For those who are avid readers of my blog will already know I try to go for a lesson with Tracey Woodhead over in Grimsby at least once a month. It's great to get feedback from both her and Amy about Ceaser and I and get an insight into different tips on how to get the very best from him. Quite honestly they both usually say the same, which is always a good thing!
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| Before - warming up |
Tracey was running slightly behind schedule so she told us to go for a walk around the park and have a think about what I wanted to go through. I already knew what I wanted to work on and was really looking forward to telling her about our recent scores at Novice which she had encouraged me to go out and do.
As usual she told me to do a quick, simple warm up and then tell her what aims I had for the lesson. I explained I wanted to get the understanding and feeling of Ceaser working more uphill. Whilst I know what I'm looking for I am so used to him not working like that for all these years, that I wanted to know just when he was right and what it felt like. I also explained that Amy wanted me to go and do an Elementary soon, so I wanted to prepare for this.
Tracey said she had noticed Ceaser has a tendency to not use his right hind like he does his left and we needed to correct this. She also said I was slouching a little and my left arm (we call it my spazzy hand at home!) sticks out - something I hadn't noticed until now! She also thinks with his right hind and my left arm it's causing him to nod a little which is losing us marks occasionally. She said once he works correctly, I sit evenly and his right is working correctly and underneath him he stops nodding.
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| After - the difference is amazing! |
Like Amy, Tracey feels lots of counter canter will help him and once I have done this the medium trot feels much more powerful. Once Tracey had got us just where she wanted us she asked me to try lengthening and shortening his strides so asking for the medium, then back to collected. I couldn't believe the medium trot after this and the power I felt I had underneath me. I didn't realise some simple exercised like Tracey had been getting us to do could benefit his medium so much! What a difference!All too soon the session was over again and Tracey commented on how well he looks and encouraged me to follow Amy's advice of doing an Elementary as there is no reason he couldn't be scoring 8's looking at the work he had done today. Although, more importantly she said "Do you know what Sian, he really loves his job". Which to me, is a comment worth a thousand "He could score 8's."
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Sunday saw Mark and I moaning again as our alarms went off at 7am. This time it was to go competing and probably wasn't the best idea after two lessons the day before. My whole body screamed in pain as I got out of bed!
I was booked in to do Prelim 19 and Novice 38, two long arena tests. Ideally I needed to get a good Prelim score as so far to date my Novices have been by far better than my Prelims - how that works I don't know, but I'm not complaining!
Sadly, I didn't feel quite up to it and I think this really reflected in my riding. I was tired, achey, felt run down and which ever leg I moved screamed at me that it hurt and Ceaser didn't quite feel as supple as he did the day before - so I am sure he ached too! However, he did an obedient Prelim 19 test and it was accurate, not rushed, steady and although he was slow off my leg at one canter transition he was great. Sadly the judge didn't think so and gave him a rather harsh 65% which just didn't figure as it rode much nicer than that.With a long break until our next test, Novice 38 I decided to take some tablets, have some food and try to liven myself up a little. I toyed with going home as it felt like both of us were just not up to it, but I am not one for giving up, so I carried on. Wanting to give us a fairer chance for this test I popped the massage pad on full for 30 minutes and then got on an hour before our time and allowed him to do 20 minutes walking on a long rein to loosen up. This seemed to help and he felt much better than he had in the morning. However everything I had gone through in my lesson on him the day before and the lesson I had on Amy's horse in the afternoon was just going round and around in my head and I was over thinking things far too much.
Our time came for Novice and I was determined to ride a nice test. His counter canter was spot on and his mediums felt fantastic - much better than what they did a mere 6 months ago. Everything was accurate and spot on from what I could tell. I did make a slight silly rider error and circled near E rather than at V so I did a rather large 15 metre circle. However (and this leaves a lot to consider about what the judges thought to us yesterday) oddly enough on my test it said "Circle too small". I have no idea where she was looking but it was too big and not in the right place, but still…. I say no more!
Anyway, we were given a fair 67% for this and although it wasn't the 68% we gained in our last Novice test I thought it was fair. I think potentially where I wouldn't class the day as a bad day, I just don't think my heart was in it as much as it should have been as I just didn't feel all too well. The venue kindly gave me my test sheet back and I said I would check for my placings later on in the evening. I took Ceaser home, gave him a brush down, put him to bed, fed etc and then was in bed myself by 4pm and woke up at 7 ready for dinner feeling slightly better. I think I just needed some sleep and probably exhausted myself the day before.
So, the plan now is to go out again this weekend and try to not over think things before I get on. I am working Saturday so I will not have the chance to ride the day before, which probably isn't a bad thing. I just now can't decide whether to do a Novice and an Elementary or two Novices. Maybe because my Novice scores are better than Prelims, I should try that Elementary after all…. I will let you know!
Great blog yyou have
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