Willig and I had a much more ... show-and-tell jump lesson last week.
Shannon started us with a gymnastic, which was really cool.
There was a ground pole 9' away from the plastic blocks (that I think make a 2' vertical) as a cross-rail. You head into it from a trot.
Then it's 18' to a low vertical (probably 2' - I haven't measured, but it's small).
Then 9' plus a roll to another ground pole.
That's how you start: pole, cross rail, vertical, pole.
Then you add from the vertical, 21' to an oxer, but start it as a vertical, and then add the second pole for the oxer after you've done it a few times.
So it's: pole, cross rail, vertical, pole, oxer.
Willig did it just gorgeous over and over. What we worked on was me not jumping ahead, steering him through with my legs, planting my hands about 5 strides out on his neck and pushing against them, and keeping him moving forward and through. This was all much harder than it sounds.
After we did this several times and he was just great (he did one little half-assed head shaking buck at the end of one line), Shannon set up a course for him.
And this is where he gave her a full-on example of how he is naughty.
We came off the gymnastic, had a big wide left hand turn, and had plenty of space to approach the fence and see it coming.
And even though he's jumped that particular fence at least 20 times, he decided to run out to the left, buck, and do the little "whee!" with his front legs.
My reaction time was too slow, so he got away with all that, I didn't yell at him, AND I was getting ready to stop him, but Shannon had us canter on a smallish circle several laps, then move the canter circle out, then jump a little cross rail a few times each direction.
And then Willig panted and was tired.
Then we did the gymnastic line again, and then the course.
Willig gets a bit - headstrong - it feels like rushing to me, but Shannon says it's not, but he is kind of strung out.
So our homework before the next lesson is to work the course, a figure 8, whatever, over and over and over again until he is bored with it, and to work in between fences on control, and to work on the flat on me speeding him up and slowing him down at will.
And to continue using the super fun and fabulous gymnastic to work on my position.
It was kind of frustrating - he had been doing so well on the gymnastic that I did not see or feel the naughtiness coming at all, and then I spent the rest of the lesson not trusting him and having to really work at sitting up and riding into him instead of curling up into a scared little ball.
Shannon's other tips were to growl and, if possible, smack, at the first sign of naughtiness, to make it harder work to be naughty than to just jump the fence already, and to not lose contact with my outside rein on circles.
Of course, I probably threw all this to the wind with our poodle follow up the next time I tried to ride him. We'll see how he does next time, I guess.
Shannon says our next lesson will be on condensing his body - instead of the 9' to the fence, make it 7' or so, and he'll have to learn to squish his body up instead of spread it out. She said it helped a lot with one of her horses.
Charlie with the long sought after cooler
Spring NWEC 2013 Novice
Monday, July 20, 2009
Gory picture alert - don't look if you can't stand blood!
I gashed my elbow yesterday falling off of Willig.
The short version of the story is that I was working him on the gymnastic exercise from my lesson (which will be the next posting), and the new neighbors on the other side of the arena were standing in their yard, drinking beer, with the spastic poodle on its leash thrashing around every time it saw Willig.
Because I had T with me, I decided to try to work Willig anyway, despite the fact that he is scared of that particular poodle ever since the day it ran onto Shannon's property, lunged at him, made him rear, and in general, terrorized poor tiny delicate Willig.
Although he was not stellar at paying attention to me, he was doing a great job basically doing what I asked and jumping the gymnastic really nice.
But at the end of the jump, the poodle couldn't take it anymore, started barking, Willig started bucking, the poodle barked more, and Willig took off bucking down the long side.
Miracle of miracles, I stayed on almost the entire length of the arena (which is, when you're on a bucking Willig, a very, very long side), maybe 5-6 bucks, T estimated.
But the last one, I was yelling at him, trying to jerk his face up, had lost both my stirrups a few bucks earlier, and decided to go for his neck to swing off, and that launched me off the side.
I hit the arena footing in a roll, and it gashed my elbow open.
Willig then proceeded to run for about 10 minutes straight, in a full blown panic, while T went over to talk to the neighbors. The only one left in the yard was the husband - the wife (who had been yelling at the dog the time it chased Willig) and the guests were already inside.
Blood got all in my glove and on my dressage crop, but once Willig quit running, he calmed down right away.
I rode him back and forth past their now terrifying yard (his body tenses up to jump as we go past) several times, did some trot and canter to make sure he could listen again, then we did the gymnastic reverted back to baby level twice, and then we put him away and I went to urgent care for stitches.
The location ended up not getting stitched, because the doc thought it would get infected, and the nurse gave it a - shall we say - vigorous - scrubbing with a toothbrush. Thank goodness it was numbed.
My big fear now is that we're going to have to go back even further, now that poodle incident #2 has happened, or, heaven forbid, he'll start bucking again.
Now, these weren't malicious, get-off-me bucks - they were oh-my-god-that-poodle-is-going-to-eat-me-if-I-don't-get-out-of-here-NOW bucks. I think he completely forgot I was up there.
Also, he's got about 5 hives. I put his flysheet on and put him back on garlic, but I hope this isn't the return of the hives. Ech.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sit down for this one. Literally.
For both of you who regularly read this, you will need to be sitting for this posting ... just like I was - at the trot - not posting, but sitting! (That analogy had so much potential, but I got carried away.)
Unlike many of my prior "ah-ha!" moments with riding, where my crafty and clever body figures out a way to continue not to ride properly until my next lesson, the movement I thought was the proper sitting trot last week really, actually was.
Now, I know for most riders, this isn't a breakthrough.
For me, however, it is. I have been trying to learn how to sit the trot since I was about 16, so for those of you counting, that's about 17 years. Yikes. That was a little hard to write.
And thanks to Mike, I got it.
Now, I can't do it all the time - I can only do it for a few laps, but I can now do it at something slightly less than a working trot - not just the plodding around western trot, and I can also do it with "no hands" (i.e. hands on the reins, where they belong, and not one finger on the pommel).
So Mike was suitably impressed, and my lesson was great. We still have tons and tons to work on, because now we can really get to work.
I started with sitting, and asked him to look at it, to see if I was somehow faking it.
He showed me a better way to cross my stirrups (pull 6" down, twist the bottom over the top so it lies flat and doesn't bruise your inner thigh), and then we worked about half the lesson on sitting trot without stirrups.
He worked on getting my legs longer and straighter, which requires a lot of effort from me thinking about dropping them straight down.
And then we worked on picking up the pace a bit.
He said it's a great start and a world of difference from my first lesson, just a few short lessons ago.
We talked a bit about lower leg - he thinks it's good to work on sitting trot without stirrups (that it's the 2nd stage of a 3 stage process), but that it's not as good for posting trot.
Then we worked on trot to canter transitions. He wants me to think 1 (get ready), 2 (you're about to go), and 3 (ask for it). I sit at 1, slow him down and give him half halts at 2, and then 3, ask for it, is a series of steps: outside leg back with a quick aid (not my squeezing headlock aid), sit tall and up, and ask for it by thinking about getting forward momentum on a swing set (the firm hands on the chain, the stiff back pushing forward). He had to try a variety of analogies for this one, and it was really a struggle. But when we started, Willig ran into the canter in about 4 hurried trot steps, and by the time we ended, it was just 1-2 steps without changing speed. Plus, the one time we really, really got it, I felt it. He just lifted up into canter and it was so smooth.
Willig has been really great. He has been very obedient and listening, and almost ... gasp ... patient. I think now that he's figured out I'm actually riding him, he's got more respect for what I'm asking him to do.
Yesterday we worked on our "homework" jump again. I didn't have the martingale, but I didn't really need it. He did 5-7 jumps over the fence each direction, with a couple little rubs on the ground pole each way, but nothing major, and absolutely no acting up. Then I just jumped off him and put him away.
I got him one of those ear nets with the crochet headpiece, which I think are for bugs, but I've seen the show jumpers wear. It made no difference at all.
There was, of course, much, much more detail to my lesson with Mike, but we're getting to the point where I can't quite articulate what I feel. I definitely feel it, but I've never had riding go so well, and I'm not sure how to put it into words yet.
I can say, however, how wonderful it feels to really be riding Willig instead of just struggling with him. He's happier, and I'm happier, and I'm glad we pushed through it because I feel like a better rider now.
Unlike many of my prior "ah-ha!" moments with riding, where my crafty and clever body figures out a way to continue not to ride properly until my next lesson, the movement I thought was the proper sitting trot last week really, actually was.
Now, I know for most riders, this isn't a breakthrough.
For me, however, it is. I have been trying to learn how to sit the trot since I was about 16, so for those of you counting, that's about 17 years. Yikes. That was a little hard to write.
And thanks to Mike, I got it.
Now, I can't do it all the time - I can only do it for a few laps, but I can now do it at something slightly less than a working trot - not just the plodding around western trot, and I can also do it with "no hands" (i.e. hands on the reins, where they belong, and not one finger on the pommel).
So Mike was suitably impressed, and my lesson was great. We still have tons and tons to work on, because now we can really get to work.
I started with sitting, and asked him to look at it, to see if I was somehow faking it.
He showed me a better way to cross my stirrups (pull 6" down, twist the bottom over the top so it lies flat and doesn't bruise your inner thigh), and then we worked about half the lesson on sitting trot without stirrups.
He worked on getting my legs longer and straighter, which requires a lot of effort from me thinking about dropping them straight down.
And then we worked on picking up the pace a bit.
He said it's a great start and a world of difference from my first lesson, just a few short lessons ago.
We talked a bit about lower leg - he thinks it's good to work on sitting trot without stirrups (that it's the 2nd stage of a 3 stage process), but that it's not as good for posting trot.
Then we worked on trot to canter transitions. He wants me to think 1 (get ready), 2 (you're about to go), and 3 (ask for it). I sit at 1, slow him down and give him half halts at 2, and then 3, ask for it, is a series of steps: outside leg back with a quick aid (not my squeezing headlock aid), sit tall and up, and ask for it by thinking about getting forward momentum on a swing set (the firm hands on the chain, the stiff back pushing forward). He had to try a variety of analogies for this one, and it was really a struggle. But when we started, Willig ran into the canter in about 4 hurried trot steps, and by the time we ended, it was just 1-2 steps without changing speed. Plus, the one time we really, really got it, I felt it. He just lifted up into canter and it was so smooth.
Willig has been really great. He has been very obedient and listening, and almost ... gasp ... patient. I think now that he's figured out I'm actually riding him, he's got more respect for what I'm asking him to do.
Yesterday we worked on our "homework" jump again. I didn't have the martingale, but I didn't really need it. He did 5-7 jumps over the fence each direction, with a couple little rubs on the ground pole each way, but nothing major, and absolutely no acting up. Then I just jumped off him and put him away.
I got him one of those ear nets with the crochet headpiece, which I think are for bugs, but I've seen the show jumpers wear. It made no difference at all.
There was, of course, much, much more detail to my lesson with Mike, but we're getting to the point where I can't quite articulate what I feel. I definitely feel it, but I've never had riding go so well, and I'm not sure how to put it into words yet.
I can say, however, how wonderful it feels to really be riding Willig instead of just struggling with him. He's happier, and I'm happier, and I'm glad we pushed through it because I feel like a better rider now.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
By George, I think I've got it!
I don't want to jinx myself or anything, but a few days ago, I noticed the sitting trot had suddenly gotten much, much easier.
Tonight, both the sitting trot and posting without stirrups were ... a cakewalk. I didn't even have to do the baby slow western trot.
My back is moving different, which lets my hips do the nordic track, but I'm not doing it on purpose. It feels great. I hope I can keep doing it.
Tonight, both the sitting trot and posting without stirrups were ... a cakewalk. I didn't even have to do the baby slow western trot.
My back is moving different, which lets my hips do the nordic track, but I'm not doing it on purpose. It feels great. I hope I can keep doing it.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Stop the presses! A good ride on Willig!
I had a lesson a few days ago with the owner of my barn, Shannon, who has been riding for years, and just got fourth place at Inavale in Novice on one of her horses. It was a great lesson.
She pointed out a lot of little details, including my now teeth-grittingly bad lower leg, listened to my description of the woes we've been having, and then we did one simple exercise a whole bunch of times. This included a spectacular stumble where Willig almost went on his knees, and one time THROUGH the jump (so he learns it's easier to just jump it for the love of god), all down at the scary end of the arena where the new neighbor's poodle ran out at him last week in an incredibly ironic attempt to make him LESS scared of that end. All of this is build up for today's ride, where I brought T out (in case Willig had another stumble in which I did not stay on), where he ...
floated over it.
Over and over.
And over and over.
With scary things under it, he just jumped it.
He got it!
Willig IS smart after all! Shannon thought at the end of our lesson that we would have no problems coming along together, and while I was glad she thought that, I wasn't sure I 100% agreed since the last 18 months have been, well, tough.
But in explaining things to her, I realized that a) he has no xc experience, so his bad habits have been taught to him by me, and b) he just genuinely doesn't know what or how he's supposed to do things, and I don't know how to teach him. So we've needed a trainer, and simple exercises.
I had sort of come to the conclusion, which this sort of cemented, that I pushed him too hard too fast (he didn't need to work on a ditch or a bank yet), and now I've wasted time because we have to go back and build his confidence up. This is good though, because I'm learning how to teach him too.
So the lesson in detail:
Our jump was just a vertical with two ground poles on those little plastic stands that you can set at different levels. Then 9' from the center is a ground pole on each side, but tilted a bit in, so it makes a side of a circle.
Then we cantered it in a big circle, each way.
My homework is to do that until it's boring, which I think will only take a couple times after today. During his lesson, he was trying to jump the vertical, AND outside the next 9' pole, so he kept hitting it with his front or back legs, he'd stumble, I'd open my hands and the reins would slide out, he'd be on the wrong lead, and I couldn't collect everything back again in time for the next circle, so we'd have to make a medium circle to get collected.
Today, however, he had, upon reflection one presumes, figured out how to bounce in and out, and it was just a cake walk. There were a couple little knocks, but nothing like the lesson. And people (horrors!) were even walking around next door and he put one ear on them, but stayed focus on his job - the jump.
I am so impressed. After each perfect jump, I made a huge deal over him and he got a break, so today we didn't do it until boredom, but just two good ones in a row and then something different (other direction, scary barrel underneath).
Anyway, my lesson:
Heels down, toes up. Make my stirrups a hole shorter, and practice riding without stirrups to improve my lower leg.
Mostly we need to clean up on the little details (and he needed, for example, to learn to condense his body, not jump all splayed out), but it's not bad.
He needs to pay attention ALL the time. When I'm sitting on him talking, he doesn't get to fling his head around anymore. When we lead, no more stopping and looking around. No giraffe neck, no looking. So when I lead him, now I walk with my crop on the inside hand so I can tap him (like my leg would) if he tries to look. He's also caught onto this pretty quick.
When I'm riding him and he wants to fling his head around, he does extra work. Like if I wanted to walk in a straight line, now we make a circle and he has to leg-yield.
So, Shannon thinks he's a good horse, but I pushed him too hard too fast, which was my mistake, in thinking he had the nerve and the knowledge to do it.
And Shannon thinks I have a good seat (if a terrible lower leg) because even though he almost went all the way on his knees, I stayed on him. I had to grab around his neck, but it was a decent save.
We also tried different gear. A bit, I'm blanking on the name, that has the long shanks up and down so it has a bit more leverage on his cheeks, and a cute little martingale that fastens to the breastplate. Shannon had a horse with a similar personality to Willig, and found that those two pieces of equipment helped a lot with controlling his attention. It certainly seemed to help today.
Shannon said he's not getting too strong, when I feel him go towards the fence, but she said just to sit up and do a half halt and make sure I can slow him down, but otherwise, let him go to it. She said it's a great sign. She said it's also great that after he had to walk through the one fence (because it looked different, and I didn't ride him assertively to it even though *I* knew it would look scary to him - I am quite the passive jumper), he came to it the next time intending to, and actually jumping it. She said a bad horse would have come in planning to refuse even harder.
She said he's paying good attention to the fence, and just doesn't know how to use his body properly yet.
I asked her to ride him for a few minutes, and she said he is squirmy, but to work on giving him a task - like going over a pole, making circles, doing transitions, etc., and then he does better. And to get him to lesson, respond immediately (no four steps before the transition), and to make sure I get a nice working trot - not too fast or too slow, which I'm usually doing on him.
It was a great lesson, and I absolutely encourage anyone in the Oly area who needs a jump lesson to try Shannon out. I thought she was great to work, and I've made more progress with Willig with that lesson than I have the entire time on my own or at the clinics. (The ground work was really consistent with what Mike has been telling me too, and my lessons with him are also making huge improvements. For the first time, I really feel like me and Willig are going to learn a lot, be a good team, and have fun!)
She pointed out a lot of little details, including my now teeth-grittingly bad lower leg, listened to my description of the woes we've been having, and then we did one simple exercise a whole bunch of times. This included a spectacular stumble where Willig almost went on his knees, and one time THROUGH the jump (so he learns it's easier to just jump it for the love of god), all down at the scary end of the arena where the new neighbor's poodle ran out at him last week in an incredibly ironic attempt to make him LESS scared of that end. All of this is build up for today's ride, where I brought T out (in case Willig had another stumble in which I did not stay on), where he ...
floated over it.
Over and over.
And over and over.
With scary things under it, he just jumped it.
He got it!
Willig IS smart after all! Shannon thought at the end of our lesson that we would have no problems coming along together, and while I was glad she thought that, I wasn't sure I 100% agreed since the last 18 months have been, well, tough.
But in explaining things to her, I realized that a) he has no xc experience, so his bad habits have been taught to him by me, and b) he just genuinely doesn't know what or how he's supposed to do things, and I don't know how to teach him. So we've needed a trainer, and simple exercises.
I had sort of come to the conclusion, which this sort of cemented, that I pushed him too hard too fast (he didn't need to work on a ditch or a bank yet), and now I've wasted time because we have to go back and build his confidence up. This is good though, because I'm learning how to teach him too.
So the lesson in detail:
Our jump was just a vertical with two ground poles on those little plastic stands that you can set at different levels. Then 9' from the center is a ground pole on each side, but tilted a bit in, so it makes a side of a circle.
Then we cantered it in a big circle, each way.
My homework is to do that until it's boring, which I think will only take a couple times after today. During his lesson, he was trying to jump the vertical, AND outside the next 9' pole, so he kept hitting it with his front or back legs, he'd stumble, I'd open my hands and the reins would slide out, he'd be on the wrong lead, and I couldn't collect everything back again in time for the next circle, so we'd have to make a medium circle to get collected.
Today, however, he had, upon reflection one presumes, figured out how to bounce in and out, and it was just a cake walk. There were a couple little knocks, but nothing like the lesson. And people (horrors!) were even walking around next door and he put one ear on them, but stayed focus on his job - the jump.
I am so impressed. After each perfect jump, I made a huge deal over him and he got a break, so today we didn't do it until boredom, but just two good ones in a row and then something different (other direction, scary barrel underneath).
Anyway, my lesson:
Heels down, toes up. Make my stirrups a hole shorter, and practice riding without stirrups to improve my lower leg.
Mostly we need to clean up on the little details (and he needed, for example, to learn to condense his body, not jump all splayed out), but it's not bad.
He needs to pay attention ALL the time. When I'm sitting on him talking, he doesn't get to fling his head around anymore. When we lead, no more stopping and looking around. No giraffe neck, no looking. So when I lead him, now I walk with my crop on the inside hand so I can tap him (like my leg would) if he tries to look. He's also caught onto this pretty quick.
When I'm riding him and he wants to fling his head around, he does extra work. Like if I wanted to walk in a straight line, now we make a circle and he has to leg-yield.
So, Shannon thinks he's a good horse, but I pushed him too hard too fast, which was my mistake, in thinking he had the nerve and the knowledge to do it.
And Shannon thinks I have a good seat (if a terrible lower leg) because even though he almost went all the way on his knees, I stayed on him. I had to grab around his neck, but it was a decent save.
We also tried different gear. A bit, I'm blanking on the name, that has the long shanks up and down so it has a bit more leverage on his cheeks, and a cute little martingale that fastens to the breastplate. Shannon had a horse with a similar personality to Willig, and found that those two pieces of equipment helped a lot with controlling his attention. It certainly seemed to help today.
Shannon said he's not getting too strong, when I feel him go towards the fence, but she said just to sit up and do a half halt and make sure I can slow him down, but otherwise, let him go to it. She said it's a great sign. She said it's also great that after he had to walk through the one fence (because it looked different, and I didn't ride him assertively to it even though *I* knew it would look scary to him - I am quite the passive jumper), he came to it the next time intending to, and actually jumping it. She said a bad horse would have come in planning to refuse even harder.
She said he's paying good attention to the fence, and just doesn't know how to use his body properly yet.
I asked her to ride him for a few minutes, and she said he is squirmy, but to work on giving him a task - like going over a pole, making circles, doing transitions, etc., and then he does better. And to get him to lesson, respond immediately (no four steps before the transition), and to make sure I get a nice working trot - not too fast or too slow, which I'm usually doing on him.
It was a great lesson, and I absolutely encourage anyone in the Oly area who needs a jump lesson to try Shannon out. I thought she was great to work, and I've made more progress with Willig with that lesson than I have the entire time on my own or at the clinics. (The ground work was really consistent with what Mike has been telling me too, and my lessons with him are also making huge improvements. For the first time, I really feel like me and Willig are going to learn a lot, be a good team, and have fun!)
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