Great canter!

We've been moving, so not only have I been exhausted and not riding much, but my back has gotten every muscle in it sore. So I wasn't expecting much from my dressage lesson this week, although maybe that's the secret to a great ride.
Willig has been really great each time I've ridden him - he's just so grateful I showed up, groomed him, and he got 30 minutes of exercise, and he started the lesson out the same - low level hijink at the scary end.
We worked on leg yield, and when it was dragging a bit, shoulder in using the wall, which improved it quite a bit, and then turning down the center line, leg yield, then switching to shoulder in.
Then we did some travers (?) which is almost the same as shoulder in, except his neck bends the "other" direction. Tiny difference, but feels hugely different to ask for and maintain (just because it's new).
Willig had just a couple of short circuit moments, and Mike had us ride small circles at the trot.
He also pointed out the same thing as Shannon - why don't I use my whip? He watched me ask for an aid, Willig would hear me, and decide not to do it, and then I wouldn't whip him. Over and over and over again. But when Mike said "whip him" and I'd give him a smack, he'd go right back to obedient, quick, responsive Willig. So I'm still lacking in the assertive department, which is just soooo weird since I'm not really a very passive person (I don't think).
Then we did some canter work, and Willig did this just spectacular, mind blowing canter that was not on the forehand, not rushed, even tempo, just amazing. Mike was like "wow - what have you been doing?" and I was like "well, not riding and my back hurts - exactly the wrong things!"
I thought it was a fluke, but he did it again, and then again the other direction (although not as well, I think he was getting tired).
So the take aways were:
Work a bit on the travers - the feeling of his hind leg crossing underneath him - ride it off a circle and make a circle, and feel where that outside hind leg is.
Keep working on the canter.
Work on sitting trot without stirrups to continue to improve that.
Work on quick, consistent, obedient, responsive aids. A smack with the whip if he knows what I'm asking for and doesn't do it.
There was a LOT more - it was another chock full of lessons lesson, but I couldn't get to the computer for a couple days, and it was also so much cool, new stuff that it made sense while I was riding it, but I was thinking at the time "I'm never going to remember all this!"
It was a great lesson. Way to go Willig!
And he was good for J jumping him this week (outside)! and the hives are almost gone again. Mystery hives.

Super satisfying lesson!

I told Shannon I was ready to take it up a notch from our last lesson (ground poles) and suggested some of the raised poles (i.e. 2" off the ground).
We started out on warm up, and Shannon, after patiently repeating herself about a hundred times, finally got through to me on a very, very important point: HANDS STAY STILL.
So one of the life habits that needs to be corrected is that I steer with the reins, and with the inside one when I'm turning to the inside. We touched on this many, many lessons ago, but I've had so many other things to work on that we haven't gotten back to it.
So Willig was being a bit of a goof (raising his head in the air, moving his shoulder to the inside) going past the scary end, so Shannon said "keep your contact steady, your hands still, and move him with your inside leg into your outside rein to keep him from running in". Sound simple enough, but when he'd raise his head, I'd squeeze (and cross over!) with the inside hand, and then my hands would go uneven and then his head would raise higher.
So finally, she told me to think that my hands were side reins, and they DON'T MOVE, and to ride him with my leg, and I thought "Shannon is full of it, but just to prove she's wrong, and because the way I've been doing it for the past 3 years isn't working, I'll just show her that if I do it her way, he bolts".
And you can see this coming ... I did it her way, and lo and behold, his head stayed in frame, he didn't bulge, and we just went smooth as could be past the scary end.
And it wasn't a one time freak coincidence. When I'm not wiggling all around with my hands, he doesn't have to squirm all around with his head.
Now, that would have been enough for me to call the whole month a roaring success, but noooo ... Shannon had to push us a bit.
So she set up a little cross rail with two ground poles, and we jumped it from the trot - with the door open! eek! - and then at a canter and then trotting from the other side, and then cantering from the other side. And Shannon had to remind me to keep my heels down and to come in defensively (butt in the saddle, not perched forward on the saddle) and to let him jump, not stand up in the stirrups, and the first couple times I had to cluck and ride him my teeny tiny wimpy way forward, but then he was like "ho-hum". He hasn't jumped in probably a month, and that's his response: "ho-hum".
So she turned it to a vertical: "ho-hum".
Then she set up a regular standard that had a long straight away back towards the barn (you came off a circle, but then he had lots of room to bolt or buck), and then raised it and raised it and raised it. He came towards that a little more forward than the "short-side" fence, but not a moment of hesitation - he jumped a bit long, a bit short, and a bit just right (not in that order) and each time after the fence, while I got myself back together, Shannon moved it up another hole.
She said that it's me who's getting nervous, as I come around the circle and see it's higher, I'm the one who's tensing up and holding him back, and that I have to forget that he used to bolt and buck, and ride him like he's going to be good, but prepared for if he's not.
It was great. I was just all smiles afterwards.
So everything is coming together. I'll see how the next lesson goes, but maybe we can put a couple derbies back on the calendar. And - note to self - ask Shannon for jumping homework after that lesson.
And it is - all this stuff ties together - I don't want to overthink it, but maybe he's nervous because I rode him poorly for the couple years before I got to Mike and Shannon, and so maybe now we can correct that (and I'll become a better rider!).

My new goal: collection

Today was windy, and I was gone for an extended weekend, and although J rode Willig for me every other day, I only got to ride him Wednesday night before my lesson. And it was a busy evening in the arena, which threw us off a bit.
So I was a little anxious that it would be a lesson where we regressed again, but it ended up being one that was just the right amount of "stretch" into new territory, while feeling progress in the stuff we've been working on.
We began with the failure to bend to the left, and Mike pointed out that when I am asking for that bend, I tend to move my hand up and over (the dreaded crossing of the neck) instead of down and out (towards my knee). Also, I tend to pull with my right hand whenever I pull with my left (which I don't think happens the other way), so poor Willig has essentially been asked to go even more to the right when I'm trying to bend him to the left. Although this is quite obviously an ingrained habit, as soon as Mike pointed it out and I corrected it, the left bend problem pretty much went away (although I do need to remind myself to also use my leg).
We could have stopped right there and I would have been satisfied with the leap in progress, but no, that was just the first 5 minutes.
Then we worked on going past the scary side using shoulder-in. This also worked amazingly well (when I remembered to do inside hand down towards my knee instead of up over his neck) and especially when I remembered to use my inside leg to push him. It also helps, tremendously in a way I am trying to look at optimistically, that J was riding him inside because of the weather, because she doesn't put up with his bullshit at the far end, and just rides him past it like it's no big deal. So he was kind of a little bit over it until he remembered it was me, his timid mom, and was like "oh! Maybe I should be nervous again!" and then didn't get the firm, reliable corrections that J presumably gives without even thinking about it. (The optimistic side of me is that maybe one day, like breathing, I'll also give those corrections. The negative (and more dominant) side of me thinks, "If I haven't figured that out yet, I might as well get a sweet 15 hand Morgan and just putter around.")
Then Mike worked us through the movements in each of the 1 tests, because the dressage arena was set up. Note to self: I have not been using the inside row of lights as strictly as I should, because the big dressage arena feels small and cramped compared to what I've been doing on my own.
We worked on the center line a bit (straightness) which comes more through impulsion. Another eureka moment. He starts zigging and zagging when we're going slow. Although Mike also says to go ahead and slow down and walk a couple steps then stop with his nose on X. Don't wait and screech to a halt and skid past X.
We did some of the 10 meter half circles, practicing getting straight on the center line and then doing the next 10 meter half circle, to avoid making two angled lines instead of a half circle.
Also, we can improve our stretchy circle with more down for now, and then later add in more down and more impulsion.
Then we did some leg yield, which improves considerably when a) I work on the long side first, which is harder, as a warm up, which makes leg yield "easy", and b) when I, at the quarter line, check in on my outside rein/outside hand and make sure I'm maintaining the connection and not dropping it. When I don't check in, and I'm looking for the next movement, I drop that connection and his shoulder bulges out. Which is what feels like his hindquarters trailing, but is really a shoulder bulging.
Then we did the lengthening canter and the hard Test 1-2 down transition, where you rocket towards M and then are going back to working around the corner to C. This is not a news flash, but for an eventer, I'm a wimp and I don't really let him do his full lengthening potential. The other common error is to let him go too much on the forehand; it should be a "jumping" lenghthening feeling each stride.
We worked on not breaking to trot when you go back to working canter by lengthening, then turning off the rail and making a circle that progressively gets smaller (the same "horsey sit ups" that I have been doing the last few lessons that have strengthened his butt but still make both of us sweat) and then canter off in working canter. Or what I think of as working canter. And this is our beginning of collection: I lean back, and think "lift lift lift" with each canter stride on the little circle, and when he's tired, have to ask him (with voice, leg, and whip) to keep doing it. He got pretty tired towards the end of the lesson.
Mike says that by the end of the season, we'll be able to go back to working right at M, but that it's normal for me, and everyone else riding 1st level, to have to start slowing down a bit before M and use that M-C space to make the movement for now.
And finally, we worked on the counter canter loop, thank goodness, because I had been doing it as a leg yield! It is really a "V". Canter from K to X (diagonal line) then from X to H (another diagonal line) without changing leads. I was bending him in the neck like it was a leg yield from K to X and then switching the bend in his neck to ride X to H. Bad Martha!
This was right at the end of our lesson, so I think I'll want a little more follow up to make sure I am understanding that movement.
All in all, a very satisfying lesson, with plenty to work on, plenty of improvement, and an amazing amount of information that I never, ever would have picked up on my own for this year's showing in dressage.
And a VERY well-behaved Willig who, for the most part, ignored the wind. He is a bit easier to ride when he's on the verge of too peppy - both because he's got the lift and impulsion from his own peppiness, but also because I ride every single second because I'm waiting for the explosion, instead of getting "lazy" (I never feel lazy on Willig, but sometimes I might be a micromillimeter more relaxed).

Morning at the barn

I have oodles and oodles of stress right now, and was rushing to the barn for a morning lesson, and stressed about the change in my routine and the oodles of work waiting for me as soon as the lesson was done.
And when I pulled up, this is what I saw and then everything seemed a little bit more manageable.
(It helped that then, despite the wind, I had a great lesson. But that's for the next post.)