Applying the Fire Hose of Information

I returned late Sunday night from the L program. I was not in a good place physically, and honestly not all that good mentally either. What I thought might be allergies all weekend turned into a full on unpleasant cold at the PHX airport as I waited for my late flight to take off. As I flew my ears started to hurt and I was so miserable the rest of the night. 

I worked from home on Monday to save my coworkers from my illness and so I got to ride TC for a normal amount of time. I did feel better that day and at this point, I just have a lingering cough. 

Absolutely bursting from knowledge over the weekend, I actually did manage to have a good ride without completely flinging myself off our pathway. I rode in the covered arena and there were things that I really liked and things that I realized were going on that I hadn't noticed before. 

Best pony

New realizations:

TC doesn't want to connect to the left rein, but I think he is connected because I pull on it so much. I started to really notice when he was connected vs when I was just filling in the gap in the connection by taking back on the rein.  

TC's lazy leg isn't his left hind, it's his right hind. It doesn't want to push as much and so it pops off the ground early. At the program, the instructor REALLY emphasized the need for two even hind legs (crookedness is apparent in all movements, so I'm basically giving away a point per movement, that's 10%!). I've known that TC has that unevenness in his pushing, but this is where it really needs to start going away. 

LOOK AT THIS CAT, he's so cute

All the tiny little bobbles need to go away. It makes a huge difference in each movement AND in the collectives if TC doesn't need bits of communication like a slight wiggle of my inside ring finger or a poke with the spur to keep him on the left rein. A 9 is attainable even for horses who are 7 movers, we just insist on riding too much to earn them. 

Along with that last note, I began to notice all the weird shit I do to keep things together in the harder movements. We are not showing ease of movements in the simple changes or the counter canter. He labors a bit and I move my body around to accommodate him. It's not ideal and I need to continue to build his strength. IMO we're coming into this show with very weak canter work. I'm not expecting more than a 6 on either of those movements. We are weak at this level. I'm choosing to go anyway, and it's not like I'm beating him on a regular basis to get the movements out of him, but this is borderline unfair to him and he's going to get himself a lot of sugar and maybe a trail ride or two next weekend. 

Early morning ride before I left for the program

Tuesday I also got a good ride in and I chose to test ride again. Again, I don't normally test ride this much coming into a show but I really don't know how things are going to go and it's making me nervous. Plus, I haven't had a clean 2-3 yet. 

This time we had a beautiful 2-1! His canter medium was stellar, trot medium was on point, shoulder-in felt free and steady, halt was a bit too close to the rail so hitting it disrupted the rhythm but whatevs, the transitions were all so good, the ten meter circle is easy and fun. My main complaint was that he's anticipating a lot in the walk work and ruining his beautiful walk. So we're going to walk on contact a ton this week. 

We got through the trot tour at 2-3 and through the walk work and I did the stupid thing of thinking "is this going to be our first clean 2-3?" and then he BOLTED down the long side in the canter medium. He just gets so excited about them. 

He got in trouble but we kept going, had a good serpentine and simple change, then bolted in the second serpentine and then bolted coming up centerline. Fun! It was mostly because they were working with a tractor near the arena, so I get it, but still frustrating. 

Pls don't bolt in the medium canter thx

I took him into the covered and checked on the walk pirouettes. They feel slow and sticky but they're solid. I just can't feel his hind legs, remember? So I just have to trust that they're fine and not override them like an idiot. 

Then we cantered a bit and did a ton of counter canter. I don't like over schooling it because of Third level, but I really want this to go well. He was a good boy about it. A few solid simple changes later and we walked a bunch on contact to get him to stop anticipating. Then we were done! 

Generally I love how he's feeling. I'm able to ride the canter in a way I've never experienced on him (at least, not consistently) before. His trot is active and rideable as well. I think Tracey is really onto something and I can't wait to see her after this show and throw everything I've got into transforming his gaits.

Feather-Induced Test-Ruining Leaping

I signed up for the show at the end of this month. I was feeling kind of questionable about it but decided to just do it. I should have tried harder to get into the same show a year ago and show these tests, there's no reason to wait any longer. They just aren't going to ride any better.

Well, they could ride a bit better. We test rode this past weekend and it was fine. It was fine. I mean, we would have been eliminated from the 2-3, which sucks because I honestly think that might be our better test.

Still got time for wandering

The 2-1 rode fine, there's really not much to it. The mediums are on the shorter diagonal, the canter mediums are only 3/4 of the way down the long side, there's no walk pirouettes or canter to walk transitions, and it's just shoulder-in. But at the same time, some of the elements still were tricky, mostly because there aren't a ton of movements to make up for some of our weak stuff. His walk to canter transition just isn't as through as it needs to be, and because we've schooled the simple changes enough, he thinks about doing them during the counter canter pattern.

But generally I was really happy with the test, being a bit easy isn't a problem, but I do believe a clean 2-1 will result in a lower score than a clean 2-3. Not that my horse is a clean-test kind of horse.

The 2-3 is a much better test for us when things go well... His counter canter loop is excellent unless he gets off balance on the right lead and goes to swap in front. I can hold it but it feels slightly precarious at times. Whatever. A fully confirmed counter canter before flying changes can get you stuck at Second level indefinitely. The walk pirouettes ride beautifully, there's something about this horse and that movement, he really has good instincts with them and I can really fuck that movement right up and he just does it. Good boy, earning your keep.

The haunches-in is... well, it exists. He slows down a bit in it and shuffles to get the right amount of angle, but it's fine. The shoulder-in to ten meter circle rides quite well so I'm not too fussed about a weak haunches-in. I feel like Second level is the level where you're just kind of low key bad at everything.

Simple changes feel great, going away from the judge is preferable, although she'll be able to see him get wide behind. Rico didn't have clean simple changes until like... Fourth level. TC's are clean, they just sometimes feel like I'm riding a bag of rocks down a hill.

Sunrise driving to the barn before teaching and working and
teaching some more

Now, the place where we would have gotten eliminated in the 2-3 was OBVIOUSLY the medium canter on the left lead. He exploded a few times in our test riding, which is fine, it's just him. But he saw a feather when we just started the medium canter and then he leapt sideways, landed with the court in between his left and right pairs of legs, then leapt again and we were outside the court.

Ugh. Horse. Seriously. Please keep your fingers crossed for a low-wind day, not that he's afraid of wind, it's that he likes to play with things floating around in the wind.

So we'll see how THAT goes. It's not a big deal to get eliminated, really, I just want to get in the show ring. Ideally we'll like, end our test inside the court with a halt and a salute rather than by jumping out of the ring, but unfortunately this is just who TC is at times. He really has no respect for that tiny fence around the arena (non-horsey SO thought I was weird to be nervous that he'd jump out of the arena "is that really a concern?" I forgot to explain that I'm not worried about him jumping out of the actual arena, just the court).

Remember this bullshit?

But other than that, we're feeling as ready as we can be given that 1) I've been working VERY hard this fall and have been a whiny bitch about it for weeks to the point where it's a miracle if my friends or family don't murder me before the show, 2) I haven't been able to ride TC nearly as long or as much as I would like coming into our first show of the year, and 3) TC is clearly a show jumper who missed his calling and I'm making a bad decision trying to contain his enthusiasm in a tiny sandbox.

I want to test ride a bit more and we have our last lesson with Tracey this weekend (unless it's another shit show lesson and then I'll take a day off work to get one before the show). Then it's just a weekend off of riding for me to start the L program and the following weekend is the show! I am genuinely excited for it, I want to braid him (using Peony's Spot On Braiding Wax, of course!), get all dressed up, brush that damn tail out, and hear how pretty his color is from strangers. It will be fun and I'm managing my expectations score-wise to keep it fun even if we don't get the scores I've been hoping for.

Test Riding at Second Level

Thursday morning I saw that the covered arena had been cleared of jumps/cavallettis and had also been watered and dragged! So that meant one thing: test riding.

We tentatively have a schooling show in early October where I'd ideally like to ride 2-1 and 2-2 to see how they go. We've never ridden 2-2, and my attempts at 2-1 happened last year when he was just baaaarely able to do the test. It was like trying to ride a Fourth level test now except that I couldn't even stuff him through those because he doesn't have half the movements at that level yet.

Random soloshot pictures because I don't have anything current

Anyway, I figured that I should test ride it before I decide to show. So between yesterday and today, we rode all of the Second level tests. Here's a quick rundown of how each went:

Second 1: totally clean except that at the end of the test he exploded for no reason. Cool.
Second 2: totally clean except he thought that he'd do a lead change in the first counter canter, oops.
Second 3: again totally clean except in the first counter canter pattern he broke.

Overall I was super pleased with how easy the tests felt! We definitely have some homework, which I thought would be more interesting to talk about than to run through each test. Here are some of the things I want to really fix up before we have to do this in a show:

The best pony

Sitting the Medium Trot

This horse has a hell of a trot in general, and once you put it over the ground it becomes even more impossible to sit. What I noticed is that while I sit the medium trot just fine even on the long diagonal, I get tired enough where I tend to shut the trot down as we slow down and then it's hard to put him back up in the lateral work.

So I think I need to sit the mediums a lot more (this is news to no one) and focus on how I'm handling things afterward. The medium trot can be used to develop a much better, more cadenced trot, and I should be utilizing it a bit better so that we can come into our lateral work stronger.

I also realized that they set up 2-1 and 2-2 so that you don't have to do that much trot work all at once, but that 2-3 has all your trot work front loaded. I never considered it until I was facing my second medium trot in 2-3 and was like you know, I'm fucking tired.


Counter Canter

Obviously all of our mistakes came in counter canter, so we need to work on that the most. There area  few things going on. TC knows his counter canter, but hasn't been asked to do it in as small of a space.

TC is still learning to stay really up and in front of my leg in the collected canter, so add the counter canter to that and it's really tough. I feel like his canter shuts down a bit in the counter canter still.

The plan is to continue to school the smaller patterns in the dressage court (or in a manufactured one, I think I am going to measure out the big arena) and then also to ride larger counter canter patterns in the big arena focusing on the quality of the canter. Hopefully the two will collide and I'll be able to maintain the quality of the canter on the smaller figures.

This was from before Tanya had me bring him up

Simple Changes

The simple changes are foot perfect when I'm practicing them, but like everything, they get worse in a test environment. This is because I'll go to put him in the very collected canter and he'll get a bit slow, or he'll prop a bit, or he'll lose depth of his inside hind, and when I'm just in practice, I will push him out of it and try again. In a test I just walk from there. The transitions are clean, but that's not what an 8 simple change feels like!

The upwards are fine, but he needs confidence, he only feels confident in the upwards if I kiss at the same time as asking, so I'm going to be doing a lot more of those.


Turns on the Haunches

These are pretty damn good but I'm struggling a little bit to ride them as turns on the haunches vs walk pirouettes. Meaning I have not a lot of control over the size of them. I think my goal over the next few weeks is going to be to just put a damn good walk pirouette on him and forget about it.

Yep too downhill here

Overall I'm super pleased with how the tests rode! I don't think that it's so far out of our wheelhouse to think that we'd be okay at this schooling show. I think we're good to go for 2-1 and 2-2 in a couple of weeks and then we miiiight go to a rated show at the end of October and do 1-3 and 2-1. I don't think I want to risk too much counter canter in the rated ring just yet.

A Closer Look: Second Level

Ah the dreaded Second level is the topic of this continuation of my exploration of the dressage levels.

I actually like Second level well enough, but like everyone else, I'm always itching to get to Third from this level be it on my own or with students. Second is hard for a few reasons, let's go through them!

Travers

You can just see me wanting to leap off and run away 

Purpose of the Levels

To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, and having achieved the thrust required in First Level, now accepts more weight on the hindquarters (collection); moves with an uphill tendency, especially in the medium gaits; and is reliably on the bit. A greater degree of straightness, bending, suppleness, throughness, balance, and self-carriage is required than at First Level. 

There's a lot here. But I want to point out a few things- they finally say the horse should be reliably on the bit, implying that First level lets a horse get away with being slightly unsteady at times. It's not saying you can run around off the bit at First and getting a 70, but they won't ding you as hard I guess. That's not been my experience with judging and training though.

Collection, in my opinion, is the key theme here. And they say especially in the medium gaits. Sure you can get away with riding what would be acceptable at First as a lengthening at Second, and you'll probably still get a 6, but the medium gaits are important. Especially as the extended gaits start showing up at Third.

You can tell that I'm really struggling with connection at this point

Look at that, Rico tipping too, he still does that

Second 1

Depending on your strengths (counter canter vs simple changes), you may hate this test or love it. Generally, for a Second level test, it's pretty friendly. There are none of the harder technical movements (no haunches-in or turn on the haunches, only the friendliest kind of counter canter pattern).

The trot pattern is nice and simple- a medium across the diagonal and then shoulder-in for half the long side, ride across the ring, and shoulder-in again. This gets people wiggling, but that across the middle bit you did in First 3 should set you up well for this. This is your first halt with rein back, and yay they threw it right in front of the judge! That's a bit mean. But with this pattern, it's the only place they can have you walk out of it, so I understand.

The canter is complicated, but the 1-3 was fairly complicated too. Some people hate the 2-1 pattern because you pick up your canter at F and immediately you're walking after the first half circle of the serpentine. I think it's a great movement for a strong horse but a terrible movement for a lazy horse. It would have been challenging on Rico, but I'm glad for this on TC (though they will probably change it by the time we make it there). The counter canter is minimal, it's just going across the short diagonal to either a long simple change (walking in the corner, canter at C) or a trot transition. I think this pattern is kind of easier than the 1-3 loop, again depending on the state of the simple changes.

Coefficients are both shoulder-ins, the halt and rein back, and the free walk.

Oh hey look, I used to tip right. Progress. Because now I tip left.

Forgot my gloves at this show, so dumb. You can already see
that at Second, I'm struggling to get him off his underneck.

Second 2

This is a decent test. It once again starts with the medium (get used to that) and then you have shoulder-in, two ten meter half circles to get you across the arena, and then haunches-in. It's a good pattern. It sets you up exceedingly well for Third 3, which has those half circles following a shoulder-in as well (but ending in a half pass, which is related to haunches-in).

The walk pattern includes turns on the haunches for the first time! These can end up being hilariously bad. I should write something about those... They put them on the line between H and M, which is good. On the rail, it's harder to do enormous ones and stay on your line, in this pattern (which persists through at least PSG) you can see lots of people do their half turn and then half pass or leg yield or just turn back onto their line. Doesn't mess you up too much.

The canter is an entire half circle in counter canter to a simple change. This can be rough- to simple change out of counter canter. I much prefer to simple change into counter canter, but that adds a level of difficulty as well, so there's really no winning if they were to change it to suit my needs.

Coefficients are both haunches-in, both turns on the haunches, the free walk, and the last medium trot before centerline. I find that last coefficient interesting. I think it's because that movement is a good test of whether the horse is truly uphill, where they can remain so throughout such a long test. Cool. Not cool if you want to ride it, but cool from an observer's stand point.

Derping along in a turn on the haunches, what the fuck am I looking at?

So wide behind omg. It would be 7 years before we got good ones

Second 3

I like this test.

The trot work is nice, arguably easier than Second 2 since the 10m circle sets you up really nicely both out of shoulder-in and into haunches-in. That 10m half circle wiggly thing can be really tough. Once again your halt and rein back appears in front of the judge, I guess that's just something that you do now.

The counter canter serpentine shows up at this test. Again it's just preference, I find it fine, I like that movement a lot. Much better than the Second 2 counter canter pattern because again I find it tricky to do simple changes from counter canter. The simple changes instead show up across a short diagonal after a ten meter canter circle (a very similar pattern to 3-1). I like that a lot, even though you have to put them exactly over the middle with no rail to help you and they're sort of more on display.

Coefficients are both walk pirouettes, both counter canter serpentines, both simple changes, and the free walk. This means that your canter work is suddenly worth a LOT more. Look at 2-1 and 2-2, at least half the coefficients are in trot. Here? More than half are in canter. Gotta get to it.

I'll be honest, I had a student skip 2-2 last spring. I just don't like the trot pattern this early on (she's doing 3-3 now and it's much easier) and the horse's simple changes out of counter canter were questionable. So she did 2-1 and 2-3.

Breathe, it's only second level. Wait, no, panic.

I used to ride so good guys

Overall

Second level gets a bad rap because it's just hard enough to be annoying and frustrating but arguably not so hard that it's fun and impressive. But the level is important and mastering the movements are part of learning the basics of dressage.

It's really apparent when you look at Third and Fourth level. You're asked for flying changes and half pass at Third, tempis and canter pirouettes at Fourth. The counter canter and simple changes are essential for flying changes (and tempis), the haunches-in and some of the patterns (10m circle and the half circles) is essential for the half pass patterns, and the turns on the haunches prepare for walk and canter pirouettes. Mastering the level is essential if you want to produce a rideable horse for Third and Fourth.

Struggling through some mediums

I think the hardest part of this level is that First level (especially 1-1 and 1-2) is an easy enough level for many different types of horses and for riders who are maybe not as serious. It's quite accessible. Second tests a lot of things: the quality of your own basics as a rider (such as sitting trot, ability to half halt), the dedication of the rider (can't really get there if you aren't riding regularly), the quality of the trainer (lots of trainers can get people to First, but Second is a different ball game), and, yes unfortunately, the quality of the horse. Some horses are just going to find this work easier than others, which takes a lot of the pressure off of the quality of the rider and the quality of the training.

But who doesn't like a challenge?