Riding TC this last year and a half (minus the 7 months he was on rehab) has been really fun since it's the first time I've taken all that I learned on Rico and applied it to a horse who I have complete control over and who I essentially started from the beginning. My clients have benefited from the countless lessons I took on Rico, and obviously Rico and I got better, but being able to take that knowledge and apply it to TC has been really great.
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| Goal: get this trot all the time |
I'm starting with a really good horse (I fully admit to my own biases about him though, he's not that good of a horse). He surprises me sometimes in his willingness to respond positively to pressure, his work ethic, and how quickly he learns. I have access to a good young horse trainer who is helping me with some of the behavioral issues that we've run into. But I'm the only one doing dressage training on him, I'm setting those goals and directing his training on my own.
I figured for today, I'd write down some of the philosophies that I'm trying really hard to maintain with TC to make sure that I don't run into any bumps along the road later on. These really help me direct his progress and they're things I think about every day.
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| Such a fun horse |
1) Basics first, then movements
Every day we work on the basics for at least half the ride, if not the entire ride. Connection, straightness, and engagement are always on my mind with him.
TC's connection issues tend to be curling and retraction in the neck, something I knew just by seeing his conformation before I even got on him. Every single day without fail I get him to a place where I eliminate those two issues before we move into anything else- most days he comes out not even offering those behaviors (except when I put the terrible no good flash noseband on him). But I still spend a bit of time getting him feeling electric in the connection even if he comes out pretty good. I want him to expect to work on that at the beginning of each ride.
Straightness is a huge part of our rides, sometimes the only part after connection. We do a lot of square turns and spiraling in and out. I want him perfectly straight before I start working on any movements, since if you come into a movement crooked, how is adding any sort of pressure going to help with straightness?
Engagement and the beginning of collection both are new to him, and we work on this after straightness. It's hard for him to tuck his butt under him and engage his hind legs, and I know that collection is going to be a doozy. I won't be putting piaffe or passage on him for at least a year, but making sure that I can influence the engagement with my aids is really important right now if I want those movements to come on with ease. Sometimes that's our whole ride- riding on large figures working on connection, straightness, and engagement. That's it.
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| Looking good, little horse |
2) Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
I want the movements to be easy for TC. I want his job to be easy. It was never easy for Rico because I didn't set him up for success in that way. He struggled with the movements, the collection, the straightness. He struggled with his work ethic and his confidence in me.
This means two things for TC: mental and physical fitness/training. Mentally, I want to instill confidence in him by never overfacing him with a movement, even if he wouldn't be overfaced physically. TC's body is capable of so much more than his brain right now. He doesn't panic or get frustrated by anything, but just because I haven't seen it yet, doesn't mean that he'll forever be immune to those feelings. I'm not about to push his lengthenings yet, or start sitting the trot all the time, or dump movements on him left and right. I mean I could. He'd probably be fine, I could probably push him much faster. But too much too soon means that I'm constantly telling him that he's wrong, and that destroys confidence and work ethic. And those side effects don't happen instantaneously, it has to be a pattern (vs one day of pushing him when he's being a shit) and by the time I start noticing it, it might be very hard to reverse.
Physically, I want to feel like he is strong enough to do his job easily. Working a horse through physical resistance is key to training, of course, but I want to keep in mind his physical abilities. Are we working through resistance that is occurring because I'm challenging the way he's used to going or because it's hard? Or are we working through resistance that is occurring because he's currently physically incapable of performing what I'm asking? In the long run, the stronger, fitter, and more coordinated he gets, the easier it will be to work through resistance, so taking my time to lay down the muscle (erm, he has a better topline than several FEI horses I know) will mean less resistance throughout his education.
By assuring that 90% of everything that I ask of TC is not only well within his mental and physical abilities, but downright easy for him, I'm instilling confidence in him. And that's super important IMO. I want him to be confident not only because he's a naturally confident horse (because he is not), but because he can trust me 100% of the time to never ever ask anything of him that he can't do in his sleep. And if he's confident that he can always do what I ask him to, his work ethic will stay strong so then later when I'm asking him to do something that's actually difficult (since he won't struggle with very much until we hit pirouettes), I'll have his trust completely. And in the show ring he'll carry a lot more presence with him than if I knocked him down several pegs with work that he struggled to do. Although he does need to be knocked down sometimes...
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| Go TC! |
In a rather related point, I want TC to be exceptionally easy to ride for a rider. And this means making sure that I always find neutral on him. A movement is not confirmed until the only pressure that is put on him is the pressure of the aid I'm using to communicate that he should do the movement. I will not feel like his leg yield is confirmed until I can get it by putting my inside leg on alone. Not holding his shoulder or holding his face or shoving my seat or opening a rein. No. Just one aid. This requires self carriage, something that I'm downright obsessed with in this horse.
I worked tirelessly the first year with TC to make sure that he wanted to be into the bridle and on the contact at all times. We didn't think about self carriage until I knew, without a doubt, that every single day I could get him to a place where he was connected, through, even on both reins, and willing to stay that way without any influence from me. So now one of our biggest focuses is self carriage, not only in the bridle (he's quite light even when he's "heavy" on the contact so that's never really something I think about), but in his body.
I want him to go around completely through and soft and steady without any rider influence. No rein tugging, seat shoving, leg wiggling, or any other sort of begging, pleading, holding, praying, etc. I stay in neutral and he defaults to throughness and connection. This is absolutely necessary as you move up to the FEI levels. I made it through Fourth holding Rico together, but the last thing I want to be thinking about as I start down centerline for my pirouettes at Grand Prix is whether my horse is forward, through, connected, or straight. All I want to be thinking is OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT, because after riding that pattern countless times, I know that that's all I'm capable of thinking through the entirety of the FEI tests.
This obviously means a lot of work on my part because it's a lot easier to do SOMETHING than it is to do NOTHING. Getting out of this horse's way is the key to him relaxing and doing his job. I ride him in much the same way I would ride a schoolmaster, because how is he ever going to be one if no one treats him that way?
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| Needs some work, but coming along |
But for now, I just want to be able to canter in a straight line without feeling like I'm herding cats.
