Anyway, moving on swiftly from the topic of my underwear....
I was looking forward to this lesson. We were beginning to actually get somewhere with Ceaser and I had seen a huge improvement in Ziggy from the previous week, so upon waking up I had a spring in my step. Which probably also had something to do with getting 12 hours sleep the night before, but you never know!
As usual we started with Ceaser. The plan was to work on walk to canter transitions this week now that we had started to get some clean trot to canter transitions that we're getting us 7.5's in our tests (BOOM!).
To start with we worked on some nice long and low steps to help warm him up, whilst gradually picking him up and asking him to bend more through. The left rein is always a particular struggle for Ceaser so we tried something different this week. We worked him on a circle at B and slowly asked him to work into the contact, by lifting my inside rein for a few steps and then dropping back down, then lifting, then dropping back down. It really seemed to work much better than instantly asking for the bend, and in asking in stages we didn't have any tantrums from him to show that he was struggling - so that's good, i'm going to keep using this when working at home and warming up at competitions.
For the trot work we asked for some shoulder fore to begin with. This is really good to help the suppleness of a young or stiff horse, and seems to work well for Ceaser when warming up. Since adding this into my warm up plan I've noticed a huge difference in him when it comes to the later work.
Anyway, as before we flip between riding shoulder-fore and shoulder-in. We'll ride shoulder-fore along the short side and shoulder-in down the short side. Not only does this help to get everything supple with Ceaser, but I really feel it helps get the connection and him listening to my aids. Especially when we then add a bit of change and go across the short diagonal, then across the next short diagonal with some leg-yield. Sometimes when I come out I find him to be quite stuffy and resistant to my aids, so this exercise wakes him up and gets him thinking whilst connecting the hind legs to the front so to speak!
We've been working a lot on slowing the trot down, but opening and speeding up the canter. I'm not sure if you remember me saying but my instructor described our canter in my first lesson as always collected. We've been working on opening this up, moving forward and creating more lift from the front to create that impulsion and uphill look.
In all honesty the canter has felt much better since I've allowed Ceaser to go forward more. To help get some clean transitions we've found that if I just open my inside hand and rein slightly then he canters much easier and without dropping the poll, which we were getting a lot previously. Once cantering my instructor told me to move the canter forward immediately, and change between the counter and correct bend, just to get him moving around a little. Once we did that we added some counter-canter and then came across the diagonal again onto the correct lead, and then trotted, straight away focusing on getting the same rhythm in the trot we had previous to cantering.
Once we had warmed up it was time to start and ask for the harder work; the walk to canters. My instructor told me to focus on 10metre circles off the track and then upon hitting the track ask for a canter immediately. The first time not a lot happened in the first three strides, but we still had the forwardness which was good and he did pick up canter afterwards. She noticed I tend to flop into the canter and 'give everything away', so told me to sit up more, help Ceaser's balance with my rein, leg and seat and try again. This time he popped into canter immediately like a doll and did some fantastic transitions. I liked that because she didn't know which is our worst rein for walk to canter transitions she just picked a rein and told me to try it. It just so happens it was my worst rein which I struggle with, but it just goes to show that actually when I put my mind to it, it can happen on both reins despite me thinking it can't.
After doing this on both reins we both felt we had possibly the strongest trot we'd had in all the few weeks I had been having lessons there, so decided to be brave and ask for some medium trot work. Again, after watching some videos of my previous tests, my instructor thinks I have a tendency to get into the medium work, throw the reins at Ceaser and expect him to do some fantastic medium strides - which as we all know isn't going to happen. So to begin with we started with my shortening my reins and creating the feeling I had him between my legs, hands and seat perfectly. Afterwards we gently asked for a few medium strides, then collected him back and then along the long side asked for more. At first I did what I always seem to do and threw the reins at him whilst expecting him to do all the work. Immediately I realised where I had been going wrong all this time now it was explained and focused on keeping him balanced whilst asking for the medium trot down the long side.
Honestly, I think my face said it all at that moment - I couldn't believe what I was feeling. We had power!!! At last! I'll upload the photo Mark took during the trot work, but it doesn't show what we felt, nor what we had. Fingers crossed I can keep that feeling in my test on Friday. So, that was it for Ceaser - he had been a complete star as usual!
*
Next up was Ziggy, that had been an angel all week, up until the previous night when I decided to ride with some kids from the yard and once again we had a spooky pony.
We started by changing his bit into a Neue Schule loose ring snaffle to see if he relaxed more into the contact and stopped the constant chomping. Without jinxing it, he seems to be going much better for now which is good.
At the moment I'm getting really hung up on getting Ziggy into a constant contact and because he can be such a star, it's hard to remember he's only 4 at the end of the day. This week we focused on keeping my hands wide to offer a foundation for the contact and to ensure I had him at the end of my rein all the time, but without pulling him in the mouth. It's so different to how we're now expecting Ceaser to work, so to come off one pony where you're trying to do the complete polar opposite and then get on one you need to its quite confusing.
My instructor told me to focus a lot on my position and keeping ziggy moving forward, forgetting the contact and how pretty everything looked, as well as his spooking - if there was any!
From the beginning he was much easier as he had been the previous week and felt a lot more willing, with much less spooks. Whilst before I've been making an issue of spooks, my instructor wanted me to just ride forward and positive - even if we had spooks. It's really difficult for me not to get hung up on the spooks as I feel like we're never getting over the monsters outside the arena and so on, but actually when I make less fuss of a spook, he doesn't bother again - so maybe it doesn't have something to do with trying it on? Who knows.
It is safe to say I was considerably exhausted after both lessons but am really looking forward to putting all we worked on into practice! I'm enjoying varying Ziggy's work to ensure he doesn't become stuffy, but it's scary just how big he can jump!
For the trot work we asked for some shoulder fore to begin with. This is really good to help the suppleness of a young or stiff horse, and seems to work well for Ceaser when warming up. Since adding this into my warm up plan I've noticed a huge difference in him when it comes to the later work.
Anyway, as before we flip between riding shoulder-fore and shoulder-in. We'll ride shoulder-fore along the short side and shoulder-in down the short side. Not only does this help to get everything supple with Ceaser, but I really feel it helps get the connection and him listening to my aids. Especially when we then add a bit of change and go across the short diagonal, then across the next short diagonal with some leg-yield. Sometimes when I come out I find him to be quite stuffy and resistant to my aids, so this exercise wakes him up and gets him thinking whilst connecting the hind legs to the front so to speak!
We've been working a lot on slowing the trot down, but opening and speeding up the canter. I'm not sure if you remember me saying but my instructor described our canter in my first lesson as always collected. We've been working on opening this up, moving forward and creating more lift from the front to create that impulsion and uphill look.
In all honesty the canter has felt much better since I've allowed Ceaser to go forward more. To help get some clean transitions we've found that if I just open my inside hand and rein slightly then he canters much easier and without dropping the poll, which we were getting a lot previously. Once cantering my instructor told me to move the canter forward immediately, and change between the counter and correct bend, just to get him moving around a little. Once we did that we added some counter-canter and then came across the diagonal again onto the correct lead, and then trotted, straight away focusing on getting the same rhythm in the trot we had previous to cantering.
Once we had warmed up it was time to start and ask for the harder work; the walk to canters. My instructor told me to focus on 10metre circles off the track and then upon hitting the track ask for a canter immediately. The first time not a lot happened in the first three strides, but we still had the forwardness which was good and he did pick up canter afterwards. She noticed I tend to flop into the canter and 'give everything away', so told me to sit up more, help Ceaser's balance with my rein, leg and seat and try again. This time he popped into canter immediately like a doll and did some fantastic transitions. I liked that because she didn't know which is our worst rein for walk to canter transitions she just picked a rein and told me to try it. It just so happens it was my worst rein which I struggle with, but it just goes to show that actually when I put my mind to it, it can happen on both reins despite me thinking it can't.
After doing this on both reins we both felt we had possibly the strongest trot we'd had in all the few weeks I had been having lessons there, so decided to be brave and ask for some medium trot work. Again, after watching some videos of my previous tests, my instructor thinks I have a tendency to get into the medium work, throw the reins at Ceaser and expect him to do some fantastic medium strides - which as we all know isn't going to happen. So to begin with we started with my shortening my reins and creating the feeling I had him between my legs, hands and seat perfectly. Afterwards we gently asked for a few medium strides, then collected him back and then along the long side asked for more. At first I did what I always seem to do and threw the reins at him whilst expecting him to do all the work. Immediately I realised where I had been going wrong all this time now it was explained and focused on keeping him balanced whilst asking for the medium trot down the long side.
Honestly, I think my face said it all at that moment - I couldn't believe what I was feeling. We had power!!! At last! I'll upload the photo Mark took during the trot work, but it doesn't show what we felt, nor what we had. Fingers crossed I can keep that feeling in my test on Friday. So, that was it for Ceaser - he had been a complete star as usual!
*
Next up was Ziggy, that had been an angel all week, up until the previous night when I decided to ride with some kids from the yard and once again we had a spooky pony.We started by changing his bit into a Neue Schule loose ring snaffle to see if he relaxed more into the contact and stopped the constant chomping. Without jinxing it, he seems to be going much better for now which is good.
At the moment I'm getting really hung up on getting Ziggy into a constant contact and because he can be such a star, it's hard to remember he's only 4 at the end of the day. This week we focused on keeping my hands wide to offer a foundation for the contact and to ensure I had him at the end of my rein all the time, but without pulling him in the mouth. It's so different to how we're now expecting Ceaser to work, so to come off one pony where you're trying to do the complete polar opposite and then get on one you need to its quite confusing.
My instructor told me to focus a lot on my position and keeping ziggy moving forward, forgetting the contact and how pretty everything looked, as well as his spooking - if there was any!
From the beginning he was much easier as he had been the previous week and felt a lot more willing, with much less spooks. Whilst before I've been making an issue of spooks, my instructor wanted me to just ride forward and positive - even if we had spooks. It's really difficult for me not to get hung up on the spooks as I feel like we're never getting over the monsters outside the arena and so on, but actually when I make less fuss of a spook, he doesn't bother again - so maybe it doesn't have something to do with trying it on? Who knows.It is safe to say I was considerably exhausted after both lessons but am really looking forward to putting all we worked on into practice! I'm enjoying varying Ziggy's work to ensure he doesn't become stuffy, but it's scary just how big he can jump!
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