's work to be done yet!"
Oh to be a dressage rider!
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