Another Lesson, Already!

Remember to go back and enter the contest, just a couple more days!

Last night I had another lesson with my new trainer. I texted Kate afterward and said that I wanted to cry, it's been 3.5 years since I had dressage lessons so close together with such an amazing trainer.

As I alluded to in this post, things didn't go as great after the lesson. I actually had a day where I came out and TC was vehemently NOT going to the bridle. Instead, every time I'd put my leg on he'd throw his legs up in the air all fancy like, but it was not rideable. So for the last week, we've been working really hard to get him to stay up to the bridle and it's been MUCH better.

His canter continues to get better

We wandered around a bit before Tanya got there, then went to find her. We discussed the issues with him staying out to the bridle both generally and in the show ring. She said that it takes a while for horses to become more rideable in the show ring, and that he just needs to show more. And at home, I do need to make sure that I am a) not riding him UP all the time, which I am not and b) really insisting that he stay through and into the bridle, which I am. On the same page, great!

I can't quite remember the order of everything in this lesson, so here are some themes:

A More Dynamic Trot
The lesson started out with TC being a bit lazy due to the heat (get used to it, buddy). He was quite behind my leg, so Tanya said to ask him to be a little more dynamic- can I put my leg on and send him forward and then can I half halt and bring him back? I tend to get locked into one trot in the very beginning, but he really needs to start out a bit more ON. I sent him a bit too aggressively and he had a bucking fit, then cantered forward. Mmmkay. We need to work on this.

Once as we had forward, things were much better, we kept playing with the forward and back a bit, just adjusting the trot. She had me ride him slightly lower at first, then we picked him up again, this time really emphasizing that he stay out to the bridle. And it felt great!

The trot really transformed this lesson. Tanya told me to just play with it. Little touch with the whip here, little touch with the leg. Can he get a little more engaged, a little more collected. She had me do a fair amount of forward and back, rocking him back, then adding engagement to the more collected trot, then allowing him to cover more ground in the same balance. It was SUPER cool.


Sitting Trot Adjustments
I told Tanya I was working hard at the sitting trot and she seemed confused. I was REALLY tired last time and have been doubling down on my TRX workouts (trying to do it every day and failing, but doing it at least 4x per week) to help with that. I'm also focusing on bouncing him up rather than pushing him over the ground with my seat.

She kind of dismissed it and said I sat fine, but that I could keep my seat bones further back. I tend to hop them forward and tuck my butt under me, which Alexis had said in my lesson with her last month (so many lessons lately!). I think this is my way of protecting my back injury. So I really thought about elongating my thigh and pushing my seat bones back a bit in the saddle. What this does is allow me to sit the full scope of his gait, which is helpful when I'm asking him for more gait. I found it a lot easier to stay with him when I put my leg on for more trot.

Playing with the trot to get him more engaged and collected

TC's Natural Forces
There are forces running diagonally through TC's body from left to right and from right to left. In all horses, one force is stronger than the other. In TC, it's the left to right force. This is what is causing basically ALL of my problems.

In the trot leg yield right, he falls out the right shoulder and won't stay up to the left rein. In the canter he falls out all the time tracking left and I can't get him as through. In the shoulder-in, it's hard to get the angle going left. He just gets against me when he's not staying up to the left rein. It goes on and on.

To fix this, Tanya said that I needed to do all that I can to get the right to left force to be stronger. We put him in canter left and she had me leg yield him away from my outside leg (so half pass with no bend), keeping the roundness and not letting him get longer. She had me do haunches in to the left to narrow his base. She had me do leg yields to the right but with a little counter flexion like half pass. By the end of all of those exercises, he felt better to the left than he'd ever felt!

I need to fix my left hand but he's staying much more into the
bridle while up there. Still not where I exactly want him but we
are getting close!

Add Power Into Lateral Work
At the end, Tanya put me on a circle and we played with a little shoulder-in on it, occasionally touching him with the whip and spur lightly to get a response - TC needs to become more engaged and more dynamic when I ask him to. We have all the basics necessary to find that fancy trot in the lateral work (and generally), now we just need to finesse it. I was fairly tired from trying to sit the trot at this point, and I at one point said "I feel like I'm going to die... but I love this trot... so I guess I'll die happy"

We also looked at adding power in the leg yields. We tend to get too sideways in them, rather than sweeping forward and sideways. Part of this is that the horse was legit the worst at leg yielding for so long that I schooled them fairly steep. Part of this is just that he really slows down in the lateral work. No more!

She had me come into the leg yield and think more forward like almost a medium, sweeping over the ground, then add the sideways. Then from left to right, thinking about riding him straighter on the right rein while still really pushing him over the ground. What resulted was some really great leg yields! Though man we need to work on that right leg yield, adding more power made it painfully obvious that those forces are working against us. She gave us some great exercises for that so we'll be focusing on that this week leading up to the show.

Asking for a little forward in the trot (and trying not to fly off
the back of him)

It was such a great lesson. I feel much more confident in the direction we're heading than I did last time. It feels 100% like I'm developing a real live FEI horse. All of the little things feel so much more like preparation for the higher levels, not just the one we're at now. Every time I have a lesson with her (all two times) I walk away thinking that I have something really special on my hands with this horse, she seems to have fun teaching us!

I don't know when our next lessons will be since she picks dates by the month. I'm really hoping to get two more lessons in June but hey, we're mobile! I can always haul to her (though she's kind of far so it's easier to just do lessons here). I can't wait to see what a year's worth of twice a month lessons does to both my riding and especially TC's development!